I confess I’m not always on top of the new businesses opening in Wilton. I learned of one, Webster Creek, that opened over a year ago in the winter of 2024 at #10 in the Riverview Mill Artists building at 33 Howard St. I gathered this information while I was visiting Earth, Sky and Wind for this column. This was when Jim Starkweather mentioned he was not only an employee there, but he had found a perfect spot across the street for a specialty shop that he named Webster Creek. Until recently, the space he rented only housed the collections he had put together over decades of curatorship and only sold online. This meant he needed to come up with a domain name and a website presence. Once he added the retail portion, a website was equally important for a shop with walk-in customers.
The name Webster Creek comes from the street, the Webster Highway, that is part of his address in Temple. This is where he landed after moving east from California in 2018. The name’s origin comes from both being inspired by the Souhegan running outside his mill building windows and his Webster Highway address. He combined the idea of water with that name and came up with Webster Creek. Now, when he looks at the Souhegan, in his mind, it’s Webster Creek as well as the name of his business.
While Jim still sells items from this shop online, he is also able to display them for local shoppers in search of vintage comics, scale models and other items often found only in Nashua, Keene and other more distant locales. He describes it as “A shop for people of all ages, especially for those who feel nostalgic for the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s.” When he is open, you will see his sign at the Wilton Post Office corner on Main Street. Currently, he fits his store hours into his Earth, Sky and Water workdays, being Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 3 to 6 and Wednesday from 12 to 6 with other days by appointment. What this means is that he can fulfill one of his wishes – to become part of the local economy as a destination shop and not just an online presence.
Jim is not new to creating websites. At 35, he started an online community for scale modelers. He told me that before the age of Facebook, he had around 50,000 online users. He still has about 10,000 regulars who are interested in collecting scale models.
But that’s not the limit to what he has on display. Far from it. It’s an eclectic collection housed on shelves filled with books, comics, music CDs, cassettes and vinyl; movie DVDs and VHS tapes; vintage magazines, games, boxes of antique vehicles and airplanes of all sizes and varieties, parts for model making, a largish collection of Boyd’s Bears, David Winter cottages, art, figurines, vintage stereos and record turntables, and a few glass cases displaying a variety of unusual, small antique collectables and trading cards. Currently, most of his sales are still online, but he hopes that over time, his shop will be a destination for walk-in customers searching for treasures to add to their own collections or as gifts to others.
He still faces the formidable challenge of pricing everything on display at Webster Creek. Until completed, he hopes people feel comfortable asking him what the sticker should read. What he wants customers to know is that he tries to set a fair price and won’t gouge anyone “just to make a buck.” What’s most important to him is to find good homes for what he calls his “orphans,” those items he once collected for himself, but no longer has space to display at home. If you check out his website, you may be lucky enough to find one of his infrequent special 50% off sales.
Jim started collecting scale models when he was 6. His collections grew as he added comics and stereos and other things that attracted him until, at the age of 35, he decided to start paring down his collections. That was when he opened his first website. After establishing his presence, magazines featuring collectables began sending him sample scale models to evaluate. He still attends auctions, and a year ago, he acquired thousands of vintage comics that he is still cataloguing. Star Wars comics hold a special place in his heart. He confessed he has always loved that series, which means he markets not only those comics but also many vintage Star Wars figurines.
Jim’s website is webstercreek.com and he is reachable by telephone at 603-825-2770 for more information or to make weekend appointments.
One direction he hopes to expand is automotive memorabilia. It seems to me this could be a good connection for those visiting Wilton’s vintage automobile showroom, Scribner Performance Vehicles. Aren’t the more connections we can make within our local communities the things that help everyone succeed?