NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
31 October 2003

TWO NEW SPECIALTY BOOKSTORES AND NEW GOURMET THAI CAFE OPEN IN HISTORIC MIDTOWN

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed today conducted dual grand opening services for two distinctive new specialty bookstores and an in-store gourmet Thai cafe in the growing Midtown Market District. The unique stores, The Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Ted L. Canaday Old & Rare Books, are located within a few seconds walk of each other and both are now open to the public.

Reed said the new stores are owned and operated separately, but the proprietors are working together to advance their interests and do joint marketing for both their businesses. The unique literary retailers are the first such book-related businesses to open in the growing Midtown Market District, and represent significant private investment by all of the principals.

Now open at 1519 N. Third Street is the Midtown Scholar Bookstore, which features more than 15,000 titles of academic and scholarly interest. Owned and operated by city residents and former college educators Eric Papenfuse and Catherine Lawrence, the newly-opened used bookstore specializes in art, history and literature books, with special sections on state, national and international subjects. Further augmenting the new store is expansive second floor exhibit space, where the work of local artists will be regularly featured.

The Mayor noted that the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is an evolution of Papenfuse’s and Lawrence’s already very successful online bookstore, which has more than 100,000 additional titles available.

Also, now open at 306 Reily Street, is the elegant new Ted L. Canaday Old and Rare Books, with two packed floors of used, out-of-print, collectible, distinctive and rare books, maps and other antiquarian ephemera. The tastefully appointed specialty retailer is owned and operated by former U.S. Marine Captain Ted L. Canaday and his wife Tai, who operates a unique gourmet Thai cafe on the new bookstore’s second floor.

Mayor Reed said “these are exciting and intriguing new specialty retailers who epitomize the distinctive, one-of-a-kind nature of successful urban-based businesses. Each represents unique products and services that shoppers cannot find in suburban malls, but are the cornerstone of the urban retail environment. Their diversity, proximity and additional artistic enhancements have made their area of Midtown a new hot spot in Harrisburg, and we are delighted to welcome them to town.”

Both stores will be participating in the Midtown’s first-ever Annual Book Sale on Saturday, November 1, the mayor added. The inaugural event will be highlighted by a Noon unveiling of a giant, 64 foot-long mural on the side of the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Commissioned by the store and with some financial support from the city’s Public Arts Advisory Council, noted professional illustrator and city resident Stephen Fieser was engaged to design a multicultural view of ‘Sunset in Riverfront Park’, with characters depicting the lives of people past, present and future at play and work. The distinctive new Midtown landmark pays homage to the turn-of-the-Twentieth Century “City Beautiful” Movement, during which Riverfront Park was first constructed.

The large-scale public artwork is the third major installation undertaken in conjunction with the city’s ongoing Historic Mural Program, which was first begun by the Mayor in 2001. Two large-scale murals have already been completed on City Island, and more are currently in the design or other stages of development. An all- volunteer civic board, the Mayor’s Public Art Advisory Board oversees the different mural installations and provides standards, specifications and other support for public art installations in the city.

Reed said the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is open seven days a week, with hours of Noon to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. They can be reached at 717.236.1680.

Canaday Old and Rare Books is open five days a week, including 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and Noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Ted Canaday’s Old and Rare Books can be reached at 717.233.6911.

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