By Ellen Morris Bishop

In the mid 1970s, Rich and Judy Wandschneider were looking for new careers. They had recently completed a stint in the Peace Corps, and Rich was looking to move away from work with the OSU Extension here. They thought running a bookstore might be a nice peaceful occupation. For advice, they contacted Sunriver, Idaho bookstore owner Barbara Bailey. Her advice was “It’s easier to fill up a small space. Don’t start in a barn.” Because every regular street level business was rented out in Enterprise, the Wandschneiders had to take Bailey’s advice. In 1976 they rented a vacant second-floor dentist’s office. “It was pretty tiny, Rich Wandschneider said, “but it worked.” What to name it? Avid customer and Enterprise librarian Edna Aschenbrenner suggested the name “The Bookloft,” and a star was born.

In 1978, The Bookloft moved into its present location, where Ben Weather’s insurance agency had been housed. The space was bigger. So that the store would live up to its name, the Wandschneiders built the elevated “loft” that now contains the children’s section. The rear part of the store, where the Skylight Gallery is now, became a woodshop rented to Charlie Kissinger. “You’d be browsing among the books and you could hear the saws running,” Rich Wandschneider said. “It could get a little noisy at times.” The woodshop morphed into the Skylight Gallery in 1980. The gallery remains one of The Bookloft’s main attractions, presenting David Jensen’s photographs, Ted Juve’s pottery and a variety of other art and artisan offerings, from jewelry to soap to warm knit hats.

Mary Swanson bought the Bookloft in 1988. “I’d always wanted to run a bookstore,” she said. “But it just didn’t seem very practical.” Fate thought otherwise. She heard about a bookstore for sale in Wallowa County, talked to both Wandschneiders, and before she knew it, Mary Swanson and her husband were ensconced in Enterprise as the proud new owners of the bookstore.

“I didn’t change much,” Mary said. “I didn’t have to.” Her strategy through the years has been simple but successful. “I pretty much stock the books that I find interesting,” she said. “There’s trends out there, and best sellers. But what I order are books that I like or have a belief in. I don’t order books just because they are popular. I just stock works that I like and seem good reads for Wallowa County.” Being true to the real books in a real bookstore has always worked for me.”