Boxcar Books makes a move

Boxcar Books is unloading its shelves, packing up its books and moving to a new location closer to IU and the downtown area.

The store is currently located at 310 S. Washington St.,and will be moving to 408 E. 6th St., the space previously held by the Cereal Barn and Peanut Butter Cafe.

The move was not planned by Boxcar Books. Boxcar volunteer Abbey Friedman said the owner of Boxcar’s current home, R.J. Phelps, sold the building to Bloomington Transit.  Friedman said Bloomington Transit plans to level the building to build a new bus station.

Although the move was mandatory, Boxcar and its staff are not concerned.

“It’s not that we weren’t ready to move, we’ve always been looking to move closer to downtown and the University,” said Steven Stothard, Boxcar volunteer. “In a way it’s a blessing in disguise.”

Boxcar Books is the only non-profit, all volunteer bookstore in Bloomington.  Stothard said Boxcar has many local and independent books that can’t be found at corporate-owned bookstores. The store has become something of a destination for traveling authors, poets, musicians and artists. At least one art show is hosted at Boxcar every month. Boxcar offers free meeting space for community members.

The store has been in Bloomington for more than six years. There are 15 volunteer shift workers, and more than 30 volunteers all together. These workers consider Boxcar to be a treasure in the Bloomington arts scene.

“(Boxcar Books) is a great place to work. It is very community oriented, and serves a niche in the community to help get a hold of alternative media.” said volunteer Christie Borders.

Stothard said the store is especially important due to its support of the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project. Stothard said the project has been in operation for more than 14 years, working with Boxcar since the store opened in 2002. Pages to Prisoners receives requests for books from inmates across America, and then sends the book to them at no charge. 

Boxcar is looking to the community for help in their upcoming move.  All books need moved, and the new store needs to be painted. Boxcar also needs help installing shelving at the new location, as well as organizing the books back onto the shelves. The store plans to reopen at the beginning of August, with a grand-reopening ceremony being tentatively projected for Aug. 22.

Although no work dates are in place yet, due to pending internal construction on the new building, Boxcar plans to do the move over the next month.

Anyone interested in volunteering or donating money should contact Boxcar Books by e-mail at boxcar@boxcarbooks.org. Any contributions of $10 or more will automatically earn you a “Friends of the Boxcar” membership, giving you a discount of 10 percent off anything in the store for life.