Active by the early years of the eighteenth century, Tiverton Four Corners is the principal commercial node in the southern part of the town. Until the late 1980s its charm was the relative rural isolation in which its buildings presented themselves. Only an ice cream stand struck a discordant note on one of the corners, and even its discord was sweetened by its fame in the area for the quality and variety of its product. But then the fakery of plywood boxes coated with nostalgia to attract boutiques and professional offices began to leach onto what was there. A nice cluster of country stores, a onetime blacksmith (now a tinsmith) shop, and a small mill are mostly already boutiqued into the nether realm between preservation and sentimentality. Should the conscientious pilgrim be grateful for the new uses with their sprightly prettiness, or deplore their falsity to the crossroads village that once existed here?
At the intersection itself, the two buildings opposite one another on the northwest and northeast corners are architecturally the most interesting.