By Helena Hunt, Staff Writer
Pretty soon, Magnolia Market won’t be the only new home store on the block. The Findery, located just across the street from the silos, will be opening its doors and lighting its candles for its first visitors next Wednesday.
The home goods and lifestyle store will be located at 501 S. 8th St. in the old Percy Medicine Building. It will start with six vendors on the first floor and expand to its second and third floors—hopefully with even more vendors—by the spring.
On opening day the first floor will be arranged with candles from Serenity, Jute’s furniture and home goods, Congress Clothing, and the wares of several other clothing and home suppliers. The vendors will not be separated into discrete booths as they are in stores like Spice Village. The candles, gifts, and clothing for sale will mingle to create a sense of flow throughout the retail space.
The Findery is the long-in-the-works project of the Fatheree family. Tiffany Fatheree and her sister-in-law Marci Davis were looking for a standalone location for their Jute line of home goods and chalk paint, which have been sold in Spice Village for the last five and a half years.
“We grew from a small area to a pretty big area, and we kind of felt it was time to get into a standalone store,” said Matt Fatheree, Tiffany’s husband. “We were looking for a standalone place to rent or buy, and this building became available. It kind of fell into our lap.”
The building that fell into their laps is the 108-year-old Percy Medicine Building. The industrial brick building was originally used to produce and bottle baby medicine. Original stills and a prohibition room that once kept medicinal alcohol out of reach remain in the building. To get the Percy back to its former glory, the family has sanded floors, stripped paint, knocked down walls and tried to bring the former factory’s spirit back to life.
The building has stood vacant since Merrick Medicine moved its manufacturing to Texarkana about a decade ago. Although it was purchased by Katie and James Croft in 2013, the Fatheree family was the first to renovate and repurpose it.
“We signed [the papers] in early April,” said Melissa Fatheree, Matt’s mother.
Now, in preparation for the store’s opening, Christmas trees huddle on the distressed wood floors, and glittering golden stars hang from white timber ceilings. The family said they wanted to keep as much of the original building intact as they could.
“That’s really been the vision and philosophy, to take this whole building to breathe some life back into it and make it a place where people can say, ‘That’s just a comfortable place to go shop,'” Matt Fatheree said.
The Fatheree family said they are eager to contribute to the new community that is blossoming around Magnolia. In addition to The Findery, Falcon + Owl, another home goods dealer, will be coming downtown in the spring. Their proximity to Baylor’s campus and Waco’s budding downtown makes The Findery prime real estate for Christmas shopping.
“We all need to work together to make this happen. It’s a very lively area, so come on down,” Matt Fatheree said. “And it’s fun to be this close to campus. The activity and the enthusiasm in this area have just been really exciting. We hope to just add to the momentum.”
