SOUTHAMPTON — Walking through the historic doors of Southampton’s former Edwards Library, one will still find the walls lined with books, the smells of ink and paper thick in the air.

But it’s been decades since the building, built in 1904, was used as a library. Since the late 90s, it’s been home to what is now the town’s only bookstore, keeping history alive through the space itself as well as the collections of historical items that can be found throughout its interior.

Bruce Coombs, owner of Heritage Books, has always had a keen interest in history. In his many years of running his surveying business, Heritage Surveys, he was able to deepen that interest, digging into the historical backgrounds of properties he surveyed.

Within the bookstore, Coombs, 84, combines his lifelong love for reading with his historical inclinations, filling the walls, tables, and cabinets sprinkled between the shelves with eclectic collections of antiques and ephemera.

“Over the years, I’ve gone to many auctions… I’ve also collected a lot of ephemera,” said Coombs. “To put it in simple words, it’s old paper.”

And that “old paper” is everywhere inside Heritage Books, not just bound between two covers. The walls are adorned with art, posters, playing cards, and other bits of ephemera that Coombs has accumulated over the years, each with their own unique histories. At the numerous auctions, estate sales, and tag sales that Coombs has attended, he’s also collected an impressive array of antique objects and art.

The first things anyone who enters the store will see are a restored folk art Ferris wheel and circus wagons, constructed from thousands of wooden medical applicators. Coombs acquired the pieces in 1999 while visiting the home of a West Springfield man who had died, to look through the books and ephemera that he had left behind. These antiques immediately caught his eye, and now they catch the eye of every customer who arrives to peruse his selection of books.

“Over the years I’ve gotten many phone calls from people who have lost parents for example,” says Coombs. “They’ll often have books, so I’ll often go to look at the books and find things that are of even more interest.”

Near the front desk, the library’s old fireplace still stands proudly and contains original, antique hand irons straight out of the building’s history. Hanging above it is one of Coombs’ favorite pieces of ephemera: a work of art depicting influential authors and writers from various time periods seated together, most of whom are from Massachusetts.

True to building’s history

Since purchasing the building when the town decided to build a new library, Coombs has also stayed true to the history of the building itself — refinishing and maintaining its original woodwork, periodically cleaning up the exterior brickwork, and even paying homage to his own personal connections to the space through its organization.

“When I first moved to Southampton, one of my daughters went to kindergarten in the basement of this building, so when I organized the building I decided to make part of the basement dedicated to kids books,” he explained. The basement of the store is still home to its plentiful selection of children’s titles.

Edwards Library was moved to its more spacious location near the entrance of Conant Park in 1996. Not long afterward, Coombs made his successful bid for the original property. At the time, Coombs was operating Heritage Surveys as well as a book database out of a nearby building at Clark Street and College Highway, which now serves as the store’s administrative building and stores additional ephemera.

That database, borne out of he and his former wife’s passion for reading and collecting interesting books, is still used by Heritage Books, though Coombs ultimately sold Heritage Surveys to another owner. Initially, the database was managed with a catalog of cards keeping track of the books coming and going, but with the introduction of the internet, operations started to look more similar to how they are today.

While some of the store’s organizational framework was already in existence through the database, molding the old library into a space fit to sell books was no small task.

“When the building was purchased, it had some issues,” said Coombs.

One of the first things Coombs did when renovating the building was opening the wall to its attic, revealing a surprising group of occupants.

“I heard chirping noises,” recalled Coombs. “We had bats.”

The roof was damaged by age and wear, with several large entry points through which the bats came and went as they pleased. The bats had to be removed, and the roof replaced. After that, there were still the hardened formations of guano to remove.

For a while, the building was bracketed by scaffolding as various parts of the interior and exterior were redone, cleaned up, and replaced. Eventually, the old library was ready to be moved into, while still retaining its historic charm. The building looks much as it did in 1904, complete with lettering above the door reading “Edwards Library,” yet the bookstore itself has modernized its operations over the years.

A typical day

Megan Gentile, the store’s manager, said that a typical day at Heritage Books is “very quiet,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not busy. Aside from Coombs and Gentile, the store employs three regular and two part-time workers who keep everything running smoothly. Even when no customers are in the store itself, Gentile and other employees are answering phone calls and emails from community members wishing to donate books, and organizing orders received from the store’s online platforms.

Heritage Books sells its titles not only on the store’s own website, but also on Amazon, AbeBooks, Alibris and Biblio. They also have over 1,500 listings on eBay for antique items and ephemera. With Gentile’s encouragement, the store also started selling new books last January. Gentile, 27, said that these new titles have helped to “reinvigorate the inventory” and “get new authors on the shelves.”

The store’s deep roots in Southampton’s history combined with its readiness to embrace new online platforms and books have marked it as a crossroads of the times. Its historic wood and brickwork create a cozy feel that transports visitors back to the early 1900s, but customers are also able to order titles online, from the comfort of their homes.

Those who often travel down College Highway are used to seeing Heritage Books nestled between the trees, a testament to both history and progress, with a sign out front reading “only bookstore in town.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.