The bookstore had not always been a bookstore.

[jinn]

I am writing a scene in a small-town bookstore, but I need to make the setting unusual.
Like the building used to be a cotton factory and the gins are still intact in the center of the room...
Or it's half building, half steamship with a boiler in one corner of the room with the pipes snaking along the walls and ceiling...

Steampunkery would be nice, but I'll consider anything (except, maybe not set in space).

[torainfor]

The largest independent bookstore in the country, Powell's, ( www.powells.com/info/citytour.html ) is pretty unique for being real. The flagship's in a big building in downtown Portland. It's so big, it has maps all over the place, and each section is a different color. (If I remember correctly, sci fi is purple.--Nope! It's gold.) There are ramps and stairs and elevators all over the place.

The garage is also in an old office building. I was always amazed at how my g-pa could fit the '75 Matador into those tiny spaces between the load-bearing columns.

I could see steampunk coming into this. Have the shelves go twenty or more feet into the air with cast iron lifts. For one room, have the people stay still, and the bookshelf scroll up and down and back and forth. Of course, it's so big you have to take a train to the farther sections. Okay, maybe not in a small town.

Hmm...Do you mind if I use this, too?

[tris]

I live in a small town and one of our young lawyers recently converted one of the historic downtown buildings into a law office. it was originally a livery, complete with tin ceiling tiles and the openings where the horses peered out from the stables.

Another unique hardware store (different little town) took over the old WW II egg plant. It's a huge lumbering old building with multi levels and yes, the owner parked all his vintage cars on the second floor where they used to raise the chickens.

If your bookstore doesn't have to be huge, why not install it in an old grain storage silo. Use spiral stair cases to reach each level.

Hope this sparks some creativity for you.

[metalikhan]

Oooo--I want to visit the one in the steamship. And the livery. And the silo.

I'm waaaay overdue for a trip to a bookstore. (Gosh, it's been two weeks!)

[tris]

I wish we had one. The nearest bookstore is an hour and half away.

[jinn]

Toranifor: Powell's sounds so amazing it hurts. I think I'll move in there one day. Set up a desk in the corner, work in the coffee shop for fun. Run up and down the mezzanine...
I like the idea of this unusual bookery having high shelves with lifts. I can see it.
Your epic ideas for the bookstore with the train and revolving bookshelves, should be fully explored. I expect to see something on this later.
I'd set a roleplay in a bookstore like that.

Tris: Those are good ideas that I wouldn't have imagined on my own. I'm seriously considering the egg plant (factory? What do they call those?). Your suggestion for the silo reminded me of a city in Illinios that converted one into a climbing gym. Silos have so many cool uses.

Thanks for the ideas!

[isabeau]

/hijacking post/

I love Powell's. I purchased some of my favorite books there, and they have a fabulous rare book room.

/end hijacking/

[tris]

Jinn,

I checked with my historian hubby...it was called "the egg plant" and was used during WWII to dry eggs (and other foods) for field rations. Cool, huh?

[garysensei]

In the old copper mining town of Jerome, Arizona, I ran across a number of inspirations for this topic. This town, about 2 hours north of Phoenix, was home to one of the largest copper mines in the world in the early 1900's. In the 1930's the copper fizzled out, and it became a ghost town. The motorcycle gangs moved in a couple decades later, followed by the hippies and then finally the artists.

The hospital/asylum (everyone eventually became ill or went crazy from exposure to toxic chemicals) is now the world's most haunted hotel. The old school building has an artist's studio in every classroom and a western furniture builder in the gym. Most of the buildings (now shops) on the main street were bars or "houses of negotiated affection." I even thought the old jail cells would work as good subject dividers to catalog books.

There are giant metal gears and mining cars sitting around for atmosphere. About the only thing they don't have is a good bookstore.

[ryain]

This sounds amazing! I love the steampunkery one and the silo idea! I so want to go to a bookstore. I haven't gone since before Christmas!