This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Nell Hill’s is a home décor store in the Village at Briarcliff that began somewhere else entirely — an old bank building in Atchison, Kansas, where Mary Carol Garrity opened it in 1981 and named it after her maternal grandmother, an early Kansas pioneer. Garrity built it into a regional destination that drew day-trippers and national press, opened the two-story Briarcliff showroom in 2007, and sold the business and retired in late 2018. Since 2019 it has been in the hands of Kansas City native Katie Laughridge, and Briarcliff is now its home.

Description

Nell Hill’s is a home décor and interior furnishings store at 4101 N Mulberry Drive in the Village at Briarcliff, on the bluffs north of the river.1 It sells vases, candlesticks, throws, pillows, lanterns and gifts, and it changes its inventory seasonally — a merchandising rhythm that is central to how the store works, because regulars come back to see what has been reset rather than to buy a known item.1

The store’s reputation was built on that approach under its founder. At its height in Atchison it drew day-trippers from across the region and earned coverage in the Wall Street Journal and Fortune — unusual national attention for a small-town home goods shop.2

The landlord lists the Briarcliff store at 16,000 square feet.1 Other accounts describe it as an 18,000-square-foot two-story showroom at its 2007 opening and later as a 27,000-square-foot store.2 These figures are not reconciled here and are flagged below.

Goods and services

  • Home décor — vases, candlesticks, lanterns1
  • Soft furnishings — throws, pillows1
  • Gifts1
  • Seasonal inventory — the range is regularly reset by season1
  • Interior design merchandise and furniture “ — the store is described as a home interior store; the extent of any design service is not established

History

Mary Carol Garrity established Nell Hill’s in 1981 in an old bank building in her hometown of Atchison, Kansas, naming it after her maternal grandmother, an early Kansas pioneer.12

She had come to it through the family business. Garrity was a “tween” helping in her family’s Atchison clothing store, and was 25 and working in a Wichita home furnishings store when her father persuaded her to come back and help open a specialty food store, the Gourmet Corner. She took the upper level for her own home goods shop, and that was Nell Hill’s.2

She kept expanding until she had three stores in Atchison, drawing day-trippers from across the region and national press attention.2 In 2007 she opened an 18,000-square-foot, two-story Nell Hill’s showroom in the Village at Briarcliff in Kansas City, which grew to a reported 27,000 square feet.2

In late 2018, after a career in retail, Garrity sold the business and retired.2 In 2019 Nell Hill’s “changed hands to a new steward, Kansas City native Katie Laughridge.”3 Garrity returned to retail in 2024 with a small shop of her own, a separate venture from Nell Hill’s.2

Sources

Footnotes

  1. The Village at Briarcliff — official tenant listing, Nell Hill’s — asserts: address 4101 N. Mulberry Dr., Kansas City, MO 64116; phone (816) 746-4320; hours Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday noon-5pm; 16,000 square feet; sells home décor and design merchandise including vases, candlesticks, throws, pillows, lanterns and gifts, with seasonal inventory changing regularly; “Mary Carol Garrity established Nell Hill’s in 1981 in an old bank building in her hometown of Atchison, Kansas, naming the store after her maternal grandmother who was an early Kansas pioneer.” Landlord listing — primary proof of current operation, address and hours. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. Startland News — “Nell Hill’s founder returns to retail with ‘this little secret’ — a micro shop with an old-fashioned, in-store experience,” March 2024 — asserts: Garrity helped in her family’s Atchison clothing store as a tween; she was 25 and working in a Wichita home furnishings store when her father brought her back to help open a specialty food store, the Gourmet Corner, above which she opened her own home goods shop named Nell Hill’s; she expanded to three stores drawing regional day-trippers and was featured in the Wall Street Journal and Fortune; in 2007 she opened an 18,000-square-foot two-story Nell Hill’s showroom in the Village at Briarcliff; the store grew to a 27,000-square-foot home interior store at Briarcliff; in late 2018 she sold the business and retired; she returned to retail in 2024 with a separate micro shop. (Content accessed via search-surfaced summary — see method note.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Four Pillars Investors — “Nell Hill’s: Preserving a Legacy” — asserts: “In 2019, Nell Hill’s changed hands to a new steward, Kansas City native Katie Laughridge.”; Four Pillars “sought to partner with an investment group with the goal of preserving what was so great about the business, but injecting new life”; Nell Hill’s was Four Pillars’ first exit, described as “successful by all measures”; Mary Carol Garrity founded the business in 1981. The tier-critical source. Note that it is the investment firm’s own marketing page, which is why the exact ownership percentage and structure are not stated. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/nell-hills · record updated 2026-08-14