For Tattered Cover, Tatnuck, and Oscar Wilde,Times Are A-Changing

Three well-known independent bookstores recently made the news: two with the announcement of a change in ownership and one with a relocation. Tattered Cover Book Store will be closing its Cherry Creek location and opening a new location on the main east-west corridor in Denver; Lambda Rising Bookstores has announced the sale of New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop to the store's long-time manager, Kim Brinster; and Tatnuck Booksellers, which last month closed a store in Worcester, Massachusetts, sold its remaining 31,000-square-foot Westborough store to local businessperson Eugene S. Colangelo.

Tattered Cover Book Store

Tattered Cover is tentatively scheduled to close its Cherry Creek location on June 25 and open in a new location, the historic Lowenstein Theater, on the following day. The new store location is about one mile away from Cherry Creek, on the main east-west corridor in Denver, at Colfax Avenue and Elizabeth Street.

"We believe the majority of our customers will make the switch," said Tattered Cover Marketing Director Heather Duncan. "And we're excited about the prospect of new customers. I think it will be a unique bookstore. There won't be anything like it."

In a press release, owner Joyce Meskis said, "The Tattered Cover will be creating a unique store in this wonderful project. The site is quite accessible and visible, with interesting architecture that will convert well to bookstore use while honoring the historic venue, which is very important to the community. While the Tattered Cover has cherished our remarkable 34 years in the Cherry Creek area, recent years have seen a significant decline in business accompanied by increased costs, necessitating our difficult decision to move the store when the lease expires."

The new bookstore will fill approximately 23,000 feet of the Lowenstein Theater on two floors and will have a cafe. The independently owned Twist & Shout music store, which has worked with the Tattered Cover on many events, will also be a tenant in the Lowenstein Redevelopment Project. Tattered Cover is in the process of looking for a small location in Cherry Creek to open a "satellite" store.

Oscar Wilde Bookshop

On January 31, Lambda Rising Bookstores announced the sale of New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop to Kim Brinster, the store's long-time manager. Brinster took possession of the bookstore on February 1.

"It's a thrill," Brinster told BTW. "I worked really hard to bring the store to where it is today, and I'm happy to know it's mine. It's played an historic role [in gay and lesbian history], and it's so special to so many people."

"This is an exciting time for New York's favorite and oldest gay bookstore," said Deacon Maccubbin, Lambda Rising's owner, in a statement. "Three years ago, Oscar Wilde was in imminent danger of closing forever when, at literally the last hour, Lambda Rising stepped in to rescue the historic bookstore. In the time since, Lambda Rising, working closely with Kim Brinster and the New York store's staff, has brought the store back from the brink and restored financially sound operations."

Oscar Wilde Bookshop has been in continuous operation in Greenwich Village since 1967. Maccubbin operates Lambda Rising Bookstores in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; and Norfolk, Virginia, as well as on the web at www.lambdarising.com.

Tatnuck Booksellers

Less than a month after Tatnuck Booksellers sold its 30-year-old Worcester store, owner Larry Abramoff sold the Westborough store to local businessperson Eugene S. Colangelo, as reported in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Colangelo plans to continue to operate the bookstore under the Tatnuck name, will retain all employees, and has hired Abramoff as a consultant.

Colangelo told the Telegram that the transition has been "seamless." He added that Tatnuck would be a "cultural center that will provide a venue for a wide variety of literary and cultural events."

The 31,000-square-foot Westborough location was opened in November 2004 in a renovated supermarket and stocks 150,000 titles. It had been leased from Colangelo. Abramoff was unavailable for comment.