Beloved bookstore in Uptown Waterloo forced to close for months following fire

A beloved bookstore in Uptown Waterloo is bearing the brunt of some holiday misfortune.

On Dec. 10, a fire started in one of the units of the building that Old Goat Books operates out of.

It’s not the way owner Erica Nikolaus hoped to start the holidays, which is one of the store’s busiest times of the year.

“My heart sank. I immediately went to the worst case scenario, which would be either water damage or that the books had burned,” said Nikolaus.

Luckily for her, that wasn’t the case. She says nobody was injured either, but the structure of the store was damaged, as well as smoke damage to more than 20,000 books.

“Smoke and books are not a good mix,” she said.

Fire crews outside of Old Goat Books on Dec. 10, 2024. (Submitted)

Nearly two weeks after the fire, it feels like a horror story to Nikolaus. Restoration work is only just beginning, and crews were at the store Monday morning packing up a truck with furniture and some of the thousands of books inside.

“The books will need to be cleaned by hand. Then they go through a process of deodorization, which includes putting them through an ozone chamber, which removes all the smoke smell,” said Nikolaus.

All of that will take time so the bookstore will remain closed until the new year.

“We’re hoping to be back up and running probably by February, maybe March of 2025,” said Nikolaus.

The restoration process is also a costly one.

“The process of restoration is going to cost about $80,000. So we're looking for a little bit of help from the community,” said Nikolaus. “We have a GoFundMe page that was started by a customer, and we're very appreciative of that.”

The fundraiser to restore the bookstore is set at $45,000. That’s the portion, Nikolaus says, is not covered by insurance.

But with more than 20 years of history in Uptown Waterloo, she says this bump in the road is only part of their story and that there’s much more to be written about their legacy and future.

“Old Goat has been here since 2001. We don't plan on going away anytime soon. I think a bookstore in a community is like an oasis. An oasis of civilization. An oasis of culture,” said Nikolaus.

There is a pop-up sale happening at Princess Twin Cinemas on Friday in support of the bookstore. It will include books that have been donated since the fire. Any donations are also welcomed, as are new books traded in for store credit.