By Amy Conway
Photos by Ben Garver

At least once a week, Jed Thompson begins his day with a dawn drive to his favorite flower farms to choose local, seasonal blooms for Township Four, the floristry and home shop he owns and runs with his husband Nathan Hanford. Those flowers don’t end up going far—Jed brings them back to the shop, which is in the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, where they might be put into little vases for the tables in the dining room, made into exuberant displays for common areas, or be fashioned into chic arrangements and delivered to homes across Berkshire County.

The flowers are local, as are some other pieces in the store, but they are intermingled with gift and home items from France, California, upstate New York, and other locales. It’s all part of the Township Four aesthetic: always eclectic, always exquisite (which doesn’t mean, by the way, always expensive). “As a traveler, I like to be able to shop for worldly things,” says Hanford, an attitude that informs the selection they curate for their customers. Indeed, you can explore the shop as a destination unto itself, discovering new things visit after visit.

This is their second space in the area. Nathan grew up in Becket (its pre-revolutionary name was Township Four); after living in New York, San Francisco, and London, and meeting Jed, who is originally from Rhode Island, they decided to settle in the Berkshires. They had their first shop in downtown Pittsfield for five years, but around the time their lease was up they got the call asking if they wanted to move to the Red Lion. They didn’t hesitate.

“We were absolutely thrilled,” says Jed. “It’s a wonderful location, a bigger space, and it’s in a beautiful, historic hotel. It was just a perfect opportunity, perfect timing.”

The old-meets-new setting is ideal for them. They offer a mix of antique, vintage, and new items. Their flowers may appear to have sprung to life from a Dutch masters painting, or be spare and modern. The vignettes they style in the shop—whether an inviting table, cocktail glassware, or bath and beauty products—have the same appealing, beguiling mix. Everything, by the way, is surrounded by plants and more plants. And in this new space, Thompson and Hanford’s roots in the Berkshires are growing deeper.

Township Four
30 Main St., Stockbridge
(in the Red Lion Inn)
413-347-3244
townshipfour.com