Elliott Bay Books to retain old charm in new location

 Peter Aaron stands next to a Jacques Cousteau biography with his hands sheepishly in his pockets. His salt-and-pepper hair reveals the time he has invested in the building around him.

“I’ve been here for the last 11 years,” Aaron said, looking at the customers quietly shuffling about the creaky wooden floor as they perused Elliott Bay Book Company’s massive selection of books. “When you leave anything you’ve spent a great deal of time with there’s some sadness, but I’m overwhelmingly excited about the future.”

That future will be extremely close to Seattle University, as Aaron’s independent bookstore and well-known Seattle staple, Elliott Bay Book Company, will be moving from its current Pioneer Square location to a new building on 10th Avenue and Pine Street next to the Oddfellows Building sometime in mid-March.

Elliott Bay Book Company, known for its extremely popular author readings and its charming atmosphere, has struggled with stalled business the past two years. One of the chief factors is its difficult-to-reach location in Pioneer Square.

“I wish I went there more,” said Sean McDowell, English professor. “But it’s just so hard to find parking.”

Due to an out of the way location coupled with a poor economy, Elliott Bay found its sales falling and the business floundering.

“For the bookstore to continue to have a future, we needed to find a viable location where we would be able to attract more business,” Aaron said.

The solution was a vintage building from 1918, which originally served as a Ford truck service center. Quelling the fears of many, the new location retains much of the charm of the old.

“It’s very recognizably Elliott Bay,” Aaron said of the roughly 15,000 square-foot building, about 1,000 square feet larger than the current location.

The building has Elliott Bay’s trademark wooden floors, vaulted wood ceilings and cozy feel. In addition, it adds some new charms of its own.

“We have these five beautiful new skylights, and we are completely redoing the windows,” Aaron said.

The new windows will be latticed and will line most of the store’s front. A large lower-level parking garage will accommodate visitors, removing the parking anxiety associated with the Pioneer Square location. The in-store café will move to the new location as well, along with a downstairs room dedicated to author readings.

On campus, students are excited about the move.

“It’s going to be so awesome,” said Emma Nauman, freshman pre-major. “I love that place. I’m going to be over there all the time now that it’s so close to us.”

Martha Naubert, freshman nursing major, had strong feelings about the move.

“It’s kind of sad they’re moving,” she said. “They were the only thing holding Pioneer Square together. But I think they are going to do really well over on Capitol Hill.”
Professors are excited as well.

“I arrange freshman activities, and the possibility for co-curricular events between the school and Elliott Bay is really exciting,” McDowell said. “We can enrich students’ learning that way. I’d love to go there myself.”

Peter Aaron is banking on that kind of enthusiasm, expecting sales to increase significantly.

Local bookstore owners around Capitol Hill welcome the move, seeing it as beneficial to their businesses rather than competition. “I think book rows are a great idea,” said Dan Glover, co-owner of Horizon Books on 10th Avenue, “They have them in Paris and New York and they’ve worked really well.”

Bookstore owners on Capitol Hill feel their shops all offer something unique to visitors and that more book traffic will provide only benefits.

“Everyone should be able to thrive and survive,” Aaron said. “We only sell new books whereas most bookstores on the Hill like Twice Sold Tales sell only used. We offer different things.”

Though Aaron is ready to move, he said he dreads one impending challenge.

“When we finally move, we are going to have to disassemble all of these bookshelves,” he said, while gesturing at the giant wooden shelves that line almost every inch of the current store. “Then we have to haul them all the way up the hill and reassemble them.”

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