The pulse of Oberlin: what's up downtown

Miranda Books never looked like a used book store. The shelves of books about traditional horticulture and military tactics were carefully alphabetized. The aisles are well-lit. The smells of mold and must were virtually absent.

Miranda Books is no longer a used book store. Owner Susan Judge liquidated her entire inventory in the fall of 1997 and headed West.

"I'm not giving up on books," Judge said in October. "I'm not abandoning that at all."

Judge bought Miranda Books in 1988. "I was married at that time," she said. Recently divorced, Judge was been forced to try to convert a supplemental income to a full-time job. The pressures of working 70 hours a week without health benefits finally convinced Judge to give up the business.

"I came to a decision over the summer," Judge said. "I'd have to go further into debt or find something else to do."

Judge found something to do at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Judge began work there as a buyer in November.

"I'm going to Oregon," Judge told one woman who stopped by the cash register.

"Oh, you really are going away!" the customer said. "I wish you all sorts of luck. We'll miss you terribly."

Judge built an inventory of 30,000 books. Some of the books stick around longer than others. "You can tell it's summer in Oberlin if we can keep Nietzche on the shelf," she said. "We have a whole list of what we call 24-hour books; Jack Kerouac, Margaret Atwood."

Miranda Books was home to the largest collection of out-of-print music books in Ohio. "We've had enough to seperate Classical from Jazz," Judge said. "That's the thing I'm the proudest of. We have three or four double sided shelves of music books. And women's studies. At most bookstores it's back in the corner. Women's Studies is front and center in this store."

Oberlin resident Mike Haverstock has been shopping at Miranda Books for many years. He bought a discounted copy of The Crimson Jester on Thursday. "It's a marvelous story of Zapata," Haverstock said, gingerly leafing through the pages. "You see I'm interested in journalism, so I come here and I always find books on journalists. I hope very much someone continues this store because Susan has been marvelous."

Miranda Books has drawn patrons from the streets of Oberlin and the outback of Australia. Frustrated customers at Borders and Waldenbooks were refered to Judge. "A man in Albuquerque had been searching for a book for all these years," Judge said. "It was a scarce book about the internal ballistics of guns. I sent it off to him, and he sent me a note. That really makes you feel good."

"I'm glad I've been in Oberlin," Judge said. "It's a great place to raise a kid. My son's been coming to work with me since he was ten days old. He's been ringing up newspapers since he was three. This store is more my son's home than any house."

"He's excited about Oregon, and so am I," Judge said. "I've had to pare down my book collection to no more than 12 packing boxes. The first editions of Virginia Woolf and George Orwell, they're going with me."

Legend has it that Campus Restaurant made a name for itself by drenching a bowl of vanilla ice cream in hot fudge.

Although Campus will continue to serve up their signature hot fudge sundaes, the restaurant's newest owner is concentrating his efforts on rolling catfish in cornmeal.

"We plan to amend the menu," said owner John Sherod. "We'll add black-eyed peas, collard greens, corn-on-the-cob."

Although restaurant patrons are still met with the familiar xeroxed yellow menus, the specials board now boasts of a catfish dish. The food is prepared by the restaurant's new cook, Sherod's brother-in-law.

"Everybody says they like it," Sherod said. "Everybody said they want it."

Sherod said he will continue serving breakfast, a popular Campus staple. Sherod has no plans to take the quilts off the wall or rename the establishment. According to Sherod, the restaurant's regulars are still coming in.

Sherod, who previously owned a bar in Elyria, bought the restaurant from Helen and Les Lewis. The Lewises owned Campus for nearly twenty years. The couple decided to retire this year.

The transition has not been entirely smooth. Food still arrives slowly. Sherod's cash register is adorned with photocopies of counterfeit bills he has already received. Some waitresses have quit, including a few who walked off the job Sunday.

"Sunday was my first day," Sherod said. "Now things seem to be leveling off. Everything is getting along fine."

Students who complain of downtown Oberlin's lack of entertainment probably would not find the addition of another coffee shop to be a viable solution to boredom. Not even a coffee shop that provides free internet access for its customers.

And yet a new coffee shop may indeed be opening its doors in downtown Oberlin soon. Kevin Muldoon, co-owner of the building at 51 to 53 South Main St., came up with the idea about nine months ago.

Muldoon plans to put the coffee shop in the southeast corner of his building, which currently houses such tenants as Tappan Square Cleaners and Intermessage Communication.

The coffee shop, which would have 20 to 24 tables, would face the Oberlin Public Library parking lot. Muldoon hopes to completely redo the front of the store. The entrance would require the use of a seven-foot wide strip of library land for handicap access.

Muldoon said one reason for adding a coffee shop is the crowd at the library.

"A lot of them are elderly people and young kids. I think we have a service we can supply to them," Muldoon said. He also said the new shop would create about 14 jobs.

Muldoon was approached by representatives of both Starbucks, Inc. and Arabica Licensing Services, Inc., whose corporations are vying for the location. Arabica is a Cleveland-based franchise with several shops in the Cleveland area.

In keeping with Oberlin's traditionally skeptical outlook on chain restaurants, student response to the proposal was strongly negative.

"I think it is a bad idea to bring a Starbucks to Oberlin because everything else is local businesses and that adds to its charm," said sophomore Natasha Rothchild.

First-year Hondo Weiss-Richmonds said, "I would hate it. It would destroy smaller shops like the Feve and Java Zone like it has in a lot of other places."

"More coffee!" said President Nancy Dye, "Our cappucino machine to student ratio is already pretty low."

Even those students who like Starbucks weren't enthusiastic about a potential Oberlin debut. "I love Starbucks. It would be great, but unnecessary," first-year Lavell Blackwell said.

Although students expressed concern about a larger chain forcing the local shops out of business, local competitors are not as worried.

Two Trees Cafe Manager Eric Stewart was quick to point out that any new shop would serve different clientele. "I wouldn't call us a coffee shop," he said. "We are more natural foods oriented. We also encourage the purchase of local goods."

Feve co-owner Matt Adelman said, "I think it would be foolish to open another coffee shop. We don't have a large enough community to sustain a Starbucks or Arabica." Adelman was confident that students would continue to visit the Feve. "Oberlin students are intelligent enough to seek out a place which has character," he said.

Adelman described Starbucks as "the McDonalds of coffee."

Starbucks' web page boasts, "We're opening a store on average every business day. Starbucks intends to have two thousand locations in North America by the year 2000."

Muldoon said it's not his intention to hurt other businesses. "We wouldn't bake anything, just bring in stuff. We don't want to take business away from other places," he said. Muldoon hopes his new shop will include free internet terminals.

The final decision of whether to incorporate a new coffee shop has been delayed pending the decision of the Oberlin Public Library board regarding easement of the strip of land bordering Muldoon's property. The library board met today to discuss the proposal.

"There is no legal reason they can't grant easement," Muldoon said. He has not decided which chain would occupy the new shop. "We're leaning toward Arabica, only because they are a local company and have flexibility," he said.

Jack Cochrane is going to take a short nap. It's the first day of the store's Going Out of Business sale. "I've been going like gangbusters for an hour, and I'm tired," he says.

It's hard to believe. Even as he edges towards the stairs, Cochrane, the owner of Powers and Dawley, is energetically greeting the customers who have come to bid farewell to his shop. He grabs hands, pats backs and embraces old friends.

"Where's the big guy?" Cochrane asks one shopper.

"There are people here I don't know," Cochrane said in March. "But about 75 percent of them I know. I've made a lot of friends over the years."

Cochrane's family has owned Powers and Dawley since 1969. Relatives persuaded Cochrane, then living in Chicago, to come home and run the store. After almost 30 years, Cochrane's failing health has forced him to shut the doors forever.

"It's a health issue," Debbie Cochrane said. Debbie Cochrane has been kept busy arranging the store's sudden closure. Clothes had to be put on clearance. A grand closing, replete with prizes, had to be planned.

"You can spell my name any way you want," she said. "Mundane things like that don't matter anymore."

Powers and Dawley has been an Oberlin institution for 60 years.

"We're the only place in Oberlin you can get a legitimate $600 suit," Jack Cochrane said. "We're one of Lorain County's premier better clothing stores."

Cochrane recounted with pride the many customers who had traveled great distances to shop at Powers and Dawley. "We have a judge that comes all the way from Akron," Cochrane said. "He's been with us for twenty years."

At Powers and Dawley, 20 years of patronage barely qualifies a shopper for veteran status.

"I've shopped here for 40 years," Priscilla Steinberg of the Oberlin Chamber of Commerce said. "I'm very, very sorry to see it go."

Dave Parsh of the Oberlin Merchant's Association spoke partly obscured by a clothing rack he picked up for $25.

"It was a shock, it happened so quickly," Parsh said. "It has been an anchor store in the community. Soon these shelves will be bare."

Judging from the throng of eager shoppers snapping up mittens, slippers and ties, Parsh was right. Two petite women surveying a rack of plaid blazers cooed wildly. "This jacket is beautiful! Do you think it will fit?" one asked. "It's a size 14."

"We've shopped her for years and years and years," said Christina Johannsen of Wakeman. "I have all good memories. This is where we bought most of our Christmas gifts."

"Now my daughter's shopping," Johannsen said, scanning the crowd. "I don't know where she went."

"I've lost my wife," growled one shopper in a new suit jacket. "I can't find her."

Jack Cochrane said he is sorry to see the store close.

"I don't like at all," he said. "But the customers don't like us going, which makes us feel pretty good."