My name is Mary Manley and I am the Founding Director of Barter Books, which began in 1991.
Here we are, 30-something years later and our expansion from 800 feet has gone to something like 8000 square feet and rising.
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I don’t live in Charleston now, but I grew up in Charleston. I’ve never forgotten it. It’s my hometown and it will always be my hometown.
What it was like growing up… Like every small town, everyone knows everyone else.
The main thing I remember is how bustling the Main Street was. I absolutely adored it.
It had a bank. It had a farm machinery shop. It had one of the best small town newspapers in the state of Missouri – it even won a prize!
It had a Woolies [Dime Store], where you could go and you could buy colouring books and they had all kinds of magic candies.
TWO soda shops and it had a brilliant jewellery shop that was owned by Mr and Mrs Saliba.
The town was bustling back then and I remember that so well.
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I always cared about what happened to the town and I kept hearing that Main Street was losing its lustre.
Even the movie theatre, where I used to watch cowboy movies and cartoons, had stopped. I hated hearing that.
I recognized how many people were really working to try and bring back the buzz that had been in Charleston.
I got an idea, and the idea was this:
Something that would bring a little bit more economic health to Charleston. Rather than farming, something that would bring the businesses – retail.
Retail had suffered – bring that back. And what was it?
Charleston had one thing really going for it – it had a gorgeous Azalea festival, but that was short-lasting. It needed something for people to see.
What did Charleston have going for it? It had one of the great highways in the middle of the United States.
It had the I-57, which basically connected with other roads, but connected New Orleans in the south to Chicago and St Louis in the north. And it went very close to Charleston, and Charleston was accessible from that highway.
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Now, my husband Stuart said “Mary, if you could think of some reason why people would turn off into Charleston – even just 1 percent on this highway, then it would help, it might help. They would go to a café They would buy a coffee. There would be more interest.”
So what would happen? Couldn’t think. Couldn’t think. We went to Prague.
Prague has an astronomical clock – and what does it do? For 27 seconds every hour these figures, the twelve apostles, move past two little windows.
Every time you go there, there is a huge crowd waiting to see these figures move towards this window. 27 seconds!
I thought, “alright, if we can attract one percent of the cars off the I-57 by an object in Charleston and if it was “Instagrammable”, we might have something going for us.
We know that Kinetic Art works, as it did in the Prague Cathedral, because it’s been copied in many forms all over the world and people are fascinated by it.
A man in the town, Mike Mueller, was trying to start more interest in Charleston – as were many people, as I was to find out.
So my idea to Mike – “Do you think the proximity of the I-57, plus an object in Charleston that would be of interest to people passing by might work?” and Mike wrote me back: “I do, and we’ll help you”
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One of the things that really delighted me is all the help and support from all the committees, the Chamber of Commerce, the Town Council and the Steering Committee, headed by Hudson Byrd.
It all sounded absolutely too good to be true, almost.
And then to get that land free from Dr Ronald Petersen was simply the icing on the cake.
It’s all go – now all I need is the idea for the object and that’s our next step.
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Finding a designer, an engineer, an artist who can give us something that people of all ages will be delighted that they made a decision to turn off in this town, have a cup of coffee, and watch this.
If this one percent come in – the café will become, with any luck, larger. More shops will open to take advantage of the increased numbers.
I think it will happen naturally. I also think that some people will come in and say “This is a small town. I like the way it looks. There’s some beautiful houses there. I’d like to live there.” Say entrepreneurs, business people. I can see that happening.
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I guess what I’m hoping for is that this project will bring back the same kind of bustle that I knew in the town as a child, only in a new way that I would have found thrilling.
If anything about our project sounds of interest to you, If you would like to be one of those one percent who turn in to see it – do visit our website.