GLASGOW – Visitors to the Urban Den aren’t transported to a certain time in the past, but rather enter a space that evokes several different decades at once.

The front room of the building at 206 N. Race St., just off the Glasgow Public Square, is loaded with items from years ago. Among all the midcentury furniture, plenty of artifacts – such as roller skates, old radios and cookware, a great many of them from the 1950s to the ’70s – vie for attention on crowded shelves and tables.

Carsen Inman, who opened the shop about three months ago in a building owned by her grandparents, described the Urban Den as a vintage store.

“I’ve always loved vintage clothing and retro items and I always have loved to decorate, so I just thought, ‘Why not throw it all together?’ ” she said. “I’ve sort of thought about having my own shop in the past.”

Inman makes clear that she is not an antique dealer. According to Inman, vintage items like the ones she sells are objects from earlier generations and are newer than antiques, which she said are 100 or more years old.

Inman has lots of experience hunting for vintage items but has to go to Louisville or Nashville to find a store specializing in them, she said, adding that she wanted one a little closer to home.

“I thought I would share the happiness with people,” she said.

Inman said her appreciation of vintage items came at a young age from her experience regularly going to stores to look for older pieces with her mother.

“Ever since I’ve been little, I’ve always went with my mom to secondhand stores and Goodwills,” she said. “It’s kind of just a passed-on thing.”

The Urban Den doesn’t take consignment. Inman picked out every item for sale in the store herself from a variety of sources.

“I travel a lot to get things. Of course, I go to estate sales and auctions and I pick through things and I buy bundles of things,” she said.

In addition to running the Urban Den, which is only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Inman also works at Paradise Point Marketplace in Scottsville and the constant search for new pieces to display and sell in the store keeps her busy as well.

“That’s partially my reason right now as to why I’m only open three days a week,” she said. “I’m still trying to find a good balance between junking and being the only one that runs the store.”

Inman said she enjoys owning and operating her own business.

“You have to really push yourself, but it’s great to be your own boss,” she said.

Reactions to the store vary quite a bit based on the age of people stopping by, Inman said, ranging from nostalgia to a genuine fascination with the unfamiliar.

“The older generations, they come in here and reminisce and smile and a lot of people tell me how good it feels to remember having those items in their home and a lot of the youth come in here and tell me that, you know, ‘Whoa, I’ve never seen this before’ or ‘This is cool,’ ” she said.

Inman said that by bringing a vintage store, which she associates with larger cities, to Glasgow, she hopes the Urban Den is reflective of growth she wants to see in the town.

“This town needs bigger ideas and bigger opportunities brought here to be able to change and grow with the rest of the world, basically,” she said. “I want this town to thrive and grow so my contribution to it would be to put something in this town that makes people see that you can make a change without leaving.”