Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts bookstore is up for sale
Owners say it’s time to retire from the well-loved independent business
Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, a beloved Berkeley independent bookstore known for its eclectic array of books and gardening gifts, is for sale.
Owners Anne Leyhe and Marion Abbott, both in their late 60s, announced their retirement and the sale of their longtime store at 2904 College Ave. in a letter emailed to customers and on their website Thursday morning.
“It’s just time to retire. We’re looking forward to some new owners who will keep the store going, and who will have lots of new energy,” Leyhe said in a phone interview. “We’re hoping that those people are out there, and we think that they are.”
Leyhe and Aboott opened Dalloway’s in 2004 and, before COVID-19, staged hundreds of events annually. The store features a hybrid of garden tools, starter plants and seeds, and an extensive collection of local artists’ wares — cards, pottery and more — as well as many books, including unusual titles, not simply current bestsellers.
The two met in 1975 at a publishing procedures course in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Reunited by mutual friends in Berkeley in 1984, they found they had similar interests in books, publishing, children and homes in the neighborhood.
Twenty years later, the friends launched a successful independent bookstore in the Elmwood District neighborhood.
Both book and garden lovers, they named the store after one of their favorite fictional books, Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” whose opening line is, “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” It’s fitting line for the independent female businesswomen who would take a risk opening a bookstore in the age of the internet.
Five years later, the indie bookstore owners took another leap of faith, expanding their digs when their neighbor, a pharmacy and soda fountain, shut down. That allowed the store to expand the size and scope of its collections, they said.
Despite the popularity of eReaders, Leyhe said the store still enjoys a devoted customer base and, despite COVID-19 restrictions, is doing well. It recently reopened to limited in-person customers, but earlier in the pandemic kept doing business with online and curbside orders.
“You know people want a physical book. They want to go and browse; they love to talk books,” Leyhe said. “And Berkeley is a very welcoming place to do something like a bookstore. We have a lot of very interested and dedicated readers here. You know bookstores are important to us.”
Inviting spaces to leisurely browse books like Mrs. Dalloway’s is important to their customers as well, many of whom lit up social media Thursday with words of
gratitude, calling the bookstore “a remarkable refuge for book lovers,” “wellstocked” and “a solid foundation” for potential new owners.
Leyhe and Abott have also forged strong alliances with local schools, community groups, nonprofits and UC Berkeley, co-hosting events at their store.
“We have done a great business with children’s books,” Leyhe said. “Our
connection with the local public schools has been very strong. That’s been an area of growth for us.”
The 3,000-square-foot store has hosted a variety of events, including author readings and signings, and book exchanges. It also has been a source of literary curriculum for schools, Leyhe said.
“Teachers come in and get lists of books from our children’s book buyers,” she said. “So there’s lots of exchanging going back and forth.”
But after 17 years of nurturing the store, which was open six days a week, the
owners are ready for new adventures, though they aren’t quite sure what those will be yet.
For now, they will wait and hope that someone with a great love for books who respects what they have built will step in and continue the valuable relationships in his own way.
“We’re looking for the right buyer,” Leyhe said. “We want all of our staff to stay. We have a great staff.”
More information on Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts is available at mrsdalloways.com or 510-7048222.