Chehalis Bookstore Weathers Well

Beverly and David Hartz, husband-and-wife co-owners of Book 'n' Brush in Chehalis, Washington, already have much to be thankful for this year. The store, located in western Washington, narrowly escaped last month's flooding, which wiped out many area homes and businesses. This is the second time that the soon-to-be 40-year-old bookstore was impacted by severe flooding since the couple bought the store; the first came in 2007.

"Fortunately downtown Chehalis doesn't get flooded so we have survived these last two floods," said David Hartz. "But only 200 yards from the downtown the waters do rise into other businesses and impede the roads. The major way it impacts us is by the absence of customers and the lack of deliveries." But, Hartz added, they were moved by the community's dedication to helping others.

The couple, who came to the area from southern California four years ago, will celebrate the bookstore's 40 years of service to Chehalis this June. Part of their strategy for success, said David Hartz, is diversity. The store is a "three-legged stool" that offers books, art supplies, and custom framing.

Plans for the store's 40th anniversary celebration are in the early planning stages, but do include a party tied to the release of the next Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. At the store's July 2007 celebration marking the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, they sold 400 books and held trivia contests for multiple age groups with one grand champion/wizard, a 15-year-old boy. "We're going to try to duplicate that," said Hartz. "We'll ask that young man to come back. And now that final book has been out for a while, we can have a full Harry Potter trivia contest."

The Hartzes moved to the area when Beverly got a position as a chaplain at a hospital in Olympia, and David was working as a fundraising consultant, a job that allowed him to relocate easily. Recently transplanted, they met Ted and Darlene Held, the previous Book 'n' Brush owners, who invited them to see the bookstore, which was for sale. Beverly, a bibliophile, didn't need any deliberation or convincing. After their tour of the bookstore, she told her husband, "Just make it happen." He left his career in fundraising, had a three-month apprenticeship with the Helds ("Probably the smartest thing I did," said Hartz), and embraced the profession completely.

The general bookstore was originally called The Book Rack and was down the block from its current location, a 1904 brick building. When the Hartzes bought the store, they immediately expanded into the neighboring space, doubling their square footage to nearly 5,000. Book 'n' Brush stocks many remainders and sells 40 to 50 percent mostly new and some used books, 20 to 25 percent art supplies, and about 20 to 25 percent custom framing, with the rest devoted to sidelines. "It all ties in really well together," Hartz explained.

The Hartzes have grown their customer base by offering inexpensive art classes that run for about six weeks. "We've got different art classes that we offer on a quarterly basis," said Hartz. "Advanced and intermediate watercolors, likewise with oils. We have a Mommy-and-Me type of oil painting class. And two drawing classes, one for children and one for adults." Classes, which boost art supply sales, are a very reasonable $60 for the series, and all proceeds go to the instructors. Hartz also sees the classes as a community service.

The Hartzes give back to the community in other ways, including contributing all of the profits from sales of 21,000 books donated by a defunct book warehouse to a local literacy foundation.

Becoming booksellers had been a long-range goal for Hartz and his wife. "We wanted to find a job we could do together," he said. "She still is working her day job, but we get to work together at night and on the weekends. It brings the benefits that we always wanted. We never quite knew how to make that goal real, but it happened for us. Now we're looking forward to when she can retire and we can do this together full-time." --Karen Schechner