Webster's Bookstore Café

After a year-and-a-half hiatus, Webster's is back and better than ever! It's been a long journey made possible through the generous support of many folks who just wouldn't give up on Webster's! Whether you donated time, financial support, moving muscle, or new ideas, you are part of the new Webster's and we couldn't be happier.

Many parts of Webster's will remain the same, but some have changed for the better! The new space features the bookstore that you loved before, but now with even more selection and more room for browsing! Our new space at 133 E. Beaver Ave has plenty of room to mingle the cafe into the bookstore without putting any tables and chairs in the way of the bookshelves. We'll still have cozy nooks and comfortable places to sit, but you'll never have to ask someone to move to see any of the books! It's twice as big as the store on Allen Street so we've been able to combine our warehouse Internet operation into the same location, making our bottom line healthy again! Josh Ferko's Stax of Trax Record Shop is back, too!

Captain Bli (Jeff Brendle) will continue to make his amazing soups, and April Meyers' Enchanted Kitchen will continue to provide sustaining, wholesome, and delicious raw food options. Matthew Stullken returns to make delicious food for you, too! Our goal is a simple one: provide good, real food, prepared fresh with local and organic products whenever possible. Eating meals away from home shouldn't be a life-shortening experience. Think of Webster's as your kitchen away from home, stocked with life-sustaining foods that you can feel good about eating.

Webster's Bookstore Café is also a general used bookstore stocking over 100,000 titles in our inventory, with large holdings in fiction and literature, history, literary criticism, science fiction and fantasy, and vintage paperbacks. We offer a full line of coffee and espresso drinks, teas, and delicious desserts. Our cafe serves shade-grown, organic Fair Trade coffees, over 90 loose-leaf teas and Sweet Indulgence desserts. We deal with local vendors whenever possible, but look for similar standards of environmental and community concern in choosing our other vendors, as well.

Webster's is the proud descendant of a long line of State College used bookshops. Founded in 1974 as Book Swap on Fraser Street, we became Seven Mountains Books in 1993 on Pugh Street. Webster's moved to our former location on Allen Street in June of 1999, adding the cafe and doubling the size of the bookstore. The store was renamed Webster's Bookstore Cafe at that time. A victim of the economic downturn, Webster's on Allen closed in the downtown in August 2010. We're thrilled to be back in business at our wonderful new location, 133 E. Beaver Ave. Thank you to the many people who made Webster's rising possible. It would have not happened without your belief and support.

Why is the name "Webster's?"

Why Webster's? Well, here are the many reasons, actually, none of which relate to the dictionary:

in the Clifford Simak novel, City, the main character is a dog living with the Webster family. Great book, you should read it.
it's a loose variation of the German word, weber, meaning to weave, as we have woven many different personalities into one store.
extension of web, since so much of our business depends on the Web.
plus, it just seemed to stick, even though no one is Mr. or Mrs. Webster.

(Now you can sleep at night...)