Anchors & Awnings: The Local List
What is Anchors & Awnings? It is an ongoing series about the small businesses that hold a place together. Not the obvious stops on a visitor’s list. The shops and counters and workrooms where one person made a decision and then held to it for years, sometimes for generations. Every one of these is somewhere I have been, usually with a client or a friend, and each is a contributing part of our community that needs supporting.
Why I write these
When you are looking at houses, you are told to look at square footage and school zones and what the drive across town looks like at seven in the morning. All of that matters, and I will walk you through every bit of it.
But when people tell me what they love about where they live, they almost never lead with the house. They lead with what is around it. The nursery where somebody remembers what you planted last spring. A counter you can stand at and ask a question. A shop two miles away where somebody knows your kid’s name.
Those are hard to build and easy to lose. Growth without anchors is just construction. Our community is filled with talented, artistic, inventive and hardworking entrepreneurs who make our communities what they are. In the world of big box stores, it’s these mom and pop shops that hold us together and need recognition and support.
The series
Savannah
Hester and Zipperer, a century of Savannah gardening
A fifth generation family garden center on Skidaway Road, opened at City Market in 1922. The reason to go is not the inventory. It is that they know what will live in salt air and sand.
Southern Crafted and the oyster dish
Deborah McCorkle turned over a souvenir oyster dish, saw made in China, and opened a Bull Street shop where everything is American made. Supporting trades that are quietly disappearing.
Historic District
Savannah Galleries and the rug shop in DC
Danny Kaminsky walked into a Washington rug shop as a law student in 1968 and never really walked out. He has been restoring antique rugs on East Bryan Street ever since. Things that once were are now again.
Richmond Hill
Midnight Star Pottery
Linda Lennane bought a pottery shop on Highway 17 when her kids were small. They grew up behind the counter, and now they run it with her. A place to make something with your hands alongside the people you love.
If you have one for me
I am always looking for the next one. If there is a business in Savannah, Richmond Hill, Pooler, Tybee or anywhere along this stretch of coast that has held on and held up, tell me about it. The best ones never come from a search.
I’m Nikki Gergacs, a Realtor serving Savannah and the Georgia coast. If you are moving here and want the local list before you arrive, call me and I will send it over.
— Nik · 912-378-3427
Your Next Pearl Awaits.
Next Move Real Estate · Licensed in Georgia
