One of Denver and Colorado’s long standing institutions is the Tattered Cover. Enduring through the multiple years of merging conglomerates and consolidations, the tiny little piece of Denver withstood all of it. When books moved to digital, it may have seemed like the end then too. With bookstores as large as several football fields popping up in the 1990s, the Tattered Cover remained the little book store that could and indeed did.
Joyce Meskis opened the first store in Cherry Creek North on Second Avenue. With two employees working the 950sqft store the Tattered Cover expanded over the next ten years. The first Tattered Cover Book Store opened in Cherry Creek North on Second Avenue. By January 1983, Meskis was opening a second location just one block east of the first store and three years later, the entire store was moved there. In 1990 the LoDo store on 16th and Wynkoop was opened. The book stores became cafés four years later. In 2004, the tattered Cover opened its Highlands Ranch location. By now, the LoDo store had expanded to over 20,000sqft and was regularly featuring prominent writers at its event space that could seat over 300 people. The Tattered Cover saw a lot of changes in 2006 when it closed its Cherry Creek store and moved to Colfax.
A Spirit of Independence
This little monumental book store celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011 and today continues to inspire a spirit of independence. In the author circles, this little book store is a beacon of light, a resource of care and love for, not just books, but the people who write them, all of which Joyce Meskis has nurtured through the years like her own children. Today, the little book store has grown to be the largest independent book store in the nation and this year you will find the Tattered Cover even at the airport at the terminal B course.
Instead of folding, the Tattered Cover continued to expand and relocate. From its lean and meager beginnings, today, the Tattered Cover stands as a monument for independent bookstores around the nation and worldwide. Akin to the battles of microbreweries vs. big beer or Walmart vs Tom’s Grocery store, the tattered cover has fought off, not only Walmart, but Barnes and Noble, the era of mall bookstores such as Waldens and the likes of Borders and Daltons, all of which have been closing in the last five years.
Not bad for a little store. But I doubt such a story could have unfolded in just any other city.
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