Thornes Marketplace

One stop Northampton shopping destination.
Parking: surface lots & side streets (both metered) and an inexpensive parking garage (pay on your way out but BEFORE you get to your car).
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about how awesome this place is. You’ve got bathrooms (yup, it is essential), elevators, and lots of shopping options. FOOD: Coffee shop that has sandwiches, chocolate store, cookie store, ice cream store, and a restaurant called Paul & Elizabeth’s (which is on my Western Mass bucket list).
Shopping: Cedar Chest for personal & home goods, and ACME surplus store for pretty much anything. Lots of clothing, accessory, and jewelry places in between. Did I mention that it is all enclosed in one giant shopping area. Like a mall, but not dead yet. It is actually somewhere people want to be. I know this isn’t going to be perfect, or have a zillion vendors like a bustling overly commercial mall, but for what it is, Thornes Marketplace is pretty nice.

Thornes is a beautiful building. I love the book store and health food shop inside, but Herrels was an extra special treat w their home made ice cream.

A great place to spend an afternoon. You can browse the unique stores, buy a great gift for someone (or yourself), eat a delicious meal, get some homemade ice cream, and have the best mocha in town. All of this under one roof!

I love Thornes Marketplace! Wonderful variety of stores and shops. Over the last few years their has been a gentle remodeling taking place and it looks and feels great. Check out their holiday decorations and window displays — just beautiful.

My client suggested that I take a drive north from Westfield. MA one evening (about 20 minutes north) and enjoy the restaurants and cultural offerings of the town of Northampton, Massachusetts. Northampton is home to five colleges in Western MA, and as a result it has an especially vibrant youth culture with street performers, musicians, and free-​spirited activists, as well as plenty of things to see and do.
I found a parking garage in the downtown area that was adjacent to Thornes Marketplace and started my tour of Northampton by walking in the door of this retail market. Thornes was constructed in 1873 as a dry goods store, and has expanded many times into the current three-​story building with pressed tin ceilings, hardwood floors and staircases, and a host of architectural details that make this a fun place to wander among the eclectic shops, cafes, and restaurants all under one roof.
Unlike a traditional department store, Thornes is a collection of shops selling books, men’s and women’s apparel and shoes, home furnishings, writing papers, ice cream, cosmetics and hand-​blended fragrances, artisan jewelry, and educational toys and games. Maybe 30 individual store fronts inside the one building.
I had a great time walking along past the various shops, and stopping to see what they were offering. Prices were high, but it was fun to look for some unique gifts, and absorb a little of the city’s history.
Cool spot and well worth a visit!

This is a very attractive and cool mall. It is a nice place to slowly meander through, get a coffee, chocolate, look at some cool, boutiquey stuff. It’s small — but you’re walking up stairs so that suits me fine. It’s just perfect for sweet little Noho (yes, I still call it that).
But it doesn’t really offer very much. And I noticed the first store on the right that I used to like so much has changed into something uninteresting. The people are attractive and friendly enough — but you’re not gettting too much done while you’re here, I’m afraid.

I loved wandering around Thornes! It is like a maze and a friend very thoughtfully guided me through the building and we had some great coffee and loved window shopping. What a great place! Worth a visit when you are in Northampton.

This is my first stop when shopping for that little something special. They have pretty high end clothing, bath and body, shoes, ice-​cream, coffee, jewelry, books… just about anything. Better than the mall and a much nicer shopping environment.

Located right at the heart of Northampton Center, I always have to stop at Thornes when I’m shopping in the area, even if I don’t buy anything. And I usually don’t. Some stores in Thornes can be a little pricey, as other reviewers have mentioned. I think I can count the number of purchases I have made at Thornes on one hand, and most of those consist of really cute bangle watches that cost about 10 dollars each. Herrell’s Ice Cream’s flagship location is in Thornes (I believe their ice cream is also sold at a shop in Williamstown and a couple other locations), and their ice cream is delicious, not to mention the hot fudge! I could go on, but I must save that for a different review. More than anything, Thornes is one of those places you have to stop at because you’ve heard other people talk about it.

I really love this place, I been going to school here for 3 years but I never go to NoHo! This is such a nice marketplace and you can find some cool stuff at the different places. I really like Cedar’s Chest. I bought a shower curtain there… and been eyeing this framed quote so I might just have to return to pick it up! The Acme Supply store is nice too! alot of things were cheap!

Overall, the merchants in Thorne’s charge too much for their wares. This place seems to be geared towards the affluent Yuppies, that have increasingly invaded Noho.
The worst merchant in this place is the Marketplace Café. They are very
overpriced, have crummy food, and rip-​off their customers. The only
merchants in Thorne’s that give you good deals at reasonable prices, are Paul & Elizabeth’s, Cornucopia, ACME Surplus, and Ferrell’s.

Thornes is Northampton in a nutshell. The stores are a bit on the pricey side, but alot of what you are paying for is the unique items they offer and the experience of shopping in one of New England’s greatest towns. Northampton boasts many shops that bend the conventions of other shops, and the shops in Thornes are no exception. Be sure to check out the ACME surplus store in the basement if you’re looking for a bargain!
If you’re shopping on the weekends or near the holidays, be sure to come equipped with a fair amount of patience as the stairwell and main hall tend to get quite busy.

Its a must see if you are in the area. It is an experience. You will not find a deal and you will not necessaril find high quality. This earth burger mini mall experience will lead you to random and unique products that you will want to take home but because of the prices– you will talk yourself out of it.

This review is for nostalgia’s sake. I can still smell Thorne’s, a great smell that mixed soap scents from the overpriced housewares store; coffee and sandwiches from the overpriced sandwich bar, fine leather goods from the grossly overpriced shoe store in the basement, and… well, you get the idea. I loved Thorne’s, even when I couldn’t afford it. The third floor used to have a great used record shop, where I bought a tape of Miles Davis’s «Porgy and Bess.» Best four-​dollar purchase ever.

I thought the building itself was charming, but the stores — not so much. I hit up a used coat at the ACME store that lasted for years… $ 5 maybe? So, big plus. I actually found the layout of the stores rather confusing, and some of the wood floors creaked beyond belief, so that was freaky. But it’s definitely a place that college students’ parents would enjoy.

A sweet little shopping center in downtown Northampton. Besides the ACME Surplus store, everything in the other stores are really pricey. I once got a shower clock thing that broke in a day… and it was $ 20. It sure was a piece of crap.