M&M Building Supply of Hartfield, Inc., opened recently on General Puller Highway in Hartfield.

A Mathews couple purchased the building that formerly housed Henley Do-It Center for many years and retained all of its employees, including former owners Jay and Joan Henley. Jay Henley, who is now the store manager, said he and his wife, who reside at Wake, began the business in Deltaville, later relocated to a larger facility at Hartfield, and once also had a branch at West Point.

The new owners are Sterling R. Hudgins and his wife, Kathryn A. Tatterson of Port Haywood. They have formed a new corporation to own the Hartfield store. Meanwhile, Hudgins continues to own M&M Building Supply of Port Haywood with his father, Grady V. Hudgins of Susan. Tatterson continues to own Tatterson Greenhouses, Inc., at Port Haywood.

Hudgins said they have extensively added to the product lines carried at the Hartfield store, as well as expanding the garden center there. Some of the flowers and plants grown at Tatterson’s Port Haywood greenhouses are sold at the Hartfield store, along with potting soil, gardening tools, pottery, and many other lawn care items.

Tatterson said the Hartfield store stocks paint, lumber (an expanded line), hardware, electrical supplies, plumbing supplies, cabinets, bathroom fixtures, and many other items. In addition, staff can provide some design services, such as for room additions.

Hudgins said they employ 14 people, full- and part-time, at Hartfield. That total includes three new hires, Hudgins said, as well as continuing to employ the former Henley staff.

Hudgins is originally from Mathews, graduated from Mathews High School, and was a partner with his father as general contractors for more than 20 years when he and his father formed M&M Building Supply together. M&M is named for his two daughters: Madeline, a 2010 Mathews High School graduate and freshman at Rappa-
hannock Community College, and Morgan, a senior at MHS.

Tatterson, also a Mathews native, earned a bachelor’s degree in art at Mary Baldwin College. She joined the family business in 1992 and has owned Tatterson Greenhouses, a complex of more than 30 greenhouses, for seven years. She and Hudgins also have one son, Sterling "Ray" Jr., 3.

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