As we mentioned last week, Billy's Antiques had a weekend long celebration of sorts, as the East Village mainstay enters a new era. The space has long been covered in tarps (since it opened in 1986), but they were sadly laid to rest on Saturday afternoon to make way for a proper roof structure. Click through for a look at the funeral from Saturday afternoon, when the tarps were put in a coffin and paraded around the neighborhood, and the much more celebratory party the night before, when locals and longtime friends of Billy's came by for one last night under the tent.
Billy's is now closed indefinitely, and we're told that the landlord, Tony Goldman, "has left an open invitation for Billy, if he chooses, to be part of the new building which will be a tastefully constructed two-story brick building, resembling factory/loft stock." The new building will be 2000-square-feet, will not allow chain stores, and might have "a roof component which may house a cafe."
Photos and video courtesy of Dirty Old Town, a feature film that features Billy's Antiques, which you can watch here.
