A trip to Asia convinced Walter Kingston to specialize in Indonesian antiques

By J. ELLIOTT WALKER, The Times-Union
Walter Kingston has been a fan of furniture for a long time, but it took a career as a lawyer and a voyage overseas to turn his hobby into a career.

Kingston owns Vanderleigh Furniture and Antiques in historic Springfield, a store specializing in antique furniture from Indonesia.


“There’s a lot of good furniture there,” he said. “There’s not many places left in the world where you can find [good furniture].”

Kingston said Indonesia has historically been a “crossroad of cultures” and provides a diverse selection of furniture to choose from. The furniture market in Indonesia, Kingston said, “just sort of exploded in the ’90s.”

In general, he said, it’s just easier to do business in Indonesia than places like the Philippines, and the furniture there is pleasing to most.

“Indonesian things can be worked into most environments without looking too out of place or too Asian,” he said.

Kingston travels to Indonesia about once a year to hand-select the furniture for his store.

Each trip lasts four to five weeks, which gives him enough time to visit 35-40 dealers and have time to repair and finish the furniture in warehouses there.

“He does wonderful-sized pieces and his pieces have such depth to them,” Blair Woolverton, a customer, said. “If I had a bigger house or could start all over again, everything in [my house] would be from his store.”

Kingston just returned from a purchasing trip and expects a new shipment of furniture to arrive shortly.

Growing up in New Orleans, Kingston said he would beg family and friends to drive him to the French Quarter so he could look at the antiques, but decided to forgo a career in furniture for one in law.

Kingston practiced law in Miami and moved to New York, but found the experience wasn’t as fulfilling as he had hoped.

“It just seemed like it was a lot of office administration,” he said. “I wasn’t in court a lot.”

After seeing slides from his brother’s trip to Asia and wanting time to explore, Kingston said, “I knew I had to do this.”

He packed his bags for 18 months and “became an Asian vagabond.” When he came back, he left the world of corporate law for good and opened an antique store in Portland, Ore. After 15 years of the climate there, he said, it was time for a change.

“There was an article in the New York Times about Jacksonville,” he said. “It was a very favorable article.”

Kingston added Jacksonville seemed to be an emerging city and a good possible market for his business and decided to make the move.

“Nobody here has ever carried any sort of similar pieces like Walter,” Woolverton, said. “I’ve always been infatuated with Indonesian pieces, but before I had to go to Hilton Head [S.C.].”

After several contracts for buildings in Murray Hill and Riverside fell through, though, Kingston was about to give up on Jacksonville and try West Palm Beach. A drive through Springfield one day changed his mind.

“I realized it was the perfect size,” he said of the abandoned building that is now his store. “The space worked well so I had to overlook the location.”

Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council president Louise DeSpain said Vanderleigh is ” fabulous” and “one of the many kinds of businesses we’d like to see in Springfield.”

Kingston said although Springfield is a “fairly close neighborhood,” there are some drawbacks to having his business in the area.

“There aren’t really any other businesses nearby,” he said. “It’s more of a place where you drive and only visit this store.” Kingston added there aren’t many restaurants nearby where customers could linger after shopping and because his store is off of Main Street, there’s not a lot of drive-by traffic.

“There’s a lot to say about Springfield and what needs to be done [to make it successful],” he said. Others have told him “everything else will fall into place” when Main Street becomes viable.

DeSpain agreed, saying the residents of Springfield want stores, want to shop in the area, but the construction on Main Street is holding up progress for the area. She said once construction is complete it will make a huge difference.

Kingston has been in Jacksonville for about a year and a half. Although he wishes he could expand his clientele a bit more, he’s still drawing “all types” of customers in to browse the antique teak cabinets and tables, stone structures and even more modern furniture he offers.

“People are so attuned to staying on the old beaten paths,” Woolverton said. “It’s not that far away to go to Springfield.”