By Tom Ayres , Senior Staff Writer
The Yankee Bookshop, a Woodstock Village institution that first opened its doors 90 years ago in 1935, is expanding into a neighboring retail space on Central Street previously occupied by the Vermont Eclectic t-shirt and gift shop.
The shop’s eighth and current owners, Kari Meutsch and Kristian Preylowski. announced the expansion effort on social media last week. Preylowski spoke about the expansion effort in a phone conversation with the Standard from the bookstore at 12 Central Street on Monday. He reported that construction work in the former Vermont Eclectic space at 12B Central Street in the heart of Woodstock Village is likely to begin within the next few weeks.
“It’s probably going to happen in at least two phases,” Preylowski commented on Monday afternoon. “We don’t have any projected date yet as to when the expanded area will open.” The bookstore co-proprietor added that, “We can probably have something happening in that second space in a couple of weeks. The bigger part would take place closer to holiday time, if not after the new year. So it’ll happen in at least two phases.”
Preylowski said he and Meutsch hoped to keep the full spectrum of their plans for the expanded retail space “close to the vest,” but the bookstore owner did offer a glimpse into some of the enlarged product line they plan to offer at the bigger Yankee Bookshop. “We’ll be expanding on what we’ve got already — books — but the second part of the larger space will be more of non-book items, including stationery, greeting cards, art supplies, and things like that,” he noted. Preylowski also suggested that the bookstore operators may move their growing selection of vinyl recordings into the new space as well. “This also allows us to expand our super selection of books, giving people a little more elbow room as they browse.”
In conclusion, Preylowski said, “We will continue to drop more information as we have it, once we find out dates and things like that. It’ll be a work in progress for a while. We’ve seen other businesses expanding, and we’ll just have to see how long it takes — there’s always delays and things like that.”