Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1506595
Bookstores have always possessed such wonderful personalities — jumbled, cozy, charming. Hugh Grant's bookstore in Notting Hill and Meg Ryan's shop in You've Got Mail are cinematic avatars, embodiments of the snug and cheerful neighborhood bookshop. Now along comes Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, a smashing new addition to Boston's historic neighborhood and the first new bookshop there in decades. It's the divine creation of transplanted Dallas arts patron Melissa Fetter, with interiors by Dallas designer Cathy Kincaid. By Rebecca Sherman. Photography Sarah Winchester. The Neighborhood Bookshop Rewritten L ast September, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe opened inside an 1845 Greek Revival townhouse in Boston that had undergone several years of meticulous renovations. The first new bookstore to open in the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood in almost 30 years, it's owned by former Dallasite Melissa Fetter, a prominent civic volunteer and arts patron who moved to Boston in 2019 with husband Trevor, a faculty member of the Harvard Business School, his alma mater. Melissa is an avid reader, and the idea to open a bookstore was born from necessity. They'd already purchased a 200-year-old townhouse in Beacon Hill — arguably the most desirable area of Boston — only to discover the neighborhood lacked a place to buy books. "I was surprised to find that all of the bookstores on Beacon Hill had closed decades earlier," Fetter says. "It seemed to be a glaring omission from the otherwise charming and complete offerings of Beacon Hill. I had an image in my mind of the perfect bookstore, and so I set out to bring it to life." Originally built as the home and workshop for preeminent 19th-century globe maker Gilman Joslin (a pair of his old globes are on display), the five-story bookstore feels a bit like stepping into the living room of a vibrant and well-read Bostonian. Fetter teamed on the interiors with Dallas designer Cathy Kincaid, who had designed several of Fetter's previous homes, including a 1930s house in Highland Park and a former ship captain's house in Old Lyme, Connecticut. She's currently redoing the Fetters' Boston A reading nook in Beacon Hill Books Paige, a fictional squirrel that lives inside the bookstore