Liberty Belle

This is the most eclectic shop in the West Bottoms, in my opinion. It’s obvious each first weekend sale has been chosen and arranged. They don’t have a lot of the repurposed items you’ll find in the other shops, nor do they have any junk. I guess it falls more into the actual «antique» category, but it’s in a class of its own.
If it’s not really repurposed, junky, or your grandma’s antique shop, then what is it? Pure eccentricity! For instance, this past weekend their entryway was dressed with a musical theme. Delightful paper sheet music decorations perfectly accented a few musical items for sale: Beatles posters, a Rush sheet music book, a Grateful Dead anthology of pictures and history, conga drums, a saxophone, an antique radio — fully functioning and providing a backdrop of music playing softly.
This is one of the shops that should be a breath of fresh air to the yawning husbands and men friends you drag along on your first weekend shopping. It has sort of an industrial feel, with many things that could have come from old shops, in addition to more typical items and jewelry.
Beware, like many West Bottoms shops, this place gets crowded and might be slow to get around, though it’s a fairly small shop, only one level. It’s worth swimming in the crowd, and Liberty Belle is a must-​visit on first weekends.

Of all the West Bottoms antique shops, this is the one where I’ve purchased the most items. Since they’ve expanded, their assortment has improved a lot. I need lots of choices when it comes to antiques — the more I see, the more it gets my creative juices flowing. But it needs to be edited and I think they do a good job of that here. I don’t mind a few tchotchkes here and there, but too many can cause me to miss the good stuff. My eyes just don’t know where to land.
While it’s part of the allure to only be open once a month, I wish they were open more often as I always hate it when I’m not in town on the first of the month, and I have to wait another 30 days to visit.

In terms of the West Bottoms antique shops, Liberty Belle is in my opinion the best. It is well stocked, but more importantly, it is THOUGHTFULLY stocked. It represents a wide breadth of aesthetic styles, but you definitely won’t find just a bunch of junk that somebody found at a garage sale and is attempting to sell for 10x the value.
What has always stuck with me about Liberty Belle is the area towards the front of the store, across from the check-​out counter. Here you will find a ton of what I call «Antiques for Men.» (Don’t you DARE call them «Mantiques», because then you will make me want to punch you and not be your friend.) Specifically in this area you will find things like fossils, old science tubes and beakers, fantastic lighting (i love me some Edison bulbs), bell jars, and tools. There’s also a couple of ridiculously great tables that I desperately want. The prices are steep, so I haven’t bought anything yet, but I can always trust on this part of Liberty Belle making me contemplate being very irresponsible with my credit card.
As you go further back, things get slightly more kitschy. I mean, I’ve personally never wanted to decorate my home like an homage to the history of Coca-​Cola or as a replica of the Brady Bunch’s living room, but hey this is America… you do what you want! Point being, even if this stuff isn’t my personal style, it’s still quality stuff that has worth and a value to somebody.
Liberty Belle, you keep up what you’re doing. Because you’re doing it just right!

I’ve seen Liberty Belle grow in the time it’s been around, way back when you’d just say «Let’s go to Good JuJu and that new place around the corner from it!». I’ve bought some of the coolest things in my collection from Liberty Belle, and I’m proud to say that I do dig what they do; not only for their selection, but their service, attitude, and prices, as well.
Who doesn’t love hitting these shops down in The Bottoms on First Friday Weekends (If they don’t, I don’t know ‘em), and invariably, Liberty Belle always seems to be the first stop. They’ve got a really great variety of stuff in their space (I’m usually magnetized to anything Mid Century Modern, of course), and a great vibe to their space. It’s obviously well-​kept and maintained by people who love what they do, and love bringing it to you.
I’m sure you’ll see me down there, eyeing some Western Décor, Kansas City Memorabilia, or Barware… so if you see any of that, don’t buy it! I want it!

After squeezing our way out of Good JuJu, it was refreshing to walk into Liberty Belle and actually feel like I could breathe normally.
It’s not as packed full of stuff as places like Good JuJu and River Market Antique Mall, but they did have a nice selection of things. I saw some great kitchenware and their jewelry counter at the front had me drooling. I will definitely be back for some of those brooches!
They’re getting ready to move to a location around the corner, making that little stretch of road in the West Bottoms a nice «Antique Row.»

Just came home from my first visit to Liberty Belle. Loved it! I have certain things I look for when I vintage shop — game pieces, old books, vintage fabrics, unusual ephemera, misc. weird stuff — and I found many good things and at very fair prices. I definitely enjoyed my visit and am looking forward to next month.
During the cold months, I would advise keeping your coat on and taking some gloves. The building is not heated, brrrrr.
Information received from another Unilocaler: The building is indeed heated but apparently their heater wasn’t working this month and she assures me it’s normally quite comfortable inside. I’ll check this out when I visit again this Friday, March 4^th.

Liberty Belle may not have as many square feet of space as Good JuJu but they make up for it in quality. The large open room has a «down and back» flow of foot traffic that makes shopping in a crowd easy.
I was able to score two vintage Missouri state license plates for just $ 2 each and a black and white pattern plate also for $ 2. *See my photo.
The staff ran my debit card with a cell phone which was first. I signed my signature on her cell phone. Cool technology surrounded by vintage technology. The Liberty Belle is a «must stop» on any K.C. antique trip.

This place is very cool — I admit that Good JuJu does have a better selection overall, but the jewelry counter was enough to make me a fan. See, I’d cover myself in vintage rhinestone jewelry if I thought I could get away with it, and Liberty Belle more than met my «sparkly things» need.
Not only that, but they also had some really nice vintage Native American chunky turquoise jewelry at some amazing prices. I’ve lived in the Southwest, and some of the rings Liberty Belle had on offer were screaming deals. Now, if only my fingers weren’t abnormally big.
Another thing I was super excited to see? Skeleton keys! Beautiful, old skeleton keys! I want to buy some just to lay around the place… or maybe to turn into jewelry, I don’t know. I just know that now I want them.
The other items in the store were more than enough to keep my husband interested and entertained while I drooled — I have to admit that I didn’t pay too much attention to things other than the sparklies, but I do remember him showing me a vintage curling iron (eeek!), some old medical tools (double eek!!), and a huge glass bottle that we definitely considered buying to house our wine cork collection.
I love all of the surprises the Bottoms has to offer, and I think antiquing in the Bottoms is going to be my new favorite pastime the first weekend of the month.

More oohs and aahs around every corner in yet another antique mall in the Bottoms! I was totally digging Liberty Belle’s vibe this past Sunday. I will say that on this weekend’s visit the selection wasn’t quite as wide as was that of Good JuJu, but the friendliness of the staff combined with that phenomenal jewelry and accessory counter makes up for this, thus they get 5-​stars.
They have an interesting selection of booths here. There is one booth toward the back that has much higher end stuff, similar to those items you’d find on Antique Row in my nabe, (older, more valuable and grand items, not unlike Yours, Truly) however instead of being in the thousands of dollar range, these are in the upper hundreds range. So, if you’re looking for a 300-​pound shelf or armoire, you’re in luck!
Juxtaposed with the more reasonably priced (read: rather cheap!) items, that booth is a bit odd, but I still appreciate it of course.
You do have to dig a bit more here to find the gems. I ain’t complaining! I walked out with quite a few finds and was kicking myself for not finding the «Fortune Teller» sign that someone else had claimed before me :(Instead, I found a type of Ouija Board I had never seen before, a late 60s cigar box purse with owls all over it, pin up girl match books, and a set of turquoise 60s plastic plates for outdoor eating.
I so cannot wait to go back. I could easily lose an afternoon in here.

Bittersweet, part deux.
After sensory overload at Good JuJu… I decided to take my want for interesting objects into overdrive. It was here I dipped my hand into my piggy bank, pulled out a few crumpled dollars and went to town on trinkets and objets d’art.
I also got a cool wooden wall sconce that will soon house my equally cool statue of Ganesh.
I love antiquing. Especially when the finds are amazing and the prices are too.

I checked out Liberty Belle on the Saturday of its opening weekend; the place was pretty busy and they had a lot of friendly staff-​people all over in vintage clothing and offering up cookies/​cupcakes, which was nice. Everyone was friendly and welcoming.
The store is laid out like any other vintage stuff/​antique store. The quality of merchandise reminded me a lot of Urban Mining or many of the River Market Antiques vendors — right on the edge of being old crap and not cool vintage stuff. There were a few nice things here and there, but Liberty Belle has a ways to go before it compares favorably to its neighbor, Good JuJu.