The Word is Out – Where the Insiders Find Things

America’s favorite vacation island has always been characterized by the value we place on inside information. Even 40% of our visitors are returning for a customary stay, many of them again and again, and across generations. For fortunate residents, making the island their own is very much a process of discovering preferences and advantages, shortcuts and head-starts, in the ways they accomplish everything from special occasions to weekly routines. For visitors and residents alike, The Church Mouse has become one of those inside tips. Where to give and where to get the furnishings and décor, clothing and accessories, the things that equip a life led in a sought-after resort.

As a result, the things people donate for us to sell, and the things people take home, are unusually well-suited to this island style, these standards for enjoyment. The quality and taste that folk find expressed here is especially fine. How did The Church Mouse grow into this insider’s perspective?

Beginning in the Middle

We’ve always been located near the Sea Pines Circle and, for generations of residents and long-time visitors, that might be considered the very hub of Hilton Head Island. The original beachfront resort was straight down the way at the foot of Pope Avenue. Legendary Sea Pines founder Charles Fraser operated his earliest real estate sales from a radio-phone and a station wagon parked near the southwest corner of what is now the circle. The community Christmas tree lighting was, for decades, held in the center of the Sea Pines Circle, and the lofty flagpole there represents the axis around which life revolves, not only here on “South Island,” but by extension from tip to toe.

Being in easy reach from there has brought good fortune to The Church Mouse from the very beginning. What started in the fellowship hall of St. Luke’s Church, The Church Mouse outgrew that spot almost instantly and made our home on Dunnagan’s Alley, a street named affectionately for the community theatre organizer that put Hilton Head Island’s first performing stage there. The Dunnagan’s Alley edition of The Church Mouse prospered, and in just a few years we had the opportunity to move into our current space on Arrow Road.

A New Kind of Thrift Store

From the start, the Arrow Road store felt more like a home than an attic. The tall ceilings and abundant light opened new ways of looking at all The Church Mouse has to offer. No one even remembers who decided to call The Church Mouse “a new kind of thrift store” first. It was a unanimous impression among all who donate, shop, and volunteer here.

Combining the new and different feel of our setting with the taste and quality of the things people find here, The Church Mouse began to be known as a Boutique Thrift Shop. The term fits like a pair of Innes luxury gloves.

Come visit The Church Mouse. Very likely you will find what you’re looking for or become inspired to add something fine to your lifestyle, or at least to take part in the all-day exchange of great inside information that makes The Church Mouse hum.