Currie's Antiques

SUZANNE CURRIE Suzanne Currie, nee Stripp, was born in Huntsville, Ontario, and raised in the picturesque Village of Windermere, on the shore of Muskoka's, Lake Rosseau. Her family owned and operated the Windermere Marina, and "The Skipper," snackbar (located above the marina), from the mid 1960's until 1975. Suzanne is the descendant of a Muskoka pioneer family, that located in Watt Township in the 1860's, in the present hamlet of Ufford, in Watt Township of Muskoka Lakes Township, and artifacts, including an original dug-out canoe, handcrafted by her great grandfather, William Shea, are on permanent display at the Muskoka Lakes Museum, in Port Carling. To put herself through university, Suzanne was Pro Shop Manager, at the Windermere Golf and Country Club. Shortly after graduating University of Windsor, she was employed by the Muskoka Board of Education, as a Family Studies teacher, and worked at both Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, and Gravenhurst High School. When Suzanne retired, she launched her antique business, known as "Suzanne Currie's Cookery Nookery," at 230 Muskoka Road South, specializing in vintage and out-of-print cookbooks, joining her husband Ted, owner of Birch Hollow Antiques, and her sons, Robert and Andrew, and their business, "Currie's Music," in the former Muskoka Theatre building, opposite the Gravenhurst Opera House. She has been employed as a freelance researcher, in matters of Muskoka history, with her husband, working as part of Muskoka History Resources. Her speciality, these days, is family history, and she takes great delight helping customers find their ancestral roots. She can be hired in this capacity, and in other matters of regional history. TED CURRIE Ted Currie, a long serving Muskoka Historian, and writer, began his business, "Birch Hollow Antiques," in 1986, specializing in Muskoka nostaligia, heritage books and documents, and art. He is the former editor of The Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, the Muskoka Advance, The Muskoka Sun, The Gravenhurst Banner, and The Muskokan, as well as a contributing columnist with "Muskoka Today," and currently writes a monthly feature for "Curious; The Tourist Guide." He has written extensively about local history, with special interest in the enduring mystery of Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson's death, of alleged drowning, in Algonquin Park's Canoe Lake, in July of 1917. Ted's feature articles on Thomson's death have been published extensively since the late 1990's. Ted Currie is also known for his writing about the paranormal in Muskoka, and has published hundreds of articles about regional hauntings. He is a daily blogger, under the heading "Ted Currie - Antique head," and since he began writing his daily column, just over three years ago, has had more than 262,000 views. Currie writes about his nearly four decades in the antique profession. His first column on antiques, was published by the Bracebridge Examiner, in the spring of 1978. He was one of the founders of the Bracebridge Historical Society, and the establishment of Woodchester Villa and Museum. He served as a director of the Muskoka Lakes Museum, and was curator and public relations director of the Bracebridge Sports Hall of Fame, while working for the Crozier Foundation. Ted has written numerous regional histories, and has assisted many local authors to launch and then publish their family and local histories. Suzanne and Ted Currie are both well known regional historians, and collector/dealers, who have helped build Muskoka-themed archives, and libraries, for a significant number of collectors, since their first shop in Bracebridge in 1989. Ted opened his first shop, with his parents, in the fall of 1977, known as "Old Mill Antiques" in the former home/medical office, of Dr. Peter McGibbon, on Manitoba Street. They are ardent defenders of the Muskoka lifestyle, in real terms, as it was, and has been, since the late 1850's, very much in opposition to the way it has become embellished by the vested interest, in modern day business promotions. To say the Currie's are old fashioned? Well, this would be accurate characterization, and they make no apology.