Pamela Hart unlocks the doors to Bryn Mawr Book Store as the sun settles into the sky above Cambridge. It’s just before noon on a bitterly cold Friday but past the store’s front doors lies warmth, a table topped with boxes to unpack, and pages upon pages of books you’ve never heard of — or that one novel you’ve spent forever trying to find.
Entirely volunteer-run and exclusively selling used and rare books, Byrn Mawr Book Store surpassed its 50th anniversary in 2022 — a milestone many independent and local bookstores don’t have the luck of sticking around for. The shop’s ongoing prosperity continues to baffle, especially with proceeds going to fund scholarships to the bookstore’s namesake, Pennsylvania’s Bryn Mawr College.
Hart, whose sister attended Bryn Mawr College on a scholarship before flunking out, has been volunteering at Bryn Mawr Book Store for over ten years.
“When I’m volunteering here I feel like I’m paying a little bit back,” she said.
Over 15,000 donated books line the shelves at Bryn Mawr Book Store, with even more packed into boxes waiting to be opened or sitting on a cart behind the store waiting to be picked up. The store isn’t careless about which books they take in and give new life, and many donations don’t make the cut. Too tattered? Too water-damaged? Too long spent sitting on a shelf without any interest? Strike three, and you’re out.
“We date the books on the shelves,” Holly Nixholm, volunteer of six years, said. “If three years go by and nobody buys [a book], then we consider it junk and it goes to More Than Words.”
More Than Words is a Boston-based nonprofit organization selling books and employing at-risk youth who may be in foster care, homeless, out of school, or in the court system. It is only one of the routes that Bryn Mawr Book Store takes to ensure that even when a book isn’t the right fit for them, it still finds a home.
“Though I have to confess that those books that I think are really worthwhile, I tend to keep regardless of date,” Hart said, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. “So in other words, we have the ability to override.”
Tucked away on the corner of Huron Ave in West Cambridge, the bookstore’s bright yellow sign acts as their beacon. The sign’s drawn owl, Bryn Mawr College’s mascot, perches proudly. It welcomes donors and buyers alike as they step into a world of cabinets dedicated to books about Winston Churchill, obscure postcards they won’t find anywhere else, and an air of familiarity regardless of whether they’ve been there before or not. The store is cash only, saving them a fee of 2% applied to all card transactions. A sign above the cash register advertises an ATM available down the street to customers if needed.
Melissa Vaughn, current president of the store, graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1989 and worked as a volunteer for over a decade before succeeding long-time president Anne “Roo” Dane in 2023. Through the years, she has helped to shape the space for what it has come to be known for.
“We're a friendly and warm place that is fairly beloved by the neighborhood and community,” Vaughn said.
With little bureaucratic oversight and even less money being brought in from sales, many might consider it a wonder that such a business model has thrived for half a century.
To Jan Gardner, former New England Literary News writer for the Boston Globe and current Bryn Mawr volunteer, the secret lies in the community that has grounded and uplifted the bookstore since its inception.
“When the building was up for sale, they bought it, saving the store from the plight of many bookstores that go under due to rising rent,” she said in an interview.
According to Gardner’s 2024 release “The First 50 Years: A History of The Bryn Mawr Book Store in Cambridge,” in 1972, when plans to demolish the building and put a drive-through bank in its place came to light, volunteers Betty Butterfield and Elizabeth Jackson banded together to buy the building for $70,000.
“[The store] has survived because of the generosity of the people who donate books, the hard work of the many volunteers, and the foresight of early volunteers,” Gardner said.
A few decades later, volunteers seem to still be chipping in wherever and whenever they can to keep Bryn Mawr Book Store afloat — no, more than that, thriving.
The volunteers range in age, from high school students to the retired, and in connection, from Bryn Mawr alumnae to those who just showed up one day and decided to stay. Still, despite their variations and differences, they all do their part and play to their strengths.
Hart, a former landscaping business owner, works away at the gardening section during her three to four-hour shifts. Dane, though retired from her presidential position, still regularly manages the store at 80 years old, helping with inventory or handling their online listings and sales through ABE Books.
“I had always brought books [to Bryn Mawr Book Store] when I needed to donate, so then here I am on the other side of the counter,” Barbara Bliss, a former professor at Boston University said.
Bliss has been volunteering at Bryn Mawr for five years following her retirement from academia. She uses her skills and knowledge gained in her previous life to aid in her volunteering: Keeping the schedule for the store, specializing in and curating the mystery section, and figuring out the best placement for new volunteers. The day that I showed up for our interview, she had just been sorting through what was leftover from a donation of 1000 books.
“She’s a miracle worker,” Nixholm said, who herself came to work at the store after Hart, her neighbor and “co-gardener,” informed her of the opportunity.
This sense of community doesn’t stop at the break room door, it extends and buries itself into the hearts of patrons and donors alike.
“My mother recently passed away and she had a lot of books. Instead of just taking them to Goodwill or something, I thought I’d bring them here to Bryn Mawr. I’m looking to help someone rather than just giving these books to someplace,” said one Bryn Mawr donor and customer.
A bibliophile haven, the store also doubles as a poster child for an underexplored business venture. Each purchase here echoes a commitment to education and community upliftment, a charitable enterprise that pulls at the heartstrings and appeals to possible buyers — almost always ensuring a steady stream of income at a time when other local bookstores like Harvard Book Store are canceling plans to branch out due to economic challenges.
Beth Ineson, the executive director of the New England Booksellers Association, highlights a significant obstacle faced by independent bookstores: publishers (suppliers) often print prices directly onto the books, leaving no flexibility for booksellers to adjust prices and generate profits.
“Used bookstores, [like Bryn Mawr], don’t have that problem because they set their own prices for their books. Still, they appeal to the consumer and are up against a lot of the same cultural pressures as regular bookstores,” she said.
The volunteers at Bryn Mawr Book Store acknowledge the special space they hold in the bookstore world and cherish it.
“It's quite a thrill when you are checking on a book that's on the shelf and it turns out to be The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and it turns out to be a first edition and it's worth $800. Everything is a sort of toss-up but we can afford to sell books for $6,” Hart said. “It’s a lucky thing.” *