Old Town Warrenton’s antique shopping isn’t one single “row” of storefronts — it’s a cluster of historic-district boutiques on Main and Third Streets plus a pair of anchor antique malls a short drive away on West Shirley Avenue. Together they make up Fauquier County’s best-known vintage hunting ground, and you can cover most of it on foot in an afternoon, with a quick car hop to close the loop.
Where Is Warrenton’s “Antique Row,” Exactly?
Warrenton doesn’t have an officially named “Antique Row” sign anywhere, but locals and shop owners use the phrase loosely to describe the whole antiquing circuit that radiates out from the county courthouse. Historic Warrenton Virginia hosts over 40 retail destinations including gifts, clothing, jewelry, furniture, and much more, and a good chunk of that mix leans vintage, retro, or genuinely antique. The town itself is compact and walkable, which is exactly why a self-guided crawl works so well here.
Start at the Courthouse Square
Any walking tour of Old Town should begin where the town itself began: Courthouse Square. When originally listed, the Warrenton Historic District encompassed 288 contributing buildings in the central business district and surrounding residential areas, including the old Fauquier County courthouse, Ullman’s Store, and “Mecca”. The district’s boundaries saw a boundary increase added in August 2024, so the historic footprint keeps growing.
The courthouse itself is worth a slow look before you start shopping. The current building was built in 1795 and rebuilt in 1818, 1854, and again in 1890. Tucked just behind it is the Old Jail, where the sixth jail in Fauquier County was built in 1808 and ran for only fifteen years before a new jail was erected behind it, with the four-cell jail seeing death and disease from neglectful conditions in that time. It’s now a small museum. The museum consists of two buildings dating to 1808 and 1823, houses Civil War, Revolutionary era, and Indian artifacts, is one of the oldest remaining jails in Virginia, is open year-round Wednesday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and charges $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and military, and $2 for students. Not antique shopping exactly, but it sets the tone: everything around here has a story attached.
Look for Ullman’s Store while you’re on this block. The Ullman’s Store, also called the Ullman Building, is a series of three interconnected buildings that were formerly integrated into a single department store, originally established in 1841 by Adolph Ullman and his father-in-law Abraham Rindsberg. It’s a private building today, not a shop you can browse, but it’s a great reminder that Warrenton’s retail history goes back nearly two centuries.
Wander Main and Third Street
From the courthouse, head onto Main Street and let yourself get pulled sideways onto Third. This stretch is where the boutique-scale vintage shops live, mixed in among galleries, cafés, and gift stores. One worth seeking out is Vallie’s Vintage Jewelry on South Third Street. Established in 1990, the shop is named for the owner’s grandmother, and specializes in vintage jewels she’s been buying and selling for over 30 years at antique shows and booths. If you’re after rhinestones, Trifari brooches, or old shell cameos, this tiny storefront punches above its size.
Keep walking and you’ll notice how much of the streetscape survived the twentieth century intact. The town’s downtown area and surrounding residential neighborhoods are part of a National Historic District made up of over 288 buildings, and the county’s rich Civil War history can be felt walking the brick sidewalks of Old Town, with unique shops and restaurants found within walking distance of these heritage sites. It’s the kind of place where you’ll duck into a storefront for a teacup and come out twenty minutes later having also learned about the building’s original tenant.
The Real Antique Anchor: Fox Den and Vintage 29
For volume and variety, you’ll want to make the short hop over to West Shirley Avenue, where two antique malls share the same building — literally. Fox Den Antique Mall is located at 365 W. Shirley Avenue, and just on the other side of the building, Vintage 29 is located at the same address. The building has a past of its own: a former tractor showroom in Warrenton is now one of Northern Virginia’s best spots for an afternoon of antiquing and treasure hunting.
Fox Den is the elder statesman of the pair. It has been operating continuously in various forms since 1984, offering the collecting and antiquarian community a wide selection of used furniture, mirrors, paintings, glassware, comics, sports memorabilia, advertising art, books, coins, primitives, stamps, trains, bottles, equestrian art, paper, china, silver, and Civil War to 1950s collectibles. It originally opened in 1984 and moved to its current location in 1994, in a space of about 8,000 square feet divided into smaller sections that house its dozens of vendors.
Vintage 29 is the newer, design-forward sibling. It’s 6,000 square feet of thoughtfully sourced antiques and vintage items from a team of dealers, established in 2024 as a one-stop destination for unique pieces at every price point, with a rotating selection of furniture, home decor, clothing, original art, lighting, rugs, and jewelry. Hours run Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., so plan around that if you’re making a special trip.
Worth the Detour: Fauquier’s Wider Antique Trail
If you’ve got a full day and a car, Old Town is really just the trailhead for a bigger circuit. Just outside town in Catlett, Cedar Run Antique Center offers a more intimate co-op experience, housed in 9,000 square feet with 44 dealers emphasizing quality furniture at fair prices, with a booth-style layout that means each visit reveals new treasures as vendors refresh their stock. Out toward The Plains, Baileywyck Antiques is a bigger, more polished stop — an upscale antiques and home décor store and art gallery featuring period furniture, lighting, rugs, architectural pieces, and a large selection of equestrian-themed art, all staged inside a converted firehouse. Owner Lisa Vella has hand-picked pieces from across the country and abroad, many over 100 years old, and the shop was named second in the “Best of Virginia” awards by Virginia Living Magazine in 2022. It’s about a 17-minute drive from Warrenton, easy to fold into the same day.
Planning Your Walk
A few practical notes before you lace up your walking shoes. Small Main Street shops tend to keep boutique hours — many are closed early in the week, so a Thursday-through-Sunday visit gives you the best odds of everything being open at once. Bring a car even if you plan to walk most of downtown; the courthouse square and Main Street cluster sit a bit apart from the Shirley Avenue antique malls, and you’ll want the trunk space anyway once you start finding things. And don’t rush it. Half the fun of Warrenton’s antique scene is that nothing here is trying to be a mall experience — it’s dealers who know their inventory, shopkeepers who’ll tell you the story behind a piece, and buildings old enough that the walls themselves are part of the find.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
