Overview:

Pat and Diane Pietro, owners of Tintagels Gate and Flowerland in downtown Athol, have sold their businesses to Arlene and Dale Belliveau. The couple cited health issues and a desire to travel as reasons for selling. The new owners plan to combine the businesses under the name Athol Trading Post and expand on the herbal part of the shop, offering tarot card and palm readings, workshops, and potentially live music and a cafe. The store will continue to offer fresh flowers, floral arrangements, and deliveries.

[From left] Dale and Arlene Belliveau with Pat and Diane DiPietro. The DiPietros ran Tintagles Gate and Flowerland for years, and recently sold the businesses to the Belliveaus. CONTRIBUTED

ATHOL – Downtown businesses Tintagels Gate and Flowerland have changed hands and will soon be combined under the new name Athol Trading Post.

Pat and Diane Pietro started Tintagels Gate, a spiritual/metaphysical shop, at 501 Main St. in 2011. In 2019, the couple took over the adjacent business, Flowerland florist, from Herb and Coco Wheeler, and have been running both businesses ever since.

In a social media post last week, Diane DiPietro said, “Pat and I have hit an age and stage in our lives where we are tired!” In addition, she told the Athol Daily News, her husband has been dealing with some health issues and as he nears 65 years, would like some time to relax and enjoy life.

“We’re going to travel,” she said. “We’re going to go back to Portugal. He has some things he wants to do and if you have a full-time job and are ‘running amok,’ you just don’t have the time to. I’ll probably still teach classes and certainly do readings.”

The new owners of Tintagels Gate and Flowerland are Arlene and Dale Belliveau of Athol.

Arlene Belliveau said she was not only an early customer of Tintagels Gate, she went to work in the store in 2012 while still in high school.

“I came in here and found a little bit of a home,” she said. “There wasn’t much for kids my age to do, so this was a little bit of an outlet and I found family in Diane and Pat throughout the years.”

Along with purchasing the businesses, the Belliveaus also bought the Main Street building which houses them. Dale Belliveau said part of what sold him on the idea was the store’s connection to an old friend.

“They were showing us around, and when we walked over to the middle part of the shop, hanging from the ceiling tiles was a sign reading ‘Tyler Lane Place,’” he said. “When I was in high school, Tyler Lane was in my band, he was one of my best friends. I had no idea he had been coming down here and play his guitar….he’d pick up swords and go through the displays.”

Lane died unexpectedly at the age of 15 in 2013.

“Coming here and seeing the sign, I told Arlene, ‘We have to buy this place,’” Dale Belliveau continued. “This is the only place where I really have a remembrance of him. This is kind of like my chance to give him a place.”

“I love the herbal part of the shop, and I want to expand on that,” said Arlene Belliveau, a nurse by profession. “I want to use some of these herbs to go back to the simpler aspects of healing. So, that’s my main focus.”

The store also offers tarot cards and crystals, handmade swords and jewelry, crystals, and a wide array of other items. The Belliveaus intend to continue offering tarot card and palm readings, workshops, and other events.

“We may also eventually add live music,” said Arlene Belliveau, “and we’ve talked about putting in a cafe.”

Flowerland will continue to offer fresh flowers, floral arrangements and deliveries.

The new owners plan a soft opening at Tintagels Gate next Thursday, Jan. 15. A larger event will take place in February or March, after Tintagels Gate and Flowerland are combined under the name Athol Trading Post. Regular hours will be Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.