Professor markets coastal classics

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

	Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY Household items and miscellaneous pieces of interest greet customers at Coastal Classics.

Isherwood and his wife, Patty, have opened an antiques and furnishings shop at 41 Atlantic Avenue (Route 26) this summer, and they seem to have left the metro hustle back on the Beltway.

“Most people know what they’re looking for — and if they don’t know, they’ll know when they see it,” Isherwood suggested.

Yes, he seems comfortably ensconced behind the counter at Coastal Classics, obviously deploying his low-pressure sales techniques. He emerges to answer questions about the merchandise, upon request, or change out one 1950s CD for another. But when it comes to managing his own operation, Isherwood appears to be employing a light hand.

Originally from New Hampshire, Isherwood attended San Diego State after high school, playing football in the program “master of the passing game” Coach Don Coryell had created, he said.

Returning to the East, he started working toward his doctorate in education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Isherwood shared time between studies and his duties as an assistant (and later associate) athletic director — and met Patty around that time. They have two children: a 13-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter.

According to Isherwood, the family started visiting the Delaware seashore a dozen or so years ago.

He said they originally started coming because his wife, a lawyer at the time, always attended the Maryland State Bar Association convention, in Ocean City, Md.

Eventually, they stumbled upon Bethany Beach. The Isherwoods bought a home there in 1992, and then more recently, the 1920s-era house that has become Coastal Classics.

“It’s easy to come here,” Isherwood said. “It’s safe, the people are nice, you’ve got some great restaurants — it’s a nice quality of life.

He credited the former proprietors, who ran the shop as Kennedy’s Classics until he took over day-to-day operations.

“It was a great turnover,” he said. “The place was immaculate.”

They brought in their own merchandise: “My wife was a professional shopper, Isherwood quipped. “Now, she’s a professional buyer.”

Actually, buying or shopping, she’s apparently still on the fence regarding retirement, and for the time being still active in her legal career. And Isherwood is only partially retired from his teaching career, still running a few online classes for the University of Maryland.

But in the main, he’s keeping the second-home fires burning in Ocean View, at Coastal Classics. Isherwood has his apartment right above the shop, and said he often opens the shop early, whenever he is up and about, working on something.

Walking through Coastal Classics, the household feel seems self-evident. This room was obviously a dining room, that one with the fireplace and mantel was obviously the living room. The old-style radiators and polished hardwood floors remind one of the building’s age, but Isherwood’s crooners and beboppers bring it forward a generation or so.

That also generally describes the merchandise — it’s hard to pigeonhole just which era the shop represents.

There’s a finished antique sideboard — all original hardware — and lamps with plaid shades set at either end. There’s fine artwork, but then doorknockers depicting pineapples or golf clubs. Delicate cupboards, and handbags made out of cigar boxes.

Isherwood chalks it all up as “Vintage Finds & Indulgences.” To learn more, stop by 41 Atlantic Ave. in Ocean View, across from the Calvin B. Taylor Bank, or reach Coastal Classics at 537-2902.