Haight’s Booksmith adds space, will expand inventory
The Booksmith, the beloved Haight district bookstore, is getting bigger.
The independent bookseller announced that on Nov. 1, it will expand into a nearby space, at 1727 Haight St., that was occupied by Second Act Marketplace, which closed in August. The new shop, totaling 2,400 square feet, will be called the Bindery.
Second Act Marketplace opened in 2014 in the former Red Vic Movie House.
“The new store will enable us to do a couple of things,” said Christin Evans, who owns the Booksmith with her husband, Praveen Madan. “In addition to allowing us to expand our offerings, we’re ultimately going to be able to have a dedicated community events space, which is something that the Haight can always use more of.”
The Bindery will operate this fall, in its owners’ words, as a “winter literary wonderland.” Camden Avery, the Booksmith’s lead buyer, said the store will feature a mix of children’s books, cookbooks, design and gardening books, and literary best-sellers.
“Once we complete the build-out after the year’s end,” he said, “we’ll increase the offerings strategically to round out sections that seem to work well in the space, probably with expanded offerings of culinary and children’s titles.”
The news of the expansion comes three weeks after the Booksmith was named by the city of San Francisco as a legacy business. The Legacy Business Registry & Preservation Fund gives landlords financial incentives to extend the leases of older, designated businesses.
Evans and Madan have owned the Booksmith, opened in 1976, since 2007. They also own Menlo Park’s historic Kepler’s Books, which they’ve rejuvenated as a hybrid business and nonprofit event space.