With so many malls, box-stores and outlets now an accepted form of shopping for the masses, quaint little shopping areas like Tiverton Four Corners are an oddity and a jewel for those who know where to find them.
Step into one of the many shops at Tiverton Four Corners, and take a step back in time, when the shopkeeper knew the names of all of his or her patrons, items in stores couldn’t be found anywhere else and retail had its own personal, unhurried touch.
With more than 25 independently owned shops and businesses, this historic village, parts of which date back more than 200 years, is a year-round destination for locals and tourists.
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Tiverton Four Corners’ rejuvenation began almost 20 years ago, with the help of local realtor Terry Holland, Cindy and Scott Burns, and James Weir, a Boston-based architect, and his wife Rosalind, a landscape designer. In the early 1980s, Holland had purchased an old grange hall and transformed it into small shops known as Mill Pond Shops. The Burns had arrived shortly after Holland, purchasing and restoring the 1876 general store and turning it into the Provender, a gourmet food store.
“There was already a feeling of all these nice shops in a little village,” Weir said. “I think I was working with their vision – a kind of emergence of this little village that was already started.”
The Weirs, who summer in Tiverton, in 1985 purchased a historic property at the edge of Four Corners, the Soule-Seabury House, dating back to the early nineteenth century, and restored it to its former glory. The house is home to law offices and Four Corners Center for Arts & Education, which conducts children’s and adult art, music and design classes, and sponsors theater productions and musical performances. After the Weirs came to Tiverton, the retail area rapidly took on new life.
Initially, the owners envisioned a homey village filled with antique shops, but it was soon clear that the idea wouldn’t fly, Weir said, because antique shop owners operate different hours than other retailers, and often go to antique shows.
“We were thinking it was a nice place for a cluster of antique stores, but as it turned out, for a variety of reasons, we kept asking and getting very few answers,” he said. “I don’t think we had a vision for what we ended up with, but we thought it would be nice to revitalize this little area.”
Gradually as properties in the area went up for sale, the Weirs purchased and restored or renovated them, bringing them into the growing collective of old-time antique, clothing, gourmet food and folk art stores and art galleries. Now they own a dozen of the stores at the intersection, which includes 13 historic buildings. Tiverton Four Corners was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
For Weir and his counterparts, keeping the market fresh in Tiverton Four Corners means paying attention to the character of the area and what is best for retailers.
“I still feel I’m always trying to rethink what the highest and best use is, where the market is, because there’s certainly a lot of competition,” Weir said. “Antique dealers are doing worse now (because of eBay and online shopping), so it’s a little hard to predict. The retail market does take certain [kinds of] people.”
While Weir said he doesn’t have a formal agreement with the retailers to eliminate all competition, each of the stores has something different to add to the mix.
“I value the tenants a lot and we have a good balance,” Weir said. “Many of them have been here for at least 10 years and I try hard to make everything work.” And many of the shop owners said they feel well taken care of.
Little Purls’ co-owner Susan Hutson (the other owner is Lora Miller), has been selling children’s clothing and accessories in Tiverton Four Corners for 17 years, and said it’s unlike anything in the area.
“It’s picturesque out here and somewhat unhurried,” she said. “It’s our slogan: ‘where you’ll find shopping the way it used to be.’”
Shoppers like that they can find items at Little Purls and other stores that they can’t find anywhere else, Hutson said. The store gets much of its clothing from European and American companies, particularly from California.
“They like the personal service and the free gift wrap,” she said. “It’s somewhat upscale and it’s quality – things you won’t find in chain stores.”
Courtyards’ owner Sharon Prazak, who has been at Four Corners for 20 years, said the village is a wonderful example of sustainable development. Courtyards sells accents for the home and garden, including one-of-a-kind works by local artists.
“I’m against growth,” she said with a smile. “I like it because it is a small destination area that people can go to, to get special things. Customers are getting a little bit of the country. There are no strip malls and we know the customers.”
Prazak said her stores showcases the work of more than 500 artists, and the selection of items “changes daily.” Courtyards also has a “create-your-own” garden statuary area. Items in the store range from handmade soaps, birdfeeders and jewelry to botanicals, holiday ornaments and hanging pixies.
While customers might not have to worry about long lines during the holidays at stores like Prazak’s, spring and summer are their busiest times of the year, she said.
“We have lines, but in general they are much happier lines,” she said. “We don’t get returns here; people are happy with what they’re buying. We like being here.”
In the ever-changing retail market, Weir said it is the laid-back pace, as well as the chance to step into an outdoor time machine at Four Corners that keeps shoppers interested.
“As we got more involved, we could see what was happening in retail, with the box stores and Home Depots and there does need to be a place for this,” he said. And because there was no blueprint for a place like this, Weir said the task was more trying at times, but also allowed them to be more creative.
With an art base – with the Provender, Courtyards, and the Virginia Lynch Gallery already established – the other retailers just fit into place around that idea, he said. Tenants like glass blowers and potters are always welcome at Tiverton Four Corners, Weir said.
“Art is – because when you deal with art, you’re dealing with handmade objects – a section where you’re not going to get competition from Wal-Mart,” he said. “I do feel that Tiverton Four Corners is, relatively speaking, an undiscovered place.”
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