Something's Happening in Clinton
A wave of revitalization has taken hold in this East Feliciana town
North of Baton Rouge, at the center of a conglomerate of rural communities, the seat of East Feliciana Parish sits quietly and quaintly—its iconic century-old water tower rising up past the spire of the two-hundred-year-old First Baptist church. Remnants of Antebellum-era opulence hold memory in the form of Greek Revival and Victorian Gothic architecture, including the Historic Courthouse on St. Helena, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is believed to be one of the oldest courthouses in continuous use in the state.
Like in so many rural Southern small towns, these monuments are flanked by abandoned buildings and shuttered windows, occupied by a dwindling, aging population migrating ever farther from the town’s center. Downtown Clinton has, for years, been a place of ghosts—without a steady sit-down restaurant or even a place to grab a coffee for a business meeting.
But, visit Clinton on the first Friday of the month—and you’ll see evidence of the quiet, cautious spark steadily burning through the downtown district. Just follow the crowd—which can sometimes number up to three or four hundred people (about a quarter of the town’s entire population). Called Farmhaus Fridays, the event is nothing fancy: a formula for plein air community gathering as old as time, with live music, food trucks, and local shopping. “There has been nothing like this here,” said Hunter Gerald, co-owner of the event’s headquarters Farmhaus Square, a home goods and gift shop operated by his mother, Laura. The first Friday event was held in conjunction with the shop’s grand opening in September. “And then they just took off. I don’t think we thought it would be as big as it has become. Everybody comes and brings a lawn chair and listens and dances. It’s like a little block party.”
"...visit Clinton on the first Friday of the month—and you’ll see evidence of the quiet, cautious spark steadily burning through the downtown district. Just follow the crowd—which can sometimes number up to three or four hundred people (about a quarter of the town’s entire population). Called Farmhaus Fridays, the event is nothing fancy: a formula for plein air community gathering as old as time, with live music, food trucks, and local shopping." —Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Part of the excitement around the event, of course, is the existence of a living, breathing block to party with. When Heather Halbrook opened her gift shop H. Mercantile in the summer of 2022, she was one of the first storefronts to grace St. Helena Street (Main) in years. “There were some business offices, a gas station, stuff like that,” she said. There was Southern Roots Salon and Ronnie’s barbershop—which has operated for over forty years in an iconic little brick building. And there was the town sandwich shop, Red Boot Deli, as well as Sonny and Sweet Co., known fondly as “the cookie shop”—which offered custom cookie orders with sporadic hours. “But it was really kind of a ghost town.”
The concept for H. Mercantile, from the beginning, was to offer a market for local artisans and merchants to sell their products other than the once-monthly Farmers Market in Clinton. “That was my whole business plan,” she said, “to get whatever item as local as I possibly can, as close to home as I can source it.” Following her lead, in November 2022, Morgan Guilbeau opened up Courtside Boutique, a women’s clothing shop with a focus on inclusivity. And suddenly, there was more than one reason to come spend a few hours in downtown Clinton again. By the time Christmas came around, the energy was there to create a downtown holiday shopping experience—complete with twinkly lights and hot chocolate and storefront décor.
“It was like a Hallmark movie,” recalls Laura Gerald, who spontaneously attended the event with Hunter and some of her grandchildren. “It felt like the area was really coming back to life,” said Hunter.
While admiring the almost-forgotten charm of their hometown, Hunter and Laura noticed a “For Sale” sign on a hundred-year-old building right beside Courtside. A week later, the former owner handed Hunter the keys.
Hunter, who works in real estate, had been searching for an office in town where he could meet with his clients and have meetings with his staff. “There was nowhere to meet in town,” he said. “Not even a restaurant or a place to sit down and have coffee and talk business. I knew I couldn’t be the only person dealing with this problem.” His original plan for the building was to put his own office in there, and then to offer the space as a rental venue and meeting place for other individuals and business owners. When word got out, the demand ended up being so overwhelming that he pivoted, allowing his mom to set up a furniture and gift shop in the front—with the intention of maintaining his office space in the back.
“Then, it all just went—store,” laughed Hunter.
“The soft opening went so well, I took his office for storage space,” said Laura. “People wanted this so much.”
Since FarmHaus Square’s grand opening in September, the Geralds have caught the revitalization bug. They purchased another historic building on the strip, renovated it, and have rented it out to the Louisiana-owned hydration therapy chain, Flo & Glo IV Wellness Lounge. “It’ll be great to offer something totally different like this here in Clinton,” said Hunter, who has aspirations to help open more businesses (and maybe even, finally, an office) in downtown Clinton in the future. “There are so many good things happening here that so many people are working hard for,” he said.
Over the course of the last year, other businesses have joined the rising tide of activity in the district—almost all occupying formerly-abandoned historic buildings. In the circa-1868 building that once housed the Felicianas’ first general store, Darlene Whaley opened a breakfast and ice cream shop called Liberty House Specialties. The drive-thru shop has become known for decadent hand-made pastries and over thirty flavors of Wisconsin’s Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, served by the scoop, in smoothies, and—starting this summer—in Frostop root beer floats. Renovations have been underway for months in one of the district’s largest buildings, soon to be occupied by a new retail concept by Julie Bunch D’Aquilla, former owner of women’s formal and children’s boutique Head to Toe—which has been a community staple on the outskirts of the downtown district for years.
As of March, there is finally a sit-down restaurant in downtown Clinton with the opening of Big J’s Side Porch, a family-owned barbecue joint designed to activate the community through live music performances and events like trivia and karaoke. And soon, Halbrook will host the grand opening of H. Mercantile’s sister business, The Green Door—a coffee shop offering breakfast and lunch, made entirely from locally-sourced ingredients. “I wanted to give people a place that they could go and just hang out together,” she said. “Somewhere the kids could go after school, or people could just come and visit for a while.”
Small towns don’t always handle change well, noted Halbrook. “And this has been a lot of change for this small town.” But part of the reason it’s been working, according to her and the Geralds, is that the community has thrown their support behind this burst of new activity. “These are things people wanted for their town,” said Hunter. “They don’t want to have to drive to St. Francisville thirty minutes away to go shopping, or to sit down and eat.” Prior to their grand opening, Hunter said people were walking into the store and asking for ways to be involved. “One woman we know stopped by yesterday and said she was baking a pound cake for the opening,” he said. “She just wanted to be a part of it.”
The woman was Shirley Olsen, age seventy-two, whose family has lived in Clinton for generations, and for many years operated a store on St. Helena, right next to where FarmHaus Square currently stands. “I was raised downtown,” she explained. “We could skate, ride our bicycles all over, meet our friends there.” She remembers the heyday, back when most of the storefronts were filled by grocery stores, package liquor shops, jewelry stores, a movie theatre, bars. “Joe’s Bar was wonderful,” she recalled. “As children, we’d knock on the window and he’d hand us candy.” She remembers the old Malt Shop that used to be where Red Boot Deli now stands, and how all the teenagers would congregate there in the afternoons to have hamburgers and listen to the jukebox. After so many years of watching it all fade away, she’s ecstatic about the renewed, locally-driven vivacity coming to downtown Clinton—reminiscent of the way it was when she grew up. “It’s coming back big time,” she said. “I’ve already met people coming into these stores that I didn’t know before. And they're in Clinton and you don’t know them! Plus, all these people who are putting their money and time and energy into bringing it back, they are amazing.”
Halbrook said that since she’s been open, other members of the community have expressed their enthusiasm for the town’s growth by promising to come in and purchase something every single day to ensure she stays in business. Customers have even purchased plates and cups and silverware for her, without expectation of being repaid, just because she needed it.
“We have an amazing, amazing little town,” she said. “Everyone’s just really come together to help each other succeed.”
The next FarmHaus Friday will take place on May 3 from 6 pm–9 pm, with music by Southland Band and food by Tre's Street Kitchen. The Clinton Community Market will take place the following Saturday, May 4 from 8 am–1 pm downtown.