Maddie Smith is the new owner of the former Children's Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine, which has been renamed Smitty's Book Cellar and recently held a ribbon-cutting and grand-opening celebration to mark the changes. WABI reported that Smith, who "remembers strolling the aisles as a kid," purchased the business late last year from longtime owner Ellen Richmond, who has retired.
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| Maddie Smith | |
"I've always been a reader," Smith said. "I grew up with my mom reading a lot and so it's always been a part of my life and I picked it back up in college, and it stuck more that time [and] just kind of led to this."
The bookstore, which has been in the Waterville area since the late 1980s, has been expanded to include a wider variety of books in addition to children's titles. An in-store book club is expected to launch this month.
"My mom would shop for me here and I'd come in here growing up," Smith recalled, "but I was just browsing around downtown with my mom, and it came up with the previous owner that she wanted to retire and again here we are."
Smitty's Book Cellar is located on Main Street in downtown Waterville, and Smith said she "has gotten a lot of warm welcomes from not only the customers but fellow business owners. Like anytime I do an event, Robin's Nest down the street sends me flowers and just little things like that. It has been a very welcoming community so far."