PORT ANGELES — A celebratory day welcomed customers and friends through Odyssey Bookshop’s doors for its 40th birthday.
About 100 people stopped through the shop Tuesday, but about 30 of them were in especially for the birthday party, said owner April Bellerud, who started working at the shop in the 1980s and bought it from its founder, Craig Whalley, in 2009.
Bellerud fell in love with the shop, which is at 114 W. Front St., in the 1980s while attending Peninsula College.
She would stop by and organize index cards.
“Eventually, Craig said, ‘Well, if you’re going to be working, I guess I better start paying you,’” she said.
She left for six years to work in Seattle, but when she gave birth to her daughter, Porter Funston, now 10, she moved back to Port Angeles and right back to the old bookstore.
“I really fell in love with it,” she said.
“I grew up in Port Townsend, and I love old buildings and how they look and the charm.”
So when Whalley started looking to sell, she began negotiating — and they went on negotiating until they reached a deal in 2009.
The bookstore has been home to children and families and weddings and celebrations and friendships, Bellerud said.
She said she has loved the past two years owning the store.
“For me, there is a lot of freedom,” she said.
“My daughter can come in here, or I can take time off, as long as I make sure someone will be here.”
The store’s birthday bash was complete with cake, party favors and prizes randomly handed out.
Odyssey Bookshop — overflowing with CDs, games, souvenirs and, of course, books — was bought by Whalley for $2,850 in March 1971.
Later in the decade, he inherited some money and bought the building that housed Odyssey; during the mid-1980s, he expanded into the former M&C Tavern space next door.
Bellerud said she didn’t have any entries in her story contest Tuesday but is still hopeful some will be submitted by the end of the month.
She is searching for any memories or photos of the shop through the years.
A random drawing will select a winner of a $40 gift certificate.
“Who knows, if we have a lot, I might even do a couple” of winners, she said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
