About
About Pennywhistle
A small gift shop that tries to sell things made nearby by people we know, and to wrap everything beautifully.
How it started
Two people and a narrow storefront
Marisol worked in a museum gift shop for eleven years and kept finding the best things were the ones she could not buy: the potter down the road, the printmaker who sold at the fall fair. Ben had taught fifth grade for twelve years and wanted a job where nobody asked him to take attendance.
In October 2014 they signed a lease on 62 Bridge Street with eleven makers and a shelf. They now carry forty-eight, and the shelf has become a shop with a wrap table, a kids’ corner and a ladder that lives next to the register.
Theo and Priya joined as the shop grew. The website started as a way to sell gift cards, and turned into the part of the business that ships to people we have never met.
- 2014Opened on Bridge Street
- 48small makers, all within about an hour
- 24products in the online shop
- 4people, one shop dog
The people behind the counter
Ask any of us for a gift idea. We will not stop until you have one.
- MR
Marisol Reyes
Co-owner and buyer
Spent eleven years in a museum gift shop before opening Pennywhistle. Chooses every maker and every ornament, and has strong opinions about tissue paper.
- BH
Ben Hartley
Co-owner, books and website
Taught fifth grade for twelve years, which is why the kids’ corner is as sturdy as it is. Runs the website and the numbers, and is usually the one on the ladder.
- PN
Priya Nair
The wrap table
Has wrapped a few thousand gifts here since 2019 and can do a corner fold with her eyes closed. Runs Craft Night.
- TL
Theo Lindgren
Online orders and shipping
Packs every box that leaves the shop, answers the order emails and keeps a very tidy stockroom. Part-time, and a ceramics student at Smith.
- JA
Jo and Pete Maxwell
Birchbark Candle Co., Hadley
Soy candles poured in small batches in a barn behind their house, with wooden wicks and scents that smell like the Valley in each season.
- AC
Ana Cardoso
Hilltown Clay, Goshen
Throws mugs, bowls and espresso cups in a studio over her garage and fires them every other Sunday. Our best-selling mugs.
- LO
Lucy Okafor
Okafor Press, Easthampton
Illustrator and printmaker. Her risograph prints, hand-lettered cards and screen-printed posters have been on our walls since 2016.
- WA
Walt and Greta Sorensen
Little Barn Toys, Williamsburg
A retired shop teacher and his daughter, making wooden toys from local beech. Nothing they make has a battery.
- DB
Dee Bartholomew
Mill River Soap, Florence
Cold-process soap in small batches, scented with essential oils only. The garden set is our most-wrapped hostess gift.
- CW
Carol Whately
Whately Linen Works, Whately
Finishes and hand-stitches stonewashed linen towels, napkins and aprons at her kitchen table with two part-time helpers.
- DR
Dev Rao
Photographer, Florence
Prints his favorite photos from trips as postcards, and sells more of them at the shop than at any gallery.
- MH
Mae Halloran
Northfield Chandlery, Northfield
Hand-dips tapers one at a time in a converted milk house. A pair takes her an afternoon.
How we choose
What we choose to sell
We carry things we would give. That means made by a person, built to last, and priced fairly for the person who made it and the person who buys it. Almost everything is made in New England, and most of it within an hour of the shop.
We do not sell anything that needs a battery in the kids’ corner, and we do not do a gift aisle with things you would give a boss you did not like.
What our customers say
- ★★★★★
“My favorite place to find a gift for someone I have no idea how to shop for. I walked in with a name and an age and walked out ten minutes later with a candle, a card and a perfect little wrapped box. Priya made the bow.”
Karen B.Shopper, EasthamptonReview on Google - ★★★★★
“Ordered a mug and a candle for my mother, filled in the gift message, and she called me in tears. Wrapped, a handwritten card, no prices in the box, and it got there in three days.”
Marcus T.Online order, shipped to OhioReview on Google - ★★★★★
“The kids’ corner is the reason I keep coming back. Everything is wood and wool, the staff let my five-year-old test every dinosaur, and there is nothing I have to plug in.”
Hannah L.Shopper, NorthamptonReview on Google
Stop by and say hi
We are at 62 Bridge Street, open every day. Pretzel will meet you at the door.