Serendipity, Grandmother's Buttons and How We Literally "Bought the Bank"

[caption id="attachment_7" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Grandmother's Buttons home - St.Francisville's 1905 Bank Building (photo by David Humphreys)"][/caption]

Serendipity is defined as a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated. While writing about the history of Grandmother's Buttons, it dawned on us that Serendipity has been traveling with Susan throughout this adventure, riding at her elbow while she navigated the sometimes treacherous waters of creating, building and then housing a business that was once just a bit of whimsy born on a hot summer afternoon at her Grandmother Bettie Gandy Garrett's house. 

 

[caption id="attachment_8" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Grandmother's Buttons retail store interior - photo coutesy of Dave Humphreys"][/caption]

First you have the great story of the boxes and tins of buttons in Grandma Bettie's chests of drawers, and Susan's idea to make a pair of earrings out of a set of 1930's glass buttons (more on that story in a later post).  

Then you have the crafts shows, where Susan's artistry was put to the test, quite successfully.  Finally, you have the story of the St. Francisville, LA 1905 bank building, where Grandmother's Buttons studio, retail store and button museum is now housed.

 



In 1994, having discovered that there really was a market out there for Grandmother's Buttons jewelry, Susan and her husband Donny started searching for space to house their production offices and retail space. St. Francisville is small – only 2,000 people – and commercial real estate was difficult to come by. The father of one of Susan's friends had purchased the bank building to convert it to a residence. On a whim (with Serendipity sitting nearby sipping a cup of tea), Susan asked the friend whether her father might want to sell what Susan considered the nicest commercial space in town. To her shock, he called the next day, ready to sell immediately.

As one might expect, this was a much larger purchase than Susan and Donny had planned on, but after several days of agonizing, they decided to take a leap of faith and buy. It was, in Susan's words, “absolutely the best business decision ever!”   She also says: “It was only later that we decided to make a button museum in the bank vault, and that project (which was a tremendous amount of work AND fun) has garnered more publicity than anything else we’ve ever done. Also the value of the building has appreciated a good deal in the 16 years since we bought it.”

“When I was a child this was the only bank in town. I remember following my parents in to make deposits; at the time the wonderful mosaic tile floors, soaring 16-foot ceilings and ornately carved oak woodwork made this small-town 5-year-old feel like she was in a palace.

[caption id="attachment_18" align="alignleft" width="185" caption="Original safe"][/caption]Our son was only two when we bought the building. He grew up sitting on a stool and turning the big wheel on the vault doors like it was a ship's wheel. We still have the original 1905 safe marked Bank of West Feliciana and use it for product display in the store. The back of the vault door is marked "Warning: This Property Is Protected by Chemical Warfare Gas" !! We were assured when we bought the building that the gas canisters had been removed long ago!”  [caption id="attachment_20" align="alignright" width="272" caption="Vault Door with Chemical Warfare Gas Sign"][/caption]

 

“Grandmother's Buttons' production offices and studio are upstairs, which was originally space the bank leased to different businesses. When my sisters were small, the upstairs housed the telephone operator, a dentist and a beauty parlor. The telephone operator had the front office so she could look out the window and tell callers if the party they wanted had just gone into the courthouse, the church or the sheriff's office (we were absolutely Mayberry back then).”

[caption id="attachment_9" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Early Days - The bank building right after it was built in 1905"][/caption]

We're pretty sure Serendipity is still along for the ride – every year gets better for Grandmother's Buttons, and the Bank Building attracts more and more visitors. After 25 years, Grandmother's Buttons still has a propensity for making fortunate discoveries – we plan to tell you all about them in this blog. Stay tuned!