Somerville’s Antiques

This place is hardly an antique store and they are not open on Sunday so dont waste your time. What they sell is a lot of repurposed metal objects formed into cutesy grandma lawn ornaments you hang in your kitchen or stake on your front lawn.
If you want antiques and collectibles, go to Medina Antique mall or Brothers Antique Mall a little further out.

I don’t go «antiquing,» in part because I refuse to transform that word into a verb, but mainly because I’m not much of a collector. Somerville’s, though, is worthy of a visit. Here’s why:
It is in the lower level of an historic building, in the «East Center» of Richfield, i.e. the geographical center. This was the main stagecoach stop between Cleveland and Akron, and this is in the original building. Geoff Somerville knows all this, but he rarely bores you with any of that stuff, choosing rather to find out where your interests lie and whether he might have something that you would like to take home with you.
Somerville’s has a whole bunch of stuff, rather casually displayed. Books. Housewares. Art. Some of it is really old, as in many hundreds of years, while much of what is on sale is «mid-​century modern» for the Jetsons lover in all of us. I saw a great accordion, an amazing book on steam boilers (well, some of us have rather peculiar tastes) and some beautiful leaded glass signs.
I think Richfield has become such a bedroom community that some of the unique flavor of the town has been swept under the rug. Somerville’s survives as local color, with charm, grace and wit. Stop in, and let me know if you agree. On the north-​west corner of Brecksville and Streetsboro Roads, Old Route 21 and 303, for those of us without GPS but still maintain a death grip on our Thomas’ Guides.