History of Macdonald Bookshop

In 1908, Ed Macdonald purchased a small log cabin from the forest service built just the year before. This cabin became the home for the Macdonald’s. Just up the street, on the corner of Moraine and Elkhorn , Ed opened up a hardware and general store to support his family. In 1928, at the age of sixty-seven, Ed Macdonald retired from his general store, helping his wife as they opened a book store in the parlor of their home. Selling candles, cigars, candy, school supplies, office supplies, magazines, stationery, and books, the Macdonald’s thrived in their business.

As the years went by the book store would expand to take over what had previously been family residence. Louise Macdonald Brown would, every summer, bring her two children, Paula and Mark, to live in the book shop and help with the running of the store with their grandmother, Jessica. And Macdonald Book Shop would continue to be a staple in the town of Estes Park, visitors and residents alike coming to depend on the sight of Jessica Macdonald and her beloved store.

At the age of eighty-three, in 1957, in the upstairs of the little shop, Jessica Macdonald died in her sleep, passing on the book store to her daughters. Louise Macdonald Brown would come up from Trinidad with her children every summer to run the bookstore with the help of Jessica's niece, Rhoda Tallant. The Browns would live upstairs and run the book shop downstairs. This continued with Louise's daughter Paula taking an avid interest in the running of the shop.

Upon Louise's death in 1971, Paula took over full time management of the shop, bringing her two children Stacia and Stephen to live year round in the upstairs of the store. The book store remained pretty much the same until 1982 when the dam at Lawn Lake collapsed letting its waters crash through Estes Park and devastating the book shop. As the waters receded, the store was repaired with the help of more than eighty volunteers, and grew as more of the original home was incorporated into the shop.