Last Friday, Mary Barone and Ada Fitzgerald became the new owners of Main Street Books, Davidson, N.C., which had been put on the market by Barbara Freund and Betty Reinke earlier this winter.
Fitzgerald told Davidson News that when she saw a notice that the business was for sale, "I sent it to my mother. My mother and stepfather and I have always imagined that we would like to collaborate on a small town business of some kind... and definitely one with an element of community building. We hadn't ever really gotten beyond talking about it. We imagined it would be something we started ourselves. Then this just popped up."
In a statement, Fitzgerald and new assistant manager Catherine Hamilton-Genson said they "are delighted to be able to continue to shape the future of Main Street Books, a time-honored institution committed to perpetuating a culture of independent, local, and thoughtfully curated literature."
Fitzgerald also cited a Paz & Associates introductory workshop she attended at the ABA Winter Institute for being "incredibly helpful to us as we prepare to take ownership of a bookstore. It was a veritable bookstore boot camp, preparing us for the realities of retail while fueling our inspiration to become a part of this passionate, creative community of booksellers, writers, publishers, and readers. We feel much better equipped to take on ownership of this bookstore that has longstanding ties to the community."
