Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop co-Manager Rosie Bensen puts a price on a new children’s book on Monday, Nov. 17. She said she is largely responsible for maintaining the store’s section of childrens books. (Ali Juell photo)
Tucked behind the Elm Street Plaza in Damariscotta, stumbling upon the Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop can feel like the start of a story book.
The building looks straight out of “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” but maintaining the shop is no feat of magic. Instead, a band of bookworms pour their time and creative efforts into the downtown Damariscotta staple.
“It’s a community that makes it work,” said Rosie Bensen, co-manager of the store.
Community has been at the heart of the store since its inception. According to Bensen, Mary Wallace Smith founded the secondhand shop in 1968, hoping to create a community space and more resources for children.
Bensen said she first started volunteering at the store about 30 years ago. Her father-in-law recruited her when the store was at its previous location at 170 Main St. and she “just fell in love with that little place,” she said.
The secondhand shop landed at its waterfront location after several moves over the years. Even though the Damariscotta River view doesn’t hurt, Bensen said her “love of books and love of reading” is what’s kept her coming back for almost three decades.
“It’s home,” she said.
Volunteers like Bensen keep every corner of the bookstore running. They staff the front desk and tally up totals, they sort through donations, and they price and place books out on shelves for customers.
All of their efforts help out the Skidompha Public Library, which receives the bookstore’s proceeds, co-Manager Rem Briggs said. The secondhand bookstore also donates books to neighboring bookstores and libraries, including nearby prisons.
“Not only are we receiving from the community, but we’re also spreading (books) into a larger community,” Briggs said.
The book shop has been a staple for some volunteers since infancy.
Harvey DeVoe, 8, mans the Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop’s desk on Sunday, Nov. 16. DeVoe is the book shop’s youngest volunteer, according to shop co-Manager Rosie Bensen. (Ali Juell photo)
“I started going here when I was pretty young,” said Harvey DeVoe, 8, who added he was just 1 year old when he first visited Skidompha Secondhand.
When DeVoe was 6, Briggs recruited him to work behind the desk. He and his dad, Bill DeVoe, have consistently kept the Sunday morning shift since then. Harvey DeVoe helps customers total up their purchases and uses his free time to memorize words like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which is the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary.
DeVoe said he enjoys working at “the best book shop in Maine.” The junior volunteer isn’t the only person to hand out that title; Yankee Magazine named Skidompha Secondhand the best used bookstore in Maine in 2023.
“(The bookstore) is quite famous in the whole entire state,” Harvey DeVoe said with pride.
Briggs said people come from all corners of the world to visit Skidompha Secondhand. Flipping through the guestbook, people have traveled from places as close as Hallowell or from far-away destinations like South Africa to browse books in Damariscotta.
Briggs largely attributes the store’s success, however, to how welcoming the space and the volunteers are.
“(Customers) come here, and they can discuss books, and they can have a lot of fun,” Briggs said. “That’s a big part of it, being able to participate.”
Whenever customers walk through the door, they come asking for everything from a beloved book from childhood to a nice art book to complement their coffee table.
Janice Lindsay, a published children’s book author who started volunteering at the store in 2004, said she enjoys helping out other bookworms find whatever read they’re looking for.
“I love seeing people find their books,” Lindsay said.
It’s easy for the store’s part-time book experts to connect with customers, Briggs said, swapping favorite titles and learning about visitors along the way.
“For every 10 people who come in here, there are 1,000 stories you hear,” Briggs said.
Between volunteers’ debates on a recently read book and lively conversations with customers, working at the store creates a “family life” for many volunteers, Briggs said.
“You can see the sense of community just coming together in a rush to one place,” Briggs said. “For me, that’s so exciting.”
Franz Treidler said the store has been a good place to be with friends. He isn’t usually out front working the desk, he said, but he is often the person tackling stack after stack of donated books in the store’s back section.
As he sifts through countless volumes, Treidler said it’s hard not to find books worth purchasing. While on shift, many volunteers said they find themselves collecting stacks of books to buy.
Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop volunteer Jennifer Bunting studies a display of books on Monday, Nov. 17. Bunting said she enjoys volunteering alongside her friend Janice Lindsay. (Ali Juell photo)
“Today I helped our bottom line by spending $44 (on books),” he said.
On top of collecting personal favorites, volunteers sometimes stumble upon rare literary treasures. Treidler once discovered a first edition copy of “The Great Gatsby” among a box stacked with donations.
The bookstore sold the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic for around $1,000, Bensen said, a fraction of the going price online. Big finds like that don’t happen every week, but she said there’s always plenty of beautiful new and old books volunteers look forward to adding into their sections.
The store’s staff is encouraged to oversee a section of the store, said Briggs, who largely manages the classics room.
“We have all these different areas, and we have different people curating those sections,” he said. “They take pride in their sections … which I think really plays into a sense of ownership and community.”
People often look forward to putting out great books for people to find in their area of the store. While sorting through donations, many of the store’s workers will also set aside books they know will fit in another person’s area.
“We have enough work to do in our own section, so we’re always happy to give (a book) to somebody else,” Treidler said.
On top of caring for their respective corners of the store, Briggs said volunteers perform other labors of love for Skidompha Secondhand. From the drawing easel in the classics room to the cabinet by the selection of Westerns, he said many pieces of the store were created or donated by the bookstore’s staff.
“Everything you see in here was done by one of the volunteers,” Briggs said, showing just how much people love the local store.
The book shop is a popular place for people to volunteer, Bensen said, but she encourages people to work a shift and see if Skidompha Secondhand is the place for them.
When asked what the common thread is for volunteers, Bensen said there is no single type of person who works the shop. Each volunteer comes to the store with diverse interests and backgrounds, but one shared trait is certain.
“What brings everybody together is their love of books,” Lindsay said.
The Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop, at 17 Backstreet Landing in Damariscotta, and is open every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more about volunteering at the shop, visit skidomphabookshop.org or call 563-7807.
(“Voluntary View” is a monthly series highlighting community volunteer efforts across Lincoln County. Have a volunteer organization you would like to see featured? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Voluntary View” and include the group’s name, description, and contact information.)
Harvey DeVoe (left) and his dad Bill DeVoe play for Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop patrons on Sunday, Nov. 16. Bill DeVoe said he and his son regularly volunteer at the book shop on Sundays. (Ali Juell photo)
