Green Heron Bookstore gets a new home

A YEAR IN REVIEW

Editor’s Note: Over the next several issues, we will be highlighting notable articles and staff favorites that occurred throughout 2024. This article was initially published on July 21.

Cicero said that, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” If this is true — that a room can be without meaning and purpose without books — then perhaps the same could be said for a town without a bookshop. Thankfully, San Marcos’ time without an indie bookstore was relatively short thanks to Wade Vetiver and the Green Heron Bookshop. Vetiver opened Green Heron in February on West Hopkins only two years after Half Price Books closed its doors. Green Heron currently occupies one corner of The Young Building, along with Vetiver’s original business, Solidago Apothecary.

Now, due to both shops’ success, Vetiver is relocating to a larger building — a steamboat Victorian house built in 1865 — located at 504 Burleson.

A graduate from Texas State, Vetiver studied science and herbalism before transitioning into healthcare, where he worked for over 10 years.

“I worked in massage therapy - yoga - spa world for a majority of my youth,” Vetiver said. “That’s a different kind of healing. The goal was always to have a business, primarily centered around healing, wellness and spirituality.”

With that in mind, Vetiver opened Solidago — the name of which comes from the Latin word “solida,” meaning “to make whole.” Then once the front space of The Young Building became available, Vetiver saw the opportunity to bring another kind of healing to San Marcos, this time in the form of books.

“Joy has been the core of everything, not just for me but for the whole community,” Vetiver said. “I really wanted to create something that enriches the fabric of the community: having a place to hang, poetry readings, book clubs, all of those types of things.”

With that as a starting place, Vetiver did community outreach to find what the community would want from an indie bookshop.

“My goal was, ‘How can we put the best book all of us have ever read into one place?’” Vetiver said. “Over 200 titles in the shop are from community recommendations. It’s a very broad assortment of titles, from nonfiction to fantasy, sci-fi. The core of the shop is the community and what people are reading here in San Marcos. Reading is a bridge between the dream world and reality. It’s a weird little step that’s written down in between that we can share. I find that really magical.”

The thing is, the Green Heron Bookshop does feel magical. Everything from the community-recommended titles to the hardbound, screen-printed editions of the classics, from the 100-year-old antique typewriter (nicknamed Virgil, and it is still in excellent working order) to the art made by local artists, the Green Heron looks and feels and smells like a book lover’s dream.

With the move, the Green Heron will be able to bring all of these aspects under one roof, and Vetiver is more than excited to see how both of his businesses will come together.

“The house itself leans to the bookshop/apothecary essence,” Vetiver said. “The bookshop will double the Green Heron’s current size, with used books on one side and new on the other. There will be some couches and chairs. There’s a big wrap-around porch. I’m going to get the garden in a place where it’s able to be hung out in, and grow herbs for the apothecary. We’re taking right from the land here.”

Being part of San Marcos and paying tribute to its characteristics as well as its people is important to Vetiver as well.

“I named the shop Green Heron with a nod to the ecology of the area,” Vetiver said. “I’m definitely a river guardian, a river lover. That color, our green river, the green heron and the color of San Marcos was my idea of what a San Marcos bookshop would look like.”

Green Heron book shop will remain open in its present location until the last week of July, with a soft opening planned for Aug. 1 at 504 Burleson. “My plan is mid-August to have a housewarming type thing,” Vetiver said. “We’ll have bookshop events. I’m looking at board games, poetry and the book club. There are other things brewing as well. There is more coming.”

More than anything, Vetiver keeps to the core principles of joy and community.

“Having something to immerse in that isn’t a phone,” Vetiver said. “There’s a social element of the bookshop that we can’t get with Amazon. There’s community here. It’s built into the shop with the book selections. That ignites conversations. Love that, can’t get enough of it. And I’m also getting to live that middle school dream of owning my own bookshop.” Though it was a dream a long time in the making, Vetiver is excited to see it unfold into reality.

“This is full circle,” he said. “When I decided to come back to San Marcos, I kept thinking about how happy I was here, and the river... After working very hard — I saved every penny for the last 10 years while I was in the grind — I took that nest egg and opened the shops.”

Though the world seems dominated by Amazon and its promise of oneday shipping, Vetiver has seen a pleasant shift in San Marcos, one that he has helped to foster into existence.

“We’re in an interesting time right now where a lot of these things have phased out, and people miss them, they’re hungry to experience them again,” Vetiver said. “I think people are aware of what we lost, so they’ve been more willing to support. In the time before, we were seeing the shiny new toy of Amazon, but there’s a resurgence of small bookshops. I’m really proud of this town and our readers.”

Take the opportunity to visit Green Heron Bookshop at its present location at 323 W. Hopkins before Aug. 1, or visit online at greenheronbookshop. square.site. Check out the perks of becoming a bookshop member, and visit Solidago in person or online as well at wadevetiver. com. To get regular updates about what’s happening at Green Heron, follow the bookshop on Instagram at instagram. com/greenheronbookshop.