An opening ceremony was held last Friday for Huxley and Hiro Booksellers at 419 North Market St., Wilmington, Del. "Thank you all for coming to see us and sharing your pictures, we are humbled by the love Wilmington has shown us," the bookstore's founders, Claire van den Broek and Ryan Eanes, posted on Facebook. Among the speakers was Mayor Mike Purzycki.
Downtown Wilmington has been without a bookseller since the 2018 closing of the Ninth Street Book Shop. Delaware Business Now reported that the new bookshop's owners "conceded that their store won't be able to fill the void left by Ninth Street completely but hope to add to the growing number of attractions in downtown."
On the bookstore's website, the founders noted that not only was Ninth Street Book Shop "a much-beloved local institution, but its loss came at just as the Market Street corridor was beginning to enter a period of cultural renaissance, rapid growth, and dramatic revitalization. We miss Jack and Gemma Buckley's beloved shop, and could never replace it fully, but we do hope to help fill the gap that its closure left behind.
"That's one of the major reasons why we began developing a plan for Huxley & Hiro in late 2019. We had hoped to open the store by 2020, but COVID-19 came along, and our timeline was delayed--but not deterred!"