Stillwater Books opened recently in its new location, at New London Square Plaza, 1745 Main Street, West Warwick, R.I. Co-owners Steven and Dawn Porter had closed their Pawtucket store on July 1 and "immediately began the process of relocating their independent bookstore and publishing headquarters to New London Square," the Kent County Daily Times reported. A grand opening celebration will be announced soon.
The Porters launched their bookstore at its original location in 2018, a few years after starting their publishing house, but Stillwater "has its genesis in the couple's early years, bonding over a shared love of books and publishing," the County Times wrote, noting that they "met in the mid-1980s while attending the University of Rhode Island. She was the editor of the university's yearbook; he, the editor of its literary magazine. The two soon began to collaborate on the publications, helping each other out with things like layout and design.... Now married and living in Gloucester, the two have been producing books and magazines together ever since."
"We're excited to be here and we're excited about the response we're getting," Dawn Porter said.
"We just love books," Steven Porter added.
Their decision to relocate Stillwater Books was prompted by the changing atmosphere of its original location. The Daily Times noted that when "a major bus hub that had been located just outside its doors moved, Stillwater lost most of its foot traffic. Nearby shops began to shutter."
"We had to decide, do we shut it down and liquidate," he said, "or do we move to a new location?"
Prior to settling in Pawtucket, the Porters had considered the Pawtuxet Valley as a possible location for their business, in part because the area had so few independent bookstores. "We had looked at a couple of different locations in Coventry, but it just didn't pan out," said Steven Porter, who grew up nearby. "They just weren't right."
This time, however, they found the approximately 3,200-square-foot New London Square Plaza unit. "The space was absolutely perfect," said Dawn Porter. "Bigger store, better layout, bigger office for us, bigger office for the designers." The unit also boasts a large warehouse for storing rare and antiquarian books.
Since opening "the response has been overwhelming," Steven Porter noted, "and so, so positive."