ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV--1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
Just two weeks shy of graduation from Virginia Tech, Richard Walters had an epiphany while eating a cheese sandwich for lunch alone in his apartment: Blacksburg needed a bookstore.
He dropped out of school the next day to work on his plan and in January 1965, Book Strings & Things was opened as a combination coffee shop, book and music store. The electricity had not even been turned on for the first two days of business, forcing Walters to close at dusk when it was too dark to read the books.
As the years went by, BS&T became an institution and one of the oldest remaining businesses in town. During its heyday, recalled former employee Diane Porter Goff, it was "definitely THE place, this was where all the beat people hung out."
BS&T's 31-year history in Blacksburg ended last Thursday, however, when the store's doors were closed permanently. Three years after Walters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the Blacksburg store was closed to keep costs down and the business going "in the most efficient manner," said Tom Dickenson, Walters' attorney.
The 10-year-old Roanoke BS&T will remain open, Dickenson said, because it is the more profitable store. Negotiations are under way, however, to sell BS&T's assets from its Blacksburg store to a local business person who wants to open another bookstore in the now vacant location, Dickenson added.
NationsBank, Walters' biggest creditor, holds a lien on everything in the store and must approve the sale. Dickenson and Walters would not reveal the name of the potential buyer.
"Someone else is going to carry the torch," Walters said. "Then I can be here [in Roanoke] 100 percent of the time."
The closing did not surprise downtown merchants or people like Goff, who worked at BS&T as a student during the 1960s and later became a loyal customer. The number of books on the shelves had dwindled and Walters' money troubles had been reported in the local media.
Walters had invested $500,000 in the Roanoke store, which opened in 1986, for renovation and inventory. In 1993, he told a Roanoke Times reporter that the expansion was "approached from the heart more than the pocketbook."
During this time, business was slowing at both stores and Walters said in 1993 that he did not trim overhead costs properly. On Monday, Walters added that the New River Valley Mall and The Lyric theater's closure also hurt his Blacksburg business by reducing downtown foot traffic.
"I've been disappointed in Strings because they can't order and get a book right away, they don't have the selection they used to," Goff said.
In the beginning, BS&T was a place to drink coffee, eat doughnut holes, read and catch performances from musicians and poets. Walters, who finished college several months after the store's opening, remembers telling his customers to snap their fingers rather than clap after these evening performances because neighbors were complaining about the noise.
In 1967, Walters phased out the coffee shop because "it was two different beasts under one roof." But the hangout mentality of the store remained. Customers were encouraged to leisurely browse through the wooden shelves and then to sit and read.
"He didn't set it up like most stores where you come in and buy and move on out. He had really nice nooks, beautiful wood working, nice chairs," Goff said. "You'd always meet someone you knew."
Music also played an important role. In the early years BS&T's specialties were folk and classical music heavy on the string instruments, adding the "strings" to the store's name. Vinyl records evolved to eight-tracks; cassette tapes metamorphosed into compact discs.
"I wouldn't give up my memories of those years for anything," Walters said. "The store evolved over time and got larger, people's hair got shorter." (Except for Walters' hair, which remains long. "I've got an image to be concerned with," he said).
Though many recognized its heyday had passed, the end of BS&T's presence in town is still a disappointment to many Blacksburg residents. Chris Kappas, owner of Souvlaki restaurant, is hoping another bookstore - or at the very least another retailer - will take over the now vacant 2,800-square-foot building.
"It was the anchor store for downtown, attracted lots of customers from the entire area," said Kappas, a Blacksburg native who has owned Souvlaki for 15 years. "We hate to see it leave."
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. With the storefront awning inby CNBdisrepair from damages from the January snowstorm, a Books Strings &
Things customer is met with a note announcing the closing of the
downtown Blacksburg store. 2. A handwritten note announces the
status of the Blacksburg Books Strings & Things. color.