Bookstore founder’s home, personal library burns on Monday in Flatonia

The Flatonia home of the founder of the once popular Austin bookstore chain, Bookstop, along with his roughly 70,000-book personal library went up flames just before lunchtime on Monday, Oct. 3

Gary Hoover escaped the 113 W. South Main St. building, once home to the Flatonia Community Clinic, with little more than what he had on.

Hoover reportedly said he smoked a cigarette earlier and a stray ash fell on some of his papers, causing them to smolder. He put it out, even dumped water on it, and checked it later. Twice. “It was fine, no smoke. I laid down for an hour, maybe 45 minutes, and then I heard a loud smoke alarm go off,” he told The Fayette County Record.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Flatonia Fire Chief Gregg Robinson said his men tried to get in and fight the blaze from within, but it was no use. “There’s an extreme fire load with all those books,” he said, “more of a fire load than we can get to.”

Firefighters from Flatonia, Schulenburg, La Grange, Waelder and Muldoon fought the blaze from 11:21 a.m. until about 6 p.m. They then monitored it through the night to ensure nothing reignited.

Crews reportedly dumped about a quarter million gallons of water on it, firemen said, draining the town’s water capacity to just 15%.  

The place was not insured, Hoover told reporters. He couldn’t afford it, he added.

Hoover started the Bookstop chain of bookstores in the 1980s, which sold to Barnes and Noble in 1989 for a reported $41.5 million. He later started several other ventures before buying the place and moving to Flatonia in 2018. The property itself was valued at $474,700, Fayette County Appraisal District records said.

Editor’s Note: This article uses parts of a story originally filed Friday, Oct. 7, by The Fayette County Record’s Andy Behlen.