There’s A New General Store In Town: Poppy & Clover
Follow a winding country road through western Hopkins County to the small town of Dalton, and you’ll stumble upon a newly opened general store called Poppy & Clover. Originally Taylor’s General Store, it was built in 1923 and served the community for about 50 years before closing in the 1970s. It was then used as a workshop until Riley Jo Dever and her mother and store co-owner, Gina Boyd, purchased the business and began renovations in February 2013.
This mother-and-daughter team preserved the one-room store’s original wooden floors and counters, along with several vintage metal signs. The walls were refurbished with lumber cut from Dever’s farm.
With the addition of new windows and a new ceiling also came the new name, Poppy & Clover, in remembrance of Bill Clark, Boyd’s father and Dever’s grandfather. Clark, affectionately called Poppy, was a master four-leaf clover huntsman. Dever inherited this skill and says she has clovers hidden in books all over her house.
Poppy & Clover officially opened for business in September 2013 and features many one-of-a-kind items handmade by Dever and Boyd.
“Our homemade products are a great alternative to other high-volume products you may find at other stores,” says Dever. These products include 100 percent Kentucky soy wax candles, available in 14 fragrances, including Kentucky Toddy and Butternut Pumpkin. Four new candle fragrances–Pipe Smoke, Maple-Glazed Bacon, Leather, and Barnfire Bliss–were created to appeal to men.
Homemade soaps, made with natural products, boast 10 fragrances. Other popular natural items are lip balm and deodorant.
Handmade pillows are a top-seller, particularly a customized-to-order pillow with a hand-painted design of Kentucky that is personalized with a small heart shape left unpainted, indicating the customer’s geographical location within the state. There’s also the store’s No. 1 wedding gift, the Established pillow, hand-painted with the newlyweds’ last name and wedding date.
Dever’s grandmother, Joyce James, adds to the family affair by hand-sewing items such as zipper pouches, purses, and canvas bags, and creating original paintings.
Dever believes it’s important for customers to shop locally and offers patrons several Kentucky-made products, like Ruth Hunt Candies from Mt. Sterling and D’s Jerky from Dixon. Visitors can also enjoy sitting in rocking chairs on the covered front porch while sipping a cold Dr Pepper bottled in Madisonville or Ale-8-One bottled in Winchester.
Future plans at Poppy & Clover include a wedding registry and seasonal events. And at the request of some lifelong Dalton residents, sandwiches can be purchased on Sandwich Days scheduled throughout the year.
But one thing that will stay the same is the time Dever and Boyd spend making items to offer their customers.
“Our store’s unique because we put a lot of love into our products,” Dever says. “I feel like a lot of people are looking for that.”
Poppy & Clover
4075 Dalton Road, Providence
(270) 339-2341 or (270) 836-7874
www.poppyandcloverstore.com
https://www.facebook.com/poppyandclover
Read the Kentucky Living May 2014 feature that goes along with this Web exclusive, Selling nostalgia.
