Melissa Fetter is pressing on with her plan to open Beacon Hill Books at 71 Charles St. in Boston despite significant challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis, Beacon Hill Times reported.
"I'm still moving forward, even though this is a crazy moment to be embarking on a new enterprise," she said. "My instinct is it's going to work, and I'm counting on the support of the community to make it happen."
Fetter plans to renovate the first three floors of the 3,000-square-foot, four-story building into a retail space "with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, with the third floor devoted exclusively to children's books," Beacon Hill Times wrote, adding that the former Hungry I space will also be converted into a garden-level café.
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| Future home of Beacon Hill Books | |
Her original goal was to be open this fall, having purchased the building last September and finalized plans for the new business in December. She knew renovating a building dating back to the 1850s would be challenging, and she could not have anticipated the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Since then, we've been making our way through the various bureaucratic levels of approval," she said. "In the interim while we're waiting for all the approvals, we're making emergency repairs to the building, including restoring an about-to-collapse chimney. Bricks on the front and back facades became separated from the building, so about 75% of them had to be removed and reattached.... We're putting in the elevator at great expense to make it a fully accessible building to all. All this is the preamble to building the bookshelves, building out the café and starting the bookstore. If I had to guess, we're probably a year out from the store opening."
Despite the setbacks she has encountered and still faces, such as how social distancing will ultimately factor into her business plan, Fetter remains committed to the idea of the bookstore becoming a gathering space and a community resource for the neighborhood.
"Bookstores are more important than ever given [the current health crisis and social turmoil]," she said. "Bookstores and books are places to understand different points of view, and to escape when we need to find some solace."