Booksellers Reinvent a Retail Institution for New Growth

The spirit of Dayton, Ohio's illustrious past is being channeled into the state's oldest bookstore, Wilkie News. This latest foray into history is yet another passion of Wilkie's owners, Jim and Pat Latham. Thanks to them, the 3,000-square-foot bookstore now offers a new café, a tribute in its décor and menu to the late, legendary neighboring Rike-Kumler Department Store.

The Lathams -- former owners of BookFriends -- first saved Wilkie's, the venerable 108-year-old downtown bookstore, in 1999 by purchasing it three days before its scheduled closing. They renovated and remodeled the space and made room for the workshop of the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company (WBAC). Native sons Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up and began aviation tinkering in Dayton, one-half mile from Wilkie's, and, in recognition of this, the WBAC is hand building full-sized, working replicas of all six of the experimental planes the Wright Brothers made between 1899 and 1905. (For a related story, click here.)

With the Aeroplane Company in full swing, and Wilkie's reputation as the complete source for everything in print in English about the Wright Brothers, the Latham's embarked on their next project.

Rike's was Dayton's oldest department store, having its origins in a dry goods business begun in 1853. By 1953, it was Dayton's fourth-largest employer and, at 500,000 square feet, the fifth-largest department store by volume in the nation. The store was shuttered in 1993, and demolished in 1999 to clear the way for construction of the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts. For Jim Latham, who has a background in both construction and architectural restoration, the salvage pile left before the complete demolition of Rike's in July 1999 was irresistible.

He and Pat, with staff help, were given carte blanche from Memorial Day through early July to search through the remains of the store for treasures. There were many finds -- 1860 art glass partitions, vintage fixtures, first-floor bronze and mahogany elevator doors, a green art deco drinking fountain, and marble from the store's entryways. These were stored until the Lathams were able to put them to use in the new café. The marble has been turned into the counter, the classic soda fountain serves 21st century milkshakes and floats. On loan, for as long as the restaurant is in business, is a 1911 brass Rike's sign collected by a department store employee when it was discarded in a 1953 remodeling.

"Even our garbage cans are from Rike's," Latham commented. "When the store closed in 1993, they threw everything in the trash that said 'Rike's.'" Everything included famous recipes for Rike's specialties served in the store's numerous eateries and shipped to other Rike's stores in suburban Dayton. The recipes were salvaged by the department store's last food service manager, Charles Dixon, a three-decade Rike's employee. Dixon gave the recipes to the Lathams and helped adapt them to serve dozens rather than thousands. Quiche, barbecue beef, and fruit salad with Rike's celery-seed dressing are among the store's classics, reincarnated at the 42-seat restaurant in Wilkie's bookstore. The café began serving breakfast, lunch, and ice cream in late October. A grand opening is planned for next month, and the Lathams expect the business will acquire a liquor license soon after that.

During the Lathams' long struggle to secure the funding for Wilkie's, they maintained that to survive in Dayton's downtown, the bookstore must include a restaurant. Now they have one and business is booming.

Jim Latham told BTW that the number of people coming into the store has tripled since the opening of the restaurant. "With that increase, many of those people are buying books and magazines. People are more aware of the store. The local radio stations are coming by and doing stories about it, and we're not paying a dime for advertising. The Dayton Daily News did a nice piece about us. We're using almost all local businesses and suppliers."

But the Lathams haven't forgotten that Wilkie's is, foremost, a bookstore. "Of course, when people enter the store, the first thing they see is the Book Sense 76 display," Latham said. -- Nomi Schwartz