TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASONWho we are
We’re a happy local shop located in downtown Paris, Illinois - owned and operated by yours truly (Hilary Walker), for almost 20 years. While our shop has taken many forms - pop-up booths, an old garage, and several downtown locations - we have always been the go-to place for curated collections of new and vintage stuff.
THE EVOLUTION OF
the cherry tree
The Cherry Tree began in 2002 - on Wood St. right between China King and Butch's Vacuum Shop.
I had just quit my job at CVS and needed something new. Photography was my side hustle but didn't pay enough for the bills, and well, I always wanted to open a store. I had all the stuff. I'd been collecting my whole life - garage sales (from the days with my Grandma Jumps and Aunt Elsie) auctions, the covered bridge festival... even on vacation, we would hit the local antique malls and I thought, "It would be so easy…"
And that's how The Cherry Tree was born.
That store was such a good learning experience for me. I remember I got my first heat bill that winter, and I was like, "Nope. Guess I'm closing shop cause I can't pay this." Haha. Things with my photography picked up that year anyway, so I closed and went in another direction.
After a while, I started selling my photography on stuff (cards, pillows, bags, etc.) and mixed it with cool vintage pieces. I teamed up with my cousin Brittany, who was repurposing old furniture and rented a booth at The Hobnob (a new handmade market at the time). I figured it was a fun way to profit from my photography since I was getting a little burnt out on weddings.
Well, we ended up doing so well that it pushed me back into the retail game - doing shows as The Cherry Tree once again.
When some extenuating life circumstances hit in 2015, I found myself without substantial income. And with two kids at home, it was hard to work - taking me longer and longer to get projects done for my photography business. I was still selling merchandise for The Cherry Tree on the side, so I decided to reopen the shop.
It was the only thing that made sense for our life and schedule.
I saw that my Uncle Scott had put his garage up for rent, the local seed house had used it for storage - and I always thought it looked so cute. The ad was in the window for not even a day. It was serendipitous and meant for me.
So we hit the ground running.
Cleaned that sucker for a week straight - long hours, digging crap out of storage, I used my brother's horse trailer to get stuff from all of the places (barns, sheds, my grandmas upstairs). We flipped that garage overnight. I was like, "I need to make money. I'm gonna open a shop!" So I did.
The Cherry Tree was back in business. And it was an incredible run. We were at that location from May of 2015-2017, transitioned uptown in the fall of 2018 as part of Sweet Vintage - a collaboration between The Cherry Tree, Circle H Honey, and WeLiKit Farmstand, and then moved to our current location at the end of 2019.
And here we are today!