Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, Mass., which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this coming Saturday, September 21, has added two people to its ownership team. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that Ted Clements and colleague Roz Kreshak-Hayden are buying into the business and will eventually share an equal part with Clements's father, Bill Clements, and fellow owners Nancy Felton and Roxie Mack, who took over the store in 2001 after the death of founder Bruce MacMillan.
"I grew up here, and my dad is one of the other owners. I grew up reading in the kid section over there when I was 5 or 6," said Ted Clements, pointing to a part of the store at 247 Main St. "The ice cream place was next door. This place has been part of my whole life.... Growing up hanging out here every day after school, and I grew a love of reading from that."
Kreshak-Hayden, who has worked at Broadside for four years, called the change "unique for handing down a business," mirroring the process by which the founder had left the store with his employees. She described MacMillan as "the soul of the store" and "a very beloved figure in the community."
"One of our best qualities is a kind of timelessness," she added. "Longtime customers know that there are elements of Broadside that are consistently the same and it is some of those idiosyncrasies that make us such a beloved institution in town. No matter the upheaval in the outside world, we want people to know they can walk into Broadside and find the same cozy, little shop packed to the brim with books and curiosities.... We recently had a customer visit the store who grew up in Northampton and hadn't been back in 20 years. They immediately remarked that the store had the same wonderful 'bookstore smell' she remembered from browsing the store as a little kid. That's the kind of ineffable Broadside magic that stands the test of time."