Every now and then we will be giving you a chance to get to know our local, Downtown business owners – your friends and neighbors – who make Downtown such a special place. We’d like to introduce you to Margie Wilson, owner of Grand Valley Books, 350 Main Street.
In late April of 2010, in a snowstorm that pelted Main Street and sent the faint-hearted home, Grand Valley Books opened their doors. The Uplift project was in full swing, and jack hammers provided the background music while fencing kept folks from falling into the abyss of mud that was our downtown under construction.
Following a career as a travel agent and veterinary assistant, Margie Wilson and her husband Frank Cooley jumped off a cliff into the world of book selling. Twenty years and two retail stores later, they still love what they do and are happy to be a part of the independent bookstore scene in the Grand Valley. Both Twice Upon A Time and Grand Valley Books offer loyal customers a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction for moderate prices in two cozy locations.
Grand Valley Books’ cornerstone of regional and Western history, Native American titles and a large collection of railroad history offers both new and out of print books with a concentration on first hand accounts of the Western Slope’s colorful history. Primitive rock art titles and art work by local photographers, potters and painters round out this western collection and bring historians from our region into the store. Frequent travels around the Southwest to rock art sites have kept Margie and Frank enthused about this part of the bookstore.
Margie’s favorite times in the store are the events that offer live music, readings by local poets and fiction authors, mini lectures by Colorado historians, and classes in a variety of subjects. Grand Valley Books is a gathering place for readers who are looking for the kind of downtown community spirit that we all thrive on, and a place avid readers call home.