Down a winding dirt road in Greenwich, you’ll find a complex of red barns tucked behind a historic white home. The barns are a bookstore! It doesn’t get more charming!
Inside, you’ll find thousands of pre-owned books and new owners Sydney Nichols and Eric Kufs, who moved across the country from Los Angeles in 2022 to take ownership of this Washington County gem. We caught up with Sydney to find out a bit more about Owl Pen Books, its history, and plans for the future…
Tell us a bit about the history of Owl Pen Books!
Barbara Probst, the founder of Owl Pen, had moved to the property in 1945 from Manhattan after stumbling across the house on a weekend jaunt upstate. She was a very enterprising woman and supported herself with chicken farming and other agricultural pursuits while she renovated the farmhouse and its outbuildings, until she decided to open the bookstore in 1960 in a former hog pen on the property which we now affectionately call Little Owl Pen. She actually lived in that building—and hand-built the stone fireplace in it—until the farmhouse was livable. In the mid 1960s she was able to expand the bookstore into a large chicken coop she’d built off the original bank barn across the lawn from Little Owl Pen. The chickens got the boot and the coop was filled with books, and today that is still the main bookstore building. In 1980, Hank Howard and Edie Brown bought the place and Barbara moved just up the road. Hank and Edie ran the Owl Pen for over 40 years. Hank passed away in 2020 and Edie decided in 2021 that she was ready to pass Owl Pen along to the next generation.
How about you - how did you come to be the new owners?
Eric and I were living in Los Angeles, where I grew up and where he’d been living for over 20 years. Eric is a singer/songwriter and college English professor, and I worked as a graphic designer for more than 10 years, though my degree is in writing, literature and publishing. In August 2021 I stumbled on the listing for the Owl Pen property on my Facebook feed, sent it to Eric as a half-joke, like “hey, we could change our lives and go do this,” and he said, “actually, that sounds pretty great, let’s look into it”. We visited the property in September 2021, met Edie, and were enchanted by the bookstore, the property, and the house. We were able to take advantage of the hot LA real estate market, sold our house in February 2022, moved in during a snowstorm, and haven’t looked back.
What can people expect to find here?
We carry used books on all subjects, from children’s books both modern and antique, fiction, local history materials, and all kinds of non-fiction. We have everything from $1 little paperbacks to rare antiquarian books. We also carry ephemera like vintage maps, prints, postcards, and pamphlets, and we’ve added vinyl records to the inventory. What makes the Owl Pen extra special is not just the selection but the location—two old barns filled with books, surrounded by the rolling hills of Washington County, beautiful gardens, and tall trees. We’re out here in the country, but we promise it’s worth the drive.
What has been the most rewarding part about running the Owl Pen thus far?
It’s wonderful to meet families who have been coming to the Owl Pen for generations, and to have the support of longtime customers as we take the reins. It’s also been exciting to be able to help new customers discover us. We feel so fortunate to be stewards of this special place, and we want to share it with as many people as possible.
What's next for Owl Pen Books? Any plans for updates or new additions?
The biggest change we’ve made so far is to add vinyl records to the inventory. This year, we opened up a back office as our “vinyl room” where we have thousands of records in all genres. We also have plans to begin hosting events this year, like readings and musical performances and hope to build that up in the future.
