The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our September issue.
Sarah Rae shops at Fountain Bookstore. (Photo by Jay Paul)
In the age of Amazon and big-box retailers, countless independent booksellers have been forced to close. Fountain Bookstore, however, at 1312 E. Cary St. in Shockoe Slip, has weathered the ups and downs inherent in the business for 40 years.
Fountain has seen the rise of audiobooks as well as the rise and subsequent decline of e-books. It witnessed the explosion of young adult literature and the Harry Potter phenomenon. Over the years, its owners have managed to adapt and keep up with the mercurial economic climate and book culture in general, while maintaining the shop’s neighborhood-bookstore atmosphere.
The business itself began as a seller of technical manuals and professional books in 1978. This was before the age of the internet and government offices and businesses were in need of these types of books. Founded by Joyce Clay Handy along with business partners Randy Welch and his mother, Emma Welch, the shop was originally located in an old bank building on 12th Street, not far from the shop’s current location. “I just thought it would be fun to have a bookstore,” says Handy, who, prior to owning the business, spent 11 years as a Henrico County Public Schools librarian.
After about three years, S. Douglas Fleet, who at the time owned the bookstore’s current building, approached Handy and the Welches about relocating to that space. “It wouldn’t have worked anywhere but Shockoe Slip,” Randy Welch says of relocating the business to that district. “People that worked in the area could browse, and other businesses who were small independents did pretty well in Shockoe Slip … small, independent shops made that area [what it is today].” Welch himself built the shelving still found inside the shop today.
Fountain Bookstore in Shockoe Slip (Photo by Jay Paul)
Handy and the Welches found success in the business. They were a popular destination, especially when it came to acquiring special orders and imports, a process that, pre-internet, few patrons could manage themselves.
It wasn’t until Handy realized she would need to invest in technology to remain competitive that the owners decided to sell. Ironic, as Fountain was a source for computer manuals. “We were selling computer manuals before people really had computers,” says Randy Welch. “It was a self-teaching thing back then. You’d get whatever information you could get, however you could get it.” By the mid-’80s, microfiche technology and early computers were beginning to become necessary tools, and instead of making that investment herself, Handy sold the business to Louise “Boo” Smythe and her husband, Jim, in 1985.
The Smythes had been living in South Carolina and were looking to relocate to Richmond. They, too, were acquainted with S. Douglas Fleet, who at the time still owned the building that housed Fountain and encouraged the Smythes to purchase the business. The Smythes’ daughter had a background in computer science, so they felt comfortable they could take the business into its next chapter. “That was the investment that was made, and essentially the beauty of that was that books could then be organized by section, by topic, like gardening or history or sci fi,” says Jim Smythe. “There were really just two products: information and entertainment. And the information was we essentially existed as a surrogate library for a lot of corporations around town … and entertainment, of course, was reading books.”
But once the internet began taking over, their once profitable corporation and state agency sales dwindled. “Banks left Richmond, and the training development departments and corporations could buy books directly or from Amazon or elsewhere,” Jim Smythe says.
When the Smythes found that they wanted to take a step back from the day-to-day operations of the business, they brought in Kelly Justice to manage in 2000. Justice then bought the store on Jan. 4, 2008, when the Smythes officially retired from the bookselling industry and passed her the torch.
Fountain Bookstore owner Kelly Justice (Photo by Jay Paul)
Working at Fountain is a passion for Justice. She views herself as a temporary keeper of a gem that belongs to the city. “When a business has been around this long, when you’re in my position, it’s more of a lighthouse keeper kind of thing. You’re the one who carries the torch and makes sure that the bills get paid, hopefully on time,” she says.
She assumed ownership just before the start of the Great Recession in 2008, and the first year was rocky. “I cried every day for the first three months,” she recalls.
Justice says she and other local small-business owners kept each other afloat that year. “We swear that it was just us passing the same $20 around. Like I would take my $20 and go to the wine shop and then [the wine shop owner] would take her $20 and bring it back to me and buy a book, and we just did that, for a year and a half, that’s what we did.”
That same year, Justin French, a real estate developer who made headlines when he was sentenced to federal prison after committing tax credit fraud, owned the building at the time and kept his office above the bookstore. And while his business dealings didn’t affect Fountain directly, his ownership of the building did. “We didn’t know if we’d have a place to live when that whole thing happened,” Justice says. “We didn’t know what the situation [was with the bank] or if the new landlords would want to keep us, so we just quietly paid our rent on time wherever they said it needed to go. We were here during the whole FBI raid … we were like, ‘We’re just selling books here, and that’s the landlord’s place [upstairs].’ ” Luckily, Fountain was never forced to close during the ordeal and was allowed to remain in their space.
Justice has made some major changes to the business over the years, embracing more online sales, adding book clubs for specific interests, implementing an audiobook service and expanding events at the store. Multiple bestselling authors, from Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe to actress Amber Tamblyn, have been in the store discussing and signing their works. “If you’re going to have an event … it should be worth leaving your couch and your Netflix for,” Justice says. “Readings are boring, and [people] can read the book at home. You want added value, something exciting.”
Over 40 years, generations of readers have continued to visit the store searching for that next great read, which the staff is happy to accommodate. When Justice took over the business, she had what she refers to as four “very part-time” employees, but today she employs seven, including the first full-time employee at the store. She credits their dedication to keeping the doors open. “We call it the Fountain family, and you can see the extended Fountain family — all the people who come through here and everybody who comes to an event, you’re now part of the Fountain family, like it or not,” Justice says.
