Wild Geese is on the move.
After five years in business, the Franklin bookshop is relocating to a new home at 48 E. Madison Street.
Wild Geese owner Tiffany Lauderdale Phillips has had her eye on a 1911-built former hotel for a while, and is eagerly awaiting renovations to be finished, she said. Franklin Heritage is working to update the building with plans to open up shop Oct. 1.
The bookshop will occupy the bottom floor of the two-story building, and Franklin Heritage will move its offices to the top floor. The top floor will include office space, meeting rooms and a library dedicated to historic preservation, according to Franklin Heritage’s website.
With the new, larger space, Phillips plans to bring bookshop events onsite for the first time, and expand the care package and subscription box side of the business, she said.
Phillips moved to Franklin in 2015 when her husband got a job at Franklin College. An attorney working remotely, she was originally just looking for an office space to get out of the house and closer to the downtown coffee shops.
But when she saw the current space at 107 S. Water Street, she couldn’t help but think it would make a nice bookshop. With no dedicated book store in the city and Franklin’s caring spirit, love of learning and curiosity about the world, she had a feeling Franklin could be the place to finally act on her dream of opening one.
Phillips opened the store in November 2016 with a bookshop in the front and her law office in the back. Initial expectations were low, and she was just hoping the store would survive.
With time, support from the Franklin community and the nationwide indie bookshop community, the store took off, she said.
“Franklin has been the secret to my success,” Phillips said. “My store wouldn’t have as much success in another community. You have to have a community that believes in itself, a community that loves itself and wants to be better.”
As a new resident, Phillips learned more about the community through the shop, and the shop opened up city residents and tourists alike to new worlds and ideas, she said.
At her current space — and the new one — she wants it to be a place where all are welcome and people can learn and interact with people they might not otherwise meet. The best part of owning the shop is watching people light up when they talk about their favorite books and connect in real life over their shared experiences, she said.
“I want to be a space where you can feel warm, safe and respected,” Phillips said. “My focus in doing this has never been to be the biggest. I want to grow deep roots and be a big oak tree. We don’t need to be a forest.”
The coronavirus pandemic presented challenges for the small shop, which had to close down during Indiana’s mandatory stay-at-home order. The pandemic helped Phillips come up with new ways to serve customers, though, by installing a curbside pick-up box, making more items available online, and expanding gift and subscription options, she said.
The gift boxes and subscription service gave her a new way to connect with customers without physical contact, in a way that is still personalized and meaningful, she said.
Each box is like sunshine bottled and dropped in the mail. That’s why the all-occasion gift boxes are called a “sunshine box,” Phillips said.
Each sunshine box and subscription order come with descriptions of the person who will receive it. With that information, staff at the store pick out books and trinkets from the shop catered to that person. The boxes remain popular and have room to grow in the new space, she said.
Events will also grow. With the bookshop’s small footprint, events so far were mostly off-site.
Soon, with more room for wine and book talks and potential for music on the porch, there will be more ways than ever to connect with customers, she said.
Through Festival Country Indiana’s and her own efforts online, Wild Geese has become a stop high on the list of places to visit on a trip to Franklin.
The new location will only enhance that, with its new proximity to long-time tourism staples such as The Historic Artcraft Theatre and The Willard.
