Jack McCown grew up in the design world in Mobile, and the family tree reads like a map of the region’s building and design trade. His grandfather, Tommy McCown, was a well-known builder in Mobile and on the Eastern Shore, famous for creative, architecturally inspired homes. His father, Vance McCown, is a commercial and residential contractor. His brother, Robert McCown, is a local architect who designs custom-built homes across the region. To say Jack comes by it naturally is an understatement.
Today Jack is the owner of Atchison Home, one of the best-known antique, design and home furnishing showrooms on the Gulf Coast, with locations in downtown Mobile and on Fairhope Avenue. His path there ran through a family of builders, an antiques apprenticeship and a moment when a lawyer wandered in looking for office furniture.
Learning the Trade in Antiques
At the outset of his career, Jack sold antiques for Peter Farguson, who owns three antiques stores in Fairhope: Crown and Colony, Aubergine, and RF Architectural & Garden Antiques. “Peter is a hard worker and was like a father figure to me. I learned a lot about the business from him. We just hit it off,” Jack recalls.
Those years gave him an education in sourcing, connoisseurship and customer relationships that few retail paths can match. Antiques require an eye trained by handling thousands of pieces, and the Fairhope antiques scene — one of the richest of any small town in America — was the right classroom.
A Seamless Succession
The pivot to Atchison Home began with Jack’s husband, Andy Freeman, an attorney, who stopped by Atchison Home in Mobile to shop for office furniture and asked Tony Atchison whether he would be interested in selling the business. Tony and his wife Sylvia had opened Atchison Home in the early 1980s and built it into one of the best-known antique, design and home furnishing showrooms in the region. Jack’s brother Robert was already working in the same building, and Tony had begun thinking about succession.
“It just worked out,” said Jack. “We were honored that Tony and Sylvia would consider the transition. It couldn’t have been more seamless.” That was five years before the store’s Fairhope expansion. Farguson was excited for Jack, and there is very little overlap between the two businesses. Atchison Home still carries antiques — “it is part of our aesthetic,” Jack says — but antiques are no longer the major focus.
The company sources widely, including buying trips to Italy that Jack describes as fun but exhausting. Most of what Atchison Home sells is handcrafted furniture meant to be a forever piece rather than a trend. “We try not to be trendy. We want things to last a lifetime,” Jack says.
Opening on the Eastern Shore
Half or more of Atchison Home’s client base lives on the Eastern Shore, so a Fairhope location was a natural next step. After a search that took several years, the company opened its second showroom at 561 Fairhope Avenue in the Portico building, bringing the brand’s destination shopping experience to Baldwin County.
“We were attracted to the building. It’s thoughtfully put together and convenient. We wanted a place that would inspire people,” Jack says. “Clients want their home to reflect the style and taste that Atchison Home represents.” Both stores are designed as destinations, with convenient parking and room to browse, because the team anticipates people arriving with a purpose: time to look around and consult with a designer.
That consultative model is the heart of the business. Atchison Home tries to educate the customer about what look they want, offering a customized consultation experience to make sure a design works properly and lasts a long time. Designers work the floor every day, so there is always someone available to offer professional advice, and the team collaborates on projects, tossing ideas around for clients. “Our design team is as strong as it’s ever been,” Jack says.
Old Pieces, New Charm
On antiques, Jack’s philosophy is simple: look for one-of-a-kind pieces. “Old pieces help keep a certain charm. If everything is brand new, then it just seems a little off.” The store’s blend of old and new — European antiques alongside handcrafted American upholstery and case goods — has become its signature, and reviews from generations of customers consistently single out quality as the reason to make the drive.
On color and taste, Jack has watched the market shift. People still like the good, clean look of white, but clients are beginning to embrace color more. Outdoor furnishing has become an important category too, though it comes with warnings. “Outdoor furniture can be tricky. It’s hard to mix with indoor furnishing,” he says, describing it as part of the holistic design process of making everything work together.
Supply Chains and Remodels
The pandemic era reshaped the business in ways both difficult and useful. Demand surged as people built and renovated houses, and design work remained strong even when retail slowed. Atchison Home does a lot of bath and kitchen remodeling alongside furnishing projects. Supply chains, which stretched furniture deliveries to 30 or 40 weeks at the worst point, have eased back to 10 to 15 weeks — a reminder of how the home industry’s long lead times actually helped furnishings retailers keep up when construction schedules ran long.
Jack’s best projects, he says, begin on the front end, working with architects and builders early to create a seamless flow for the entire property according to the client’s taste. That early involvement lets selections, deliveries and installations land exactly when a home is ready for them.
What’s Next for Both Stores
The Mobile store has been renovated, including an all-new design center, and now resides within the ground floor space of its historic brick building on Dauphin Street. The Fairhope location opened with its own open house calendar, and the company encourages customers to join its mailing list for upcoming events.
“People still like to come to touch and feel the furniture,” Jack says, noting that fabric options allow customers to upgrade existing pieces rather than replace them. In an age of online shopping and fast furniture, the willingness of clients to drive to a showroom, walk the floors and sit down with a designer is a quiet vote of confidence in destination retail.
Tony and Sylvia Atchison set the standard for home furnishings and style on the Gulf Coast, and in Jack McCown — raised by builders, trained by antiques dealers, and surrounded by a team he calls family — the standard is in steady hands. Both locations remain open six days a week, ready to help with everything from a single accent piece to a whole-house design plan built to last a lifetime.
The Buildings Behind the Name: Tony Atchison’s Renovation Legacy
The story of Atchison Home cannot be separated from the story of Tony Atchison himself, whose mark on downtown Mobile’s historic buildings runs well beyond the showroom floor. Many years ago, he renovated an old four-story warehouse off Dauphin Street into a stunning antique gallery and residence, and it was that building — with the business downstairs — that set the tone for everything the family has touched since. After selling the business but retaining the property, Tony and his son Taylor converted the top three floors into Atchison Lofts, while the entire first floor remains home to the Atchison Home store today.
Tony has worked closely with the City of Mobile to save and renovate several other historic properties. The Smith’s Bakery building downtown, now home to Red or White, is one of them. Down the street on Dauphin, Tony and Taylor purchased, renovated, and leased the old Red Cross Building at Dauphin and Broad Streets — where Bay Gourmet and Crown Hall operated before their recent moves — and the family also converted another Dauphin Street property where Chuck’s Fish is located.
More recently, the pair transformed the old Crystal Ice House into the Ice Box Bar, where the Velvet Pig eatery now operates. Taylor, meanwhile, has carried the renovation instinct into residential work of his own, converting properties across Mobile’s historic districts into single-family homes, lofts, and upscale residences — including the Old Shell Road School Lofts, the Marine Street Lofts, and the Broad Street Lofts. It is a family trait passed cleanly from one generation to the next: find a building with good bones, imagine what it can be, and do the patient work of bringing it back.