The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA

Business

A book lover's delight

For expanded Wellington Square Bookshop in Uwchlan, rarer is better

Friday, October 9, 2009

By GRETCHEN METZ, Staff Writer

UWCHLAN — Wellington Square Bookshop may be located in northern Chester County, but its market is much bigger.

"We sell to the world," said shop owner Samuel Hankin. "We've sold to all 50 states many times over and to 50 countries. We know people from all over the world."

The original Wellington Square Bookshop, at 800 square feet, opened in early 2006 and featured an inventory of rare books, some valued at $20,000 or more.

In August, Hankin moved the enterprise two doors down to 543 Wellington Square, a location with 3,700 square feet of space.

"We thought we had years to expand (here) but it is already full and we're building new shelves," Hankin said.

The new store specializes in arcane, eclectic and obscure works, featuring rare, collectible and used books, many from Hankin's personal collection. On

the shelves are such classic writers as H.G. Wells, J.D. Salinger and Ernest Hemingway alongside collections of Italo Calvino and Primo Levi.

It also has a section for contemporary books that Hankin gets through a distributor.

Selling rare books and first editions to such far-flung places Russia, China, Iceland, South America and beyond is the key to competing with the national bookstore chains and online book discounters, Hankin said.

Books at tens of thousands of dollars are not bought locally.

"Lots and lots and lots of people are interested in this kind of book, people where money is no object," Hankin said, sitting in the shop's cozy, private rare book room.

It seems to be working. The 57-year-old Hankin said sales double each month.

Located in Eagleview, the bookshop gets its name from the community's Town Center, Wellington Square.

Sounding so British can throw some folks off, especially customers in England who mistakenly think they are dealing with a local company, said Hankin, who then has to explain he is not calling from Oxford, England.

Hankin is a member of the family that founded and continues to run The Hankin Group, developers of the mixed-use community Eagleview along with a number of other developments in the region. His father, Bernard Hankin, founded the company a half century ago.

Hankin believes the bookstore adds value to the Eagleview community, which has corporate and residential components surrounding a retail center. At Eagleview, the Town Center is home to a doctor, a dentist, a pharmacy, two restaurants and is fast becoming a destination location, he said.

In addition to being a bookstore owner and a partner in The Hankin Group, Hankin is a lawyer with a practice in Florida and Pennsylvania.

The new shop sports a cafe with sweets from Delightful Desserts of West Chester, a children's corner with story times for the little readers, author book signings, open mike night for readings and its own book club for adults, though other book clubs are welcome to meet there as well, Hankin said.

Hankin worked on the store expansion himself, furnishing it with antiques from his personal collection, building his own book shelves and installing the hardwood floor and tin ceiling, common in American stores of the 1890s. The sweat equity meant a considerable savings, bringing the store to completion shy of $50,000.

While the shop has a classic look and feel, its technology is 21st century. Wellington Square has its own Web site and links to its own pages on such social networking sites as FaceBook and Twitter. It also has its own blog to keep the shop's readers informed.

"Our customers really like books," Hankin said.