Just like beloved words nestled between the pages of a book, Buxton Books is a beloved local, independent bookstore, nestled between shops along Downtown King Street, near the intersection at Queen Street. While it is an amazing bookseller, offering best-sellers and favorites, such as those pictured, it is so much more - It is a place of learning, connecting, and discovering.
In addition to being a bookseller, Buxton Books offers tours that are great for visitors to the peninsula, as well as locals. Owner Polly Buxton relayed the importance to service both locals and visitors, because when she goes to visit new places, she wants to go the bookstore that the locals enjoy.
They offer a ghost tour every night that is based off the research and book Polly’s husband and Buxton co-owner, Julian Buxton, wrote. In addition, they are the only ghost tour allowed in the Unitarian Church Graveyard.
For all their tours, the guides focus on story and the power of place. Buxton Books has "The Lost Stories of Black Charleston Tour," led by Damon Fordham, a writer and history professor at The Citadel. "Storied Charleston" by Liz Duren is their newest tour offered that features a tour of Charleston through an artist’s eyes.
“Our values are that we respect and care about history, ones that we grew up learning and ones with stories untold," Polly Buxton said. "We are trying to make a bookstore a place of connection, conversation with the freedom to engage and (the ability to) continue to learn.”
An important part of Buxton Books is bringing the stories of Charleston to the front in a way that can only be experienced by interacting with talented tour guides and walking through the streets, under the oak trees, smelling the salt and marsh in the air, while the words people hear carry and transport them.
Buxton Books is focused on community and bringing conversation to the words held between a book’s cover. The words don’t stay confined there, but are celebrated and curiously engaged with in different bookstore programs. The store recently had Sadeqa Johnson talk about her novel, The House of Eve. The venue was packed with folks eager to hear from the talented writer on her journey, inspiration, characters, plot, and process. As a writer myself, I found it particularly motivating.
A few of the upcoming events include "Bookends: A Book Club Discussion with Victoria Benton Frank and Polly Buxton" for Jeanette Wall’s Hang the Moon, a "Publication Day Event Celebrating Swamp Kings" with journalist and author Jason Ryan, "Black Majority" with Peter H. Wood in conversation with Herb Frazier, and a conversation between Glenis Redmon amd Lib Ramos. You can see a list of all upcoming events here.
This bookstore has connections with the College of Charleston, hiring many English Majors and Creative Writing Masters of Fine Arts students, so their recommendations are sure to be hit.
“Charleston is changing all the time and I know that people like to focus on changes that are not good, and there are plenty of those to look at if you are looking at everything from flooding to too many tourists and congestion," Polly Buxton said. "You can focus on these things that are going away, or you can also focus on what is good. And there is so much that is good.”
