The Toy Chest moved across the street

Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest, at the new location.

~ story and photos by Paige Langenderfer

The Toy Chest recently moved into a beautiful Victorian building on South Van Buren Street in Nashville’s Calvin Place, across the road from its previous home in the Artists Colony Inn shops.

The Toy Chest has been a staple in Nashville since 1970. It was first owned by Helen and Ed Hollis and started out on Main Street. It moved to the Artists Colony Inn area in 1988, when the complex was first built. Cathy and David Martin bought the business in 1989 and ran it until they sold it to the current owner, Hilary Key, in 2014.

The location became available in February, when the owners of the shop Madeline’s retired. By May 25 Hilary and staff had completely renovated the new location, moved the store, and opened to the public.

After just three weeks in the new location, Hilary noticed a dramatic increase in foot traffic.

“In our former location, it was really difficult for people to just stumble upon us. Now you can’t miss us,” she said.

Hilary and her team pulled up carpet, painted every wall, added wallpaper, refinished floors and even had new hardwood floors installed in one of the rooms.

“The old location didn’t look or feel like me,” Hilary said. “You could say my personality has exploded in this store and that feels good.”

In its new location, The Toy Chest is separated into five rooms, with different flooring and wallpaper.

“It feels like each room is a different store,” Hilary said. “Each room has a different feel. For instance, one room has an older feel, and that is where we put the toys for older kids and adults.”

The high ceilings and natural light from the numerous windows makes browsing the rooms almost dreamlike. With toys, books, games, puzzles, crafts, fidgets and so much more from floor to ceiling, shoppers would have to spend days in the store to see every item.

Toy enthusiasts, and kids, will be happy to find brands like Tonies, Melissa and Doug, Playmobil, HABA, SmartNoggin, Fat Brain, Usborne, Gund, Thames and Kosmos and so many more.

“I think they’ve done an amazing job redesigning the space. It is so beautiful,” said Courtney WootenBurkey, who works part time at the store. “I love coming to work here. It makes me feel so creative.”

Hilary said her goal is to make The Toy Chest a premier toy store. She spends hours researching and attending trade shows to learn the latest trends in the toy industry.

Courtney Wooten-Burkey pointing out some new items on display.

“I want people to come here and make memories and make a relationship with us so they will want to come back, or shop online with us,” she said. “We are so much prettier than Amazon, and our staff truly cares. You can ask us questions and we know what we are talking about. We will even create custom gift baskets for you based on your child’s age and interests.”

While she is ecstatic with the store’s success, Hilary said the road to this shining moment has been bumpy.

In 2020, the pandemic changed the world, and changed how they do business.

“It’s kind of weird to say, but it was kind of a blessing in disguise,” Hilary said. “We had been talking about getting our online store up for a while, but the pandemic really forced us to do the work. We actually ended up growing significantly during the pandemic.”

But, with online sales booming, Hilary felt the constraints of the former location.

“There was no office space or stock room,” she said. “So, any growth we had really fell to me because I had to do the office work from my home and I had to store everything in my garage.”

While the new location is still not large enough for all of the stock, there is space on the second floor for storage and an office.

“Now I hope to be able to get help from staff on office work and stock room management,” Hilary said. “At the old location, I really felt like I was just keeping my head above water. Now, I want to focus on settling in and doing business really well.”

The Toy Chest, located at 100 S Van Buren Street, is open 10 a.m to 6 p.m. daily.

Information: <www.browncountytoychest.com> or 812-988-2817.