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The demise of Sharper Image, Circuit City, and Linens ‘n Things over the past winter did not really make much of a difference to those of us who’d rather shop on Main Street than in a mall. For home furnishings, we’ve always preferred a leisurely visit to Hildreth’s. We find it comforting to shop in a place that does not have a clever name invented by a marketing team, and where there is an actual owner you can talk to. It’s also reassuring to return to a store we’ve known for decades and that has been in business in the same place since 1842.
Hildreth’s of course has changed over the course of those 167 years, as retailers must change with the times. Patio furniture and media cabinets were not the hottest sellers in mid nineteenth century Southampton. What were the must-haves, you must be asking. You can guess at some: basics: such as salt, flour, cheese, sugar; clothing and textiles; butter churns and buggy whips. The store carried whaling harpoons in an age when fishing and whaling were important parts of economic life here, and buffalo robes, which were the latest thing in climate control systems for wagon travel in the cold East End winters. We don’t know what Hildreth’s charged, but in an article in the February 22, 1855 edition of the New York Times, a livery stable keeper valued a stolen buffalo robe it at the fairly considerable price of $50.
Hildreth’s also supplied the needs of market hunters, men who hunted birds or animals for the commercial trade. Beyond utilitarian goods, Hildreth’s may have had the first version of an East End art gallery. They sold scrimshaw made by whalers and objects carved by the Shinnecock tribe.
By the late nineteenth century Hildreth’s began to change just as the local villages did. Travel between here and New York City took a quantum leap forward when in 1870 the Long Island Railroad extended its tracks to Southampton. And during the next decade communication was also revolutionized with the establishment of local telephone companies. Store merchandise could now arrive directly by rail instead of by ship to Sag Harbor and then by horse and cart to Southampton.
It also meant that Hildreth’s clientele changed and their inventory had to adapt. In the 1890s and 1900s, as a result of the railroad, a summer colony of second homeowners took root, and Hildreth’s began to supply their needs. But it still remained a general store with a wide array of merchandise for sale. By the 1940s the store started to specialize in home furnishings—the focus of its stores today.
We asked Henry Hildreth, who now runs the business, what it is like handling all this tradition and still relating to the present market. “I feel proud and privileged to be running a family business that’s lasted through all these generations, but I also feel pressured to make the right decisions to keep it going. There is always competition and these are particular difficult economic times. The family made it through the Great Depression. I’m determined to make it through this recession.”
We all look forward to next 167 years with Hildreth’s.