Page 36 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2016

ARTS 11th anniversary
American artists abound
story and photos by Susan Ruddiman
at Hillyer House
Hillyer House in downtown Ocean Springs is built on long-standing relationships. The shop was founded in 1970 less than a year after Hurricane Camille decimated Pass Christian. Paige Riley said her great-aunt
and mother worked out of a rented house selling furniture to help replace what so many lost. That modest start cemented the future of Hillyer House.
Though her great-aunt died, Riley and her mother, Katherine Reed, continued to run the shop, eventually moving it to a 3,000-square-foot building on Scenic Drive in Pass Christian. By the mid-1980s, the shop had evolved
into an American Craft gallery. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 destroyed it. Riley was at a crossroads then with the shop gone and her mother in poor health.
“After the storm, I opened the store in my living room. It was unbelievable it was happening again all those years later. But I didn’t know if I could do a full store without trying it first in my little space,” Riley said. “I had to know if I could recreate it, and it gave me the strength to recreate it here.”
Riley moved Hillyer House to Washington Avenue in a 4,000-square-foot building that originally was the Western Auto Store.
36 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • November 2016 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
CONNIE MICKLE’S hand-built pottery has been a staple at Hillyer House for more than 30 years.
Hillyer House owner Paige Riley, left, and manager Susannah Snyder.