Midnight Star Pottery, Richmond Hill

There is a shop on Highway 17 in Richmond Hill where children have been leaving handprints on plates for so long that some of those children are now walking back in with babies of their own.

That is Midnight Star Pottery. Linda Lennane bought it when her own kids were small, and what started as a hobby she shared with them turned into the thing she shares with the rest of us.

Why I wanted to tell you about this one

When you think of things to do, you think of local events or outdoor activities. You do not think of going somewhere to create the lasting memories that are given to you when your children bring home school crafts. It gives you a place to connect on a tactile level, and to engage and create with the people you love.

I also love that a mom took what she loved doing and wanted to share it with others.

A shop that raised a family

Her kids grew up in that store. After school was the norm, right up until the doors closed for the night. When one of them was sick, she would shut the shop for a few minutes, drive to the school, collect them, and reopen with a kid tucked in behind the counter. If you have ever run a business with young children at home, you already know the shape of that day.

Now those same kids work there. They run the day to day alongside her.

That is the part I keep thinking about. Not that the business survived, though plenty do not. That the people who grew up inside it chose to stay inside it.

Why her clients keep coming back

Her clientele spans generations, and not in a marketing sense. She has customers whose baby footprints are on a plate in somebody’s china cabinet, and those customers are booking their own children in now.

A pottery studio is a strange kind of business when you think about it. Nobody needs a hand painted platter. What people need is an afternoon that is not rushed, a table where the phones go down, and something at the end of it that will sit in a kitchen for thirty years. That is what she is selling, and it is why the shop has outlived a lot of things that looked more essential.

What this has to do with where you live

Every town has businesses. Not every town has businesses that hold a neighborhood in place. Richmond Hill has grown a lot in the last decade, and the growth is real and mostly good. But growth without anchors is just construction. The shops that were here before the subdivisions are the reason the place still feels like somewhere rather than anywhere.

When you are looking at houses, you are told to look at schools and commute times and comps. Fair enough, all of that matters. But the thing that decides whether you feel at home is usually smaller. It is whether there is a place two miles away where somebody knows your kid’s name.

If you go

Midnight Star Pottery
2477 Highway 17, Richmond Hill, GA 31324
Monday through Saturday 10am to 6pm, Sunday 1pm to 6pm
(912) 756-7446

Hours as published. Small shops shift them, so call ahead if you are making a trip of it.

Go on a weekday afternoon if you can. Ask Linda how she got started, because the answer is better than anything I can write here.

One more thing

If you are the person with a hobby you keep circling back to, take this as your sign. She was not planning a family business. She bought a shop she liked and it turned into one.

You are never too late to reinvent yourself. I say that as someone who is always inspired by the possibilities and has an affinity for do overs.

I’m Nikki Gergacs, a Realtor working Richmond Hill and the Bryan County side of the coast. If you are weighing a move here and want to know what daily life looks like, let us talk. No pressure, just a conversation.

This is part of Anchors & Awnings, an ongoing series about the small businesses that hold a place together.

— Nik · 912-378-3427

Your Next Pearl Awaits.

Next Move Real Estate · Licensed in Georgia