Last month we reported that Owl & Turtle Bookshop in Camden, Maine, relocated from its home of 34 years to a larger space in the city. Jeff Curtis, co-owner of Sherman's Books & Stationery of Boothbay Harbor and Freeport, thinks the vacated spot still holds promise—he has just begun renovating the harborside location for his third Sherman's. (His mother, Pat Curtis, owns the original Sherman's in Bar Harbor.) Curtis plans to create 1,000 more feet of selling space in the Camden location, for a total of 3,800 square feet, by removing some interior walls and taking out the remaining guest rooms; originally, the store was a combination bed-and-breakfast/bookstore. The bed-and-breakfast area will become a writer's center offering greeting cards, pens and journals.
"We are very excited about the Eight Bay View Street location. It would have been a real loss for Camden if the bookshop had moved and a T-shirt store had moved into it," said Curtis. He has hired Elyse Socker to buy frontlist and manage inventory for all three stores from Camden; he will continue to manage the business from Boothbay.
If a bookstore's spirit can be said to remain where it once was, not only will part of the Owl & Turtle hover above Eight Bay View—so, too, will those of two recently departed stores from the region: Northern Lights Book Shop in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and the Putnam Book Center in Carmel, N.Y. Their fixtures have been purchased for the new Sherman's at Camden, whose opening is slated for May 1.
