South Pasadena : Bookstore to Reopen
The owners of BOOK’em Mysteries, a popular South Pasadena bookstore recently damaged by fire, said the store will reopen in October in a temporary home.
The new location at 118 Mission St. is a half-block east of the damaged site, said Barry Martin, a free-lance television producer who co-owns the store with Mary Riley, a Monrovia teacher. It will take about seven weeks to reorder books and bookcases, and about a year for repairs to be made to the old building, he said.
Fire Chief Bart Carroll said the blaze early Aug. 10 was apparently intentionally started to cover up a burglary. No suspects are in custody.
BOOK’em and two architecture firms were destroyed, he said.
“We watched our dream go up in flames,” Martin said of the store, which opened Oct. 5, 1990. “We watched the roof cave. . . . It was quite an emotional moment.”
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