End of an Era
Last weekend Hull’s Family Bookstore in Thunder Bay closed its doors for the last time. Like thousands of other small bookstores everywhere, it has succumbed to the changes in the marketplace with the rise of e-books and the competitive edge held by Internet giants such as Amazon. The demise of small bookstores where people can browse and chat about favourite authors is a sad, inevitable reality.
The little store on Brodie Street first opened its doors in 1953 as The Christian Supply House. Like the woman who began it, it was a modest, unassuming presence that managed to quietly serve a far-reaching clientele for many decades without noise or fanfare.
Eleanor Moyer came to the Lakehead in 1940. A shy Mennonite farm girl from southern Ontario, she arrived at the train station in Port Arthur to begin her summer job teaching Vacation Bible School for the Canadian Sunday School Mission. Her duties included obtaining permission from the school boards in seven different rural communities in the region, travelling by bicycle, finding her own accommodation, locating and inviting the children, creating lesson plans and activities and planning closing programs for parents each week. For this she was paid the sum of $15 living expenses for two months.
Amazingly, Eleanor returned the following summer—and the summer after. Eventually she was hired by the Sunday School Mission to work year-round in the Port Arthur-Fort William area. In 1946, the Mission purchased property on the shore of Black Bay for an interdenominational Bible camp. Eleanor became the camp’s “interim” director. Back in 1950, the concept of women in leadership was frowned on. Her “interim” job lasted for 22 years, during which time she grew Dorion Bible Camp to become a modern, full-facility camp that served 700 campers each summer.
In 1953, only a few years after taking on the job of camp director, she decided to open a Christian bookstore. Up until then, churches had to order Bibles and teaching supplies from catalogues. With a $200 loan from her father, Eleanor opened “The Christian Supply House.” Over the thirty-two years that she operated the store, it continued to thrive and expand.
One friend described Eleanor as a visionary—a woman before her time. Eleanor became a member of the Thunder Bay Business Association at a time when women were rarely seen in the business world.
In 1985, Eleanor retired and sold her successful business to Hull’s Publishing Company from Winnipeg. It continued to serve the community faithfully through the years,
February 15 was its last day. Customers came to reminisce, to shed tears, to bring baking, to share stories. Musical groups came to perform. One couple, married 16 years, told how they had first met at Hull’s. For those present, the store’s closing was like the loss of a family member.
Joni Mitchell once wrote, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” Like the woman who started it, the “little bookstore with the big heart” leaves a lasting legacy.
