Cool Old Barn Gets Cool New Life
Hidden Barn Books Transforms a Downtown Barn into a Community Hub Where Story Embraces History
BAR HARBOR—Sometimes being a little bit lonely when you don’t want to be can create something magical and community focused for an entire town.
That’s what happened with Genie Thorndike, whose bit of loneliness inspired a transformation—not just in her life, but in an old barn.
“I had moved my workshop up to Bar Harbor and found that lonely and isolating after being in a 16-person furniture-making shop in Massachusetts where I had been looking with a friend for a space where woodworkers and other makers from North Bennet St. School could teach classes. I love to learn and am always curious, so I needed to find a place where people could come gather and learn, so when I thought about places I love to be in, a bookstore with a community space just made total sense,” she explained.
That curiosity and love of learning and wanting of connection in her community combined to make Hidden Barn Books, snuggled behind Reel Pizza in the heart of Bar Harbor’s downtown.
Hidden Barn Books officially opened last weekend to ohs and ahs and happy chatter this past weekend.
“It’s gorgeous,” one person said leaving the bookstore.
“I’d call it magical what she did with the space.”
“Have you gone in?” a man asked a woman as they stood on the porch. “You have to go in. It’s amazing.”
Amazing. Gorgeous. Magical.
“Genie’s bookstore conveys very much who she is as a person, and it’s been fun to watch new visitors and old friends enter the space for the first time. Hidden Barn Books is a place to become inspired and comforted in equal measure,” said friend Kate Macko. “The intellect, creativity, curiosity, and craft of the books she has accumulated has the same effect as the physical space she and her team of expert craftspeople have revitalized. There is a quiet sense of a person who is deeply collaborative and curious behind it all.”
Thorndike is a woman who loves learning in all its forms and she loves community, the gathering of people in positive ways. She tackles projects, whittles away and nails things together to create something extraordinary.
The bookstore is like that too.
“Her focus on making the space has been inspiring to watch,” said Anna Durand. “She first told me she wanted to open a bookstore when we were out on a hike. She was doing a lot of ‘homework’ like visiting bookstores and attending bookseller conferences.”
Macko gave Thorndike a heads-up about the barn.
“And it just seemed like the perfect fit for what she wanted to do,” Durand said. “I love that she was in there in winter crowbarring down the old panelling, shingling the outside, and staining the floor.”
“I think my favorite part of opening day was the realization that all the things she wanted to happen there were happening: Millard (Dority) was having a meeting upstairs, teenagers were playing board games and hanging out, children were playing and reading in the children's room, folks were browsing and chatting, and some people were just sitting by themselves, reading,” Durand said.
The barn has a long history of being of the community and being for the community, albeit in different ways.
It was linked to R.H. Kitteridge’s grocery back in the 1880s. The Butterfields purchased it in 1923. They owned a grocery store, too, which was on Main Street.
Preserving that history mattered to Thorndike who has been a freelance editor and English teacher. So there are Bar Harbor streetlights upstairs, barrels, a butcher table.
There are memories here.
Memories are being created here still.
If the community supports it, Thorndike would like to be open year round. Right now, she’s open from Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.
All that said, the 31 Kennebec Place bookstore is also very much about the books.
“I always go into a bookstore wherever I am, and I wanted to create a place where there can be talks, classes, and demos, not just authors around books, but where we can learn from anyone who might want to share something,” Thorndike explained.
Bar Harbor already has a bookstore. It also has spaces to gather like the Jesup Memorial Library. But there’s been an anticipation about this barn and this store that’s been increasing each month before the opening.
“I am surprised by how many people have been following our work on the barn! I thought we were quietly working away and am just so excited how enthusiastic and curious everyone is, especially when they say how much we need a place like this and imagining what can happen here. I am open to all ideas and possibilities!” she said.
That escape, the potential for possibilities, that magic of diving into story is something Thorndike knows personally. She credits her own love of books as a driving force.
“It was the one thing we would always say yes to our kids: buying a book. I love reading, to learn something or just to escape. Also, I grew up in a family that made everything and fixed everything, so I learned from an early age how to fix things and appreciate wood, and antiques, and the history of objects. My parents built things like sheds or refinished furniture or painted and wallpapered our house, so I grew up doing the same things, and finding joy in making things for others, but I took it a step further when I went to the North Bennet Street School to learn how to make furniture.”
That’s a school where there is preservation carpentry, violin-making, bookbinding, jewelry-making, she explained.
”And it is totally inspiring. I also spent several years after I graduated cataloging the books in the furniture library there so I spent time cataloguing 1,200 books. That was an addiction. I often think how when I went to college, I was influenced by our society's emphasis on reading and writing over making things, and I just love how in the past 10 years making, and discovery, and books have all converged into one amazingly satisfying project. I have also learned so much about the history of this town and the history of this barn as well as improving my carpentry skills and now learning about the business of buying and selling books!” she said.
She’s the first to emphasize that this project wasn’t just hers. It took a team of professionals and friends to help it along.
She mentioned Mike McEnroe and Mike Welch’s work.
“There were others on his crew like Josh Ray. KJ Bailey made the amazing railings up the staircase, Juan at Maine Fire did a great job with the sprinkler system which is an aesthetic element, Greg Grant of G&G Electric and Kevin and Brent on his crew with the lighting, Ben Moore and Glenn Smith who hooked me up to town water and sewer, Brian Walls, Jason Carter, Jason Hodgdon,” she said. “The list is long and I loved everything everyone brought to the project. There is a really good vibe at the barn and people brought all kinds of expertise and history!”
“There would be no Hidden Barn if not for Kate Macko who knew of the barn and Anna Durand who has supported the vision throughout. The two of them have been huge encouraging sparks. Ask them, they have lots of perspective witnessing this project and now Phoebe, Anna’s daughter, is working in the store,” Thorndike said.
“I am excited for the community to curate the bookstore, and feature community picks instead of just staff picks. I have ideas around that and am always asking for suggestions of books to try here. I am also thrilled by the ideas people have for uses upstairs: music, groups, individuals that just want to hang. I love that on our opening Saturday there were families who dove right into the board games… a refuge on a rainy day or a hot day or a snow day… I love providing a welcoming place for people.”
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art.
Unless otherwise specified photos Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story.
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