(Image: Elliott Bay Book Company)

Hall, Taylor, and Burgess

By Kali Herbst Minino

Today, staff at Elliott Bay Book Company will lift piles of books up and down the wooden stairs and replenish tall bookshelves for customers to wander through. Tracy Taylor, general manager turned co-owner of the store, continues to work alongside her floor staff as the group of booksellers restock the colorful merchandise celebrating Elliott Bay’s 50th anniversary. Having worked at the store for more than 30 years before purchasing it alongside Murf Hall and Joey Burgess last year, Taylor has been there through the majority of the bookstore’s half-century of history that started in Pioneer Square — and now is an even bigger part of its future on Capitol Hill.

The first time she submitted an application to Elliott Bay, she wasn’t hired.

“The person at that time didn’t hire me because they didn’t think I’d stick around long enough,” Taylor said. “I laugh about that now and say ‘I’m here just to show them that I could stay long enough.’”

Taylor moved to Seattle at the beginning of 1990 after getting a teaching certificate and working at an independent bookstore chain in Denver, the Tattered Cover. She moved to Seattle to pursue teaching, but her love for bookselling changed her plans.

A couple of days later, Elliott Bay gave her a call because the other applicant hadn’t worked out. Learning as much about the bookselling business as possible, she was mentored by the original founder of the bookstore, Walter Carr. Taylor eventually became a co-manager, and when Carr sold the business in 1999, she was offered a position as general manager.

In 2010, she was part of the store’s big move to Pike/Pine as Elliott Bay became Capitol Hill’s most popular transplant.

“I have loved almost every minute of it. Nobody loves every aspect of their job, but I have never looked back or questioned that choice as a career,” Taylor said.

Although she never saw herself as a bookstore owner, Taylor knew she wanted to have a say in business decisions. Peter Aaron, the owner of the store after Carr, had talked to Taylor about succession of the company before, but Taylor didn’t want to run it alone. She had opened Pike/Pine newsstand and magazine shop Big Little News in March 2021 alongside Hall and Burgess, and Aaron aired their co-ownership as an option.

By June 2022 Taylor, Burgess, and Hall owned Elliott Bay.

Taylor credits the personal nature of bookselling as a reason she has stayed in the business for so long. One time, Taylor overheard a customer talking to a worker at the register about a book they had been recommended by a staff member that was the best book the customer had ever read. Taylor realized it was a book she had recommended to the customer, and it was a special, personal experience.

“There is something really magical about books and the book business. People who work here love to read, but it’s a retail job, too,” Taylor said. “It’s an incredibly personal profession in so many ways.”

Taylor thinks the staff’s efforts in seeking out diverse literature is something that sets working at Elliott Bay apart from other bookstores.

Elliott Bay moved into this old auto row-era building on 10th Ave in 2013

“I would say 10 to 15 years ago you would come in and look across the displays in the store and they were largely white men,” Taylor said. “You come in now and you really don’t see that.”

During Elliott Bay’s time on Capitol Hill, Taylor has been a part of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce, a co-chair of the mayor’s small business advisory council, and is now working with the Cal Anderson Park Association. Joining those organizations was largely inspired by her and Elliott Bay’s time in Pioneer Square where she believes Elliott Bay wasn’t engaged enough with the neighborhood and surrounding businesses.

“The city really had given up on that beautiful neighborhood at that time and we were ready to close our doors, we almost went out of business.When we moved it caused a shift in people looking at that neighborhood differently and realizing it needed more attention,” Taylor said. “When we moved to Capitol Hill I knew that it was going to be important to be involved in the neighborhood.”

What is next? Taylor is looking to help mentor the next generation of owners. Hall and Burgess are new to bookstore-specific ownership, Taylor says, and are growing a family of businesses including Queer/Bar, The Cuff, and Oddfellows. Taylor is also looking to redo fixtures like flooring and carpeting in the massive book shop.

“The store really runs well, the staff knows what they’re doing, it’s about not fucking it up,” Taylor said.

Elliott Bay will be holding 50th anniversary events this weekend including Thursday night’s conversation on Queer Books & Bookselling with Michael Coy and Karen Maeda Allman and a 50th Anniversary Family Day Celebration at the store on Saturday. More information can be found at elliottbaybook.com. Elliott Bay Book Company is located at 1521 10th Ave.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍