Parkside Bookshop coming to the South End

The independent, general-interest bookstore will feature books across genres and age groups, a multilingual storytime hour, vinyl records, and more.

Parkside Bookshop, located at 260 Shawmut Ave. in the South End, is set to open in the late summer or early fall. (Annie Jonas/Boston.com Staff)

By Annie Jonas

July 31, 2024

An independent bookstore is coming to the South End neighborhood, to the delight of residents and book lovers.

Parkside Bookshop, located at 260 Shawmut Ave., is set to open late this summer or early fall, owner Barbara Clarke told Boston.com. Clarke, a South Ender and investor, first broke into the book business in 2021 with the purchase of The Provincetown Bookshop. Three years later, she is opening the South End bookstore to “leverage the infrastructure and the talent” she recruited with the Provincetown store.

Barbara Clarke poses for a portrait at her home in Boston, MA on October 05, 2022. *(Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)*

“It was clear that we could do more if we had another store to anchor it. And that’s what made me think about opening something in the South End,” she said.

Parkside Bookshop will be the neighborhood’s second bookstore, alongside More Than Words. The bookstore will be managed by longtime bookseller Clarissa Murphy.

Clarissa Murphy, a longtime bookseller, will be the manager of Parkside Bookshop. *(Photo courtesy of Clarissa Murphy)*

The general-interest bookstore is an open concept space spanning 950 square feet on the ground floor of a historic building from the late 1800s, as well as a basement for storage.

Clarke described the space as initially “an empty box” and “super challenging” because it had remained unrenovated since the 1980s. Renovations included installing a new HVAC system, electrical work, adding built-in bookshelves, and a conveyor belt to bring books to and from the basement level.

A conveyor belt was added to the bookshop to bring shipments to and from the basement level, where Clarissa Murphy, manager of Parkside Bookshop, is pictured waving. *(Annie Jonas/Boston.com Staff)*

The space features tin ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a working fireplace in the rear of the store. A mural is planned to cover one wall of the bookstore at the front of the store, featuring “important elements of the South End,” Clarke said.

A mural is going to be painted along the exposed brick wall at the front of the bookstore, with a bookcase of vinyl records below, and art supplies featured at the entryway. *(Annie Jonas/Boston.com Staff)*

Clarke was intentional and determined to buy the space, after seeing many independent bookstores move or close due to rising rents and other uncertainties.

“That’s something I’ve seen with a lot of independent bookstores, some of whom I really like. They’re constantly having to move because rents go up and things happen, and so I really wanted to have some stability. So owning the space was important,” she added.

Built-in bookshelves line the length of the bookshop from the front to the rear of the store. *(Annie Jonas/Boston.com Staff)*

The shop will have offerings for readers across age ranges and genres, including a “very healthy” children’s section, Murphy said, to reflect the large number of families with small children in the area. One of the bookstore’s signature events will be a multilingual storytime hour for children and their families, nodding to the South End’s diverse and multiethnic community.

The bookshop will also have a healthy nonfiction section, including a cookbook section to reflect the wonderful restaurants in the area, Murphy added. Staff recommendations and curated offerings will be featured heavily at the front of the store, alongside vinyl records and art supplies. The store’s inventory will ebb and flow to reflect the community’s and visitors’ interests, Murphy said.

“I have my set initial idea of what the community may be interested in, and then over the next six months to a year, we’ll see how things shift and grow to reflect what people in the area or who come to the shop really want to read. It will be a very responsive and evolving inventory here,” she said.

The rear of the bookstore features built-in bookshelves (left and right), a working fireplace (right), and windows looking out onto a courtyard (center). Murphy said comfy chairs will be added in front of the fireplace for a lived-in, cozy feel. *(Annie Jonas/Boston.com Staff)*

The shop will give South Enders access to books after the closure of the South End branch of the Boston Public Library two years ago. The library closed in April of 2022 for construction, which is supposed to be completed by 2027.

The bookshop’s name was inspired by the South End’s plethora of parks, and Clarke hopes it evokes the respite, tranquility, and escapism of reading.

“When you just sit in a park and read a book, that’s the vibe we’re going for. I think there’s a lot of people who need to escape nowadays. There’s a lot of stress in our world, and we want to create an environment and a vibe where people will read to escape and to be less stressed,” she said.