“No one knew how to spell my name until Hurricane Katrina came around,” said owner of Kat’s Hidden Treasures, Katrina “Kat” Harrison.

As she leaned over the counter writing her name on a business card, she laughed with a wide grin.

While discussing some of the items on and around the tall walls of the shop, she started her story.

Harrison almost always partook on some sort of craft and was selling them at shows. She also worked at Bassett Walker Sewing Company, where she was among 140 workers.

Unexpectedly, the company closed down in 1991.

“I had two options, go back to school or go to the big corporation of Bassett,” she said.

So she pulled up her boot straps and made her way to the National Business College of Roanoke.

After her husband passed,  she remarried a while later to Ricky Harrison, who had quite a bit of furniture in his name as well.

“He and I both had accumulated quite a bit, and most of it went to my mother’s garage,” she said.

She thought that keeping all that was a waste, so she decided to take her furniture to auction, and whatever she made would go toward a down payment and utilities on a place to start her own business for her passion of arts, crafts ,and thrifting.

She explained that the place she wanted was expensive, but she was determined to start.

The first store she opened happened to be on Rt. 40, between Penhook and Gretna, right on the corner of 751 and 40.

“It was a really old building with 10-foot tall windows on the front with awnings. The building was hot and cold, smaller than what I thought, but it was a place for me to start” Kat said.

She ended up not making a lot at that auction, but she was determined to make it work.

“This gave me eight months to see how things would go,” Harrison said.

The first place was not like Ferrum, she stated. The people there wanted to barter and trade and try to make deals, instead of buying.

“I had a hard start,” she said. “People did not want to stop in and ask what was going on, even though I was right there,” she said.

She said she was blessed to have had that place.

“Some of the people that did come in to see it have followed me here, and it still makes me smile,” Harrison said. “I was there for almost three years doing the thrifting but also consignment,” she said.

Eventually the place she wanted opened up in Grassy Hill, and she wasted no time securing spot and settling in.

She named this spot “Kat’s Thrift and Gift”.

“I was there from early 2004 to 2019, until the land lord passed away,” she said.

All along she had a plan.

“Whatever I made from that week, half would go into a bank account to benefit the company, and the other was spent on buying other things for the shop,” Harrison said.

She explained that while she was doing her passion she had been working for the county in business for 13 years and finally left in 2007 when she believed she was had made enough money.

Wanting to make a change in scenery, she wanted to move to Ferrum. Although she gained two friends and business partners in one.

She started the move in 2019, after the loss of another landlord.

She had been managing two stores, one in the Penhook/Gretna area, and the one in Grassy Hill, but now was going to finally consolidate to just one centralizing to Ferrum, where she is now.

Each of these moves put her into the right spot she wanted to be, Ferrum.

When Covid hit, there were some significant struggles and had Hidden Treasures close for some health issues but soon reopened.

Reopening was  not a page for the books either in sales. 

“Making 17 dollars the next day not only hurts your heart but the business” says Harrison.

Through all this, Harrison wondered if it was worth keeping the store going with all  the repairs that had to be done.

“When I got this place, the roof was not in good condition and needed to be fixed, and that cost a lot of money,” she said.

But nonetheless she is doing great today and the store offers something for daily necessities.

Harrison described her shop as a safe place for all in the community.

“I really see the store as a beacon to people struggling or just need help with something like furniture or other items,” she said.

She hopes that there can be more interaction between both the college and community. While communications between college and community have been made, Harrison wants to see more.

She referred back to a year ago when her building was vandalized the week before he Folklife Festival. Emily-Blankenship Tucker, friends, and theatre students all pitched in and helped put a fresh coat of paint on the outside of the building.

Harrison says that she loves to see the community and the college involved with each other to better the community, and that’s all she wants.

“I love to see everyone enjoying what Ferrum has to offer to each person,” she said.