Enter the realm of Songbird Boutique, the eccentric gift shop on Fourth Street

Orange and lilac paper lanterns and multi-colored butterflies welcome those traveling on Fourth Street into the quirky world of Songbird Boutique.

Inside, seafoam green walls encase rows of colorful and eclectic gifts whose curation was imagined by the creative mind of owner Jennifer Hill.

The sound of horror punk band The Misfits and indie band TV On The Radio plays casually in the background as patrons come in and out.  

“This store is like the inside of your brain,” Hill recalls her friend telling her of the collection of gifts—which ranges from classic monster memorabilia to bright pink floral weekender bags.

Hill prides herself in selecting items for her store that have a function, whether that’s leopard socks (from sock company Woven Pair) or key rings shaped like a cat.

For the pop-culture devout, there’s a corner where devotional candles of Dolly Parton, Kurt Cobain and Prince sit on a glass shelf. A 500-piece Golden Girls puzzle can be found nearby.

Travel deeper into the store and there’s an “f-bomb” station—one of the shop’s most popular corners—that ranges from delicate plates with expletives to thoughtfully naughty greeting cards.

Every gift was carefully chosen from local and national vendors by Hill and fit into a theme. The entire store is compartmentalized into themes.

“When you have a mind like mine where things have to have a certain space, it just made sense to make sections,” Hill said, naming Japanese pop-culture store Sanrio as inspiration.

Hill wanted to recreate the “overwhelming sense of happiness” she felt when she walked into a Sanrio store as a child and was greeted by the organized burst of color. 

Although the contents of the store are often humorous, Hill’s journey to being a store owner has been anything but.

When Hill opened Songbird in 2010, she was well into a new chapter that started when she relocated back to Long Beach from Oakland a few years after a divorce.

“I thought, ‘This is probably going to be the only time I get a chance to maybe open a business,’” Hill said of the time.

Inspired by her mother, who was also a business owner, Hill started doing car shows and music events primarily in the rockabilly scene until a space became available for her first store.

The store was Sneaky Tiki, a small boutique she ran with her now-husband, that first opened inside Third Eye Records (it has since moved) specializing in vintage apparel and small gifts. 

About five years later Hill opened Songbird.

Mounting life responsibilities and her mother’s cancer diagnosis led Hill to take a step back from her first boutique a few years after opening, letting her husband run the store full-time.

For Hill, owning Songbird was the ultimate dream she had finally reached after hitting the reset button a few times. When the pandemic hit, she did it all to hold on.

“There was too much on the line,” Hill said of the uncertainty of 2020. “I wasn’t going to lose my business, I wasn’t going to lose my house when I had kids to feed, I had to figure something out.”

• 

• 

Hill used the large windows of Songbird as the ultimate display, pricing items for sale and visibly placing her phone number. Patrons texted her what they wanted and she hand-delivered. 

For a few days, Hill put a gate across her front door where patrons could walk up and tell her what they wanted. She would bring the items out using a bucket and string.

Simplifying the process, Songbird launched a web store in 2020.

“We were getting orders online, a lot of local pickups and local deliveries,” Hill said. “I felt so supported by my community. People did not want to see me go.”

Songbird Boutique is located at 2240 E 4th Street. Store hours can be found on their website. To keep up with Songbird, follow them on Instagram @songbird_boutique