A new downtown bookstore on Cookeville’s Spring Street hopes to serve a community and literary hub.
Plenty On Spring Co-Owner Lisa Uhrik said that her company Franklin Fixtures makes bookshelves for bookstores across the country. She said that local bookstores have been flourishing recently despite the pandemic, and they wanted to bring something to the heart of downtown Cookeville, her hometown.
“We have Meg’s Bread and Ralph’s Donuts, and Harper’s and the laundromat happening, and Vertical, and all this stuff that Ron Baker is putting together for a Spring Street Art District type thing,” Uhrik said. “And it just felt like the moment is ripe, and that we’re ready.”
Store Manager Ashley Michaels said that they’ll have a mixture of new and old releases for all ages. She said the store is also planning for a children’s reading nook. Not only will Plenty On Spring act as a downtown bookstore, but it will also serve as a venue and gathering space. Uhrik said that there are plans to have theatre performances, weekly music events, and children’s events.
Uhrik said that there is something about a local bookstore that can add a great deal of value and a sense of community to an area like ours. She used the story of “You’ve Got Mail,” the classic movie starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (for which Franklin Fixtures constructed the bookshelves) as an example, where the local store was bought out by the big book store chain. She said that the real store the movie was based on has actually expanded 11 times in the past 20 years, exhibiting the need and the want for a local store.
“The walkable path, the local bookstore where I can know about you and I can curate a gift for you,” Uhrik said. “We can pull stuff together and we know you by name. So when I shop for my grandchildren I call my family kind of bookstores from around the country and they know who I’m talking about and they pull things together that are uniquely them. So it is completely different, and the movie kind of illustrates some fo the difference, but the real story is that those little bookstores are on fire across the country and ours will be here.”
Michaels said that the store is hoping for a Labor Day Weekend opening. In the meantime, the store has online shopping already set up for orders.
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