Above: Chelsea Goodwin (left) and Rusty Mae Moore in Pine Hill Books, which is closing this month. Photo courtesy of Goodwin and Moore.
Pine Hill Books, a used bookstore that opened on Main Street in Pine Hill in 2010, is closing its doors at the end of February, according to owners Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Elisabeth Goodwin.
"Business has been declining since the floods of 2011, and it has become impossible to continue to subsidize the store," Moore and Goodwin wrote in a letter to the Watershed Post last week.
The bookstore was unique in the Catskills because of its niche specialties: science fiction, steampunk, fantasy, and horror. In keeping with that theme, Goodwin and Moore founded the Pine Hill Steampunk Festival, which had its second season in 2013. It is unclear if the festival will continue.
The majority of the book store's revenue came from online sales and from vending at regional fantasy and science fiction festivals. Moore and Goodwin plan to continue those businesses, as well as a side business selling wooden bookshelves online.
Of the 10,000 books that were in the Main Street location, Moore and Goodwin plan to move 5,000 of them to their Pine Hill home, where they will be available for sale by appointment. The rest of their stock, which also includes vintage comics and vinyl records, is being put into storage and given away.
"For people who stop in as we pack up we are giving away free any books that they would like to have," Moore writes.
Editor's note: The Pine Hill Bookstore and the Pine Hill Steampunk Festival have been longtime advertisers with the Watershed Post, and Rusty Mae Moore, one of the store's co-owners, has worked as a freelance journalist for the Watershed Post.
