Today marks the beginning of the end for The Observatory, a downtown Juneau bookstore and landmark of 27 years.<\/p>\n
The store \u2014 which has been temporarily closed since owner Dee Longenbaugh, 82, fell ill in January \u2014 is open again for 10-day clearance sale before it shuts down for good.<\/p>\n
With the help of her family, Longenbaugh recently made the difficult decision to close The Observatory. Though health problems have prevented her from running the shop for the past 10 months, Longenbaugh said it still hasn\u2019t been easy to separate herself from the store that has shaped her life during the past five decades.<\/p>\n
Longenbaugh opened The Observatory in Sitka in 1977 after the youngest of her four children entered high school. According to her daughter Betsy, Longenbaugh was a \u201cfull-time mom\u201d whose volunteer work was instrumental in establishing mental health services in Sitka.<\/p>\n
Still, Sitka is \u201ca little town,\u201d Longenbaugh recalled Tuesday morning, and with all her children in high school, she wanted something to keep her busy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking for something to do because I was very bored, and I had done all the good nonprofit work in town, or at least I thought,\u201d Longenbaugh said. \u201cI thought I would see how it worked out, and if it didn\u2019t, OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 40 years later, its safe to say that Longenbaugh\u2019s once uncertain venture has worked out about as well as it could\u2019ve. The Observatory has been mentioned in several national publications, including the New York Times. Longenbaugh even won an award from the Alaska Legislature a few years back for \u201ca lifetime of outstanding citizenship and her contributions to Alaska history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Observatory has quite the history of its own. Like Longenbaugh, the bookstore has moved around several times during its life. It has been located in two different state capitals and five different locations over the years.<\/p>\n
Longenbaugh isn\u2019t originally from Southeast Alaska, but she has been here long enough that she calls Alaska home. She moved to Sitka from New Mexico in the early \u201860s. Her husband was a physician in the Public Health Service at the time, and he relocated his family when he was appointed to a post in Mount Edgecumbe.<\/p>\n
About 10 years after Longenbaugh started The Observatory, her husband died, and she moved back to New Mexico, where she lived in Santa Fe. She took her bookstore with her. Even in Santa Fe, she still primarily sold books about Alaska, a trait for which The Observatory is known.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was the fact that she had surrounded herself with books, maps and images of Alaska; perhaps it was the fact that she had three young grandchildren in Juneau at the time. Either way, she didn\u2019t stay in Santa Fe long.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got so homesick there it was ridiculous,\u201d she said. \u201cI though \u2018I\u2019ve got to get back; that\u2019s all there is to it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Two years after moving to New Mexico\u2019s capital, she packed her books and headed north, to Alaska\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
When she arrived in Juneau in 1989, Longenbaugh established The Observatory in the Alaska Electric Light & Power Company building downtown. After a while, rent got too high there, and Longenbaugh moved her bookstore across the street to the suite where High Tide Tattoos is currently located.<\/p>\n
Finally, for reasons she can\u2019t remember, Longenbaugh moved The Observatory to its current location at the corner of Franklin and Second streets. There \u2014 and at every other location the bookstore occupied \u2014 Longenbaugh said she was continually reminded of the reason she loved selling books.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning a bookstore, you meet other people who are booklovers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of chatting and discovering what other people are interested in. You can get more information than you give. It\u2019s really a two-way street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Longenbaugh made an impression on countless Juneau residents and passersby who happened into her store while exploring downtown. Longenbaugh\u2019s daughter Betsy said she is constantly discovering just how many people her mother has befriended through The Observatory.<\/p>\n
The other day, Betsy Longenbaugh had just stepped out of her car at Sandy Beach when a woman whom she didn\u2019t know approached her and asked how her mother is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sort of stuff happens all the time I had no idea how many lives she touched; it\u2019s been very moving,\u201d she said. \u201cShe genuinely engaged and cared for the customers in her shop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dee Longenbaugh hopes to make it to The Observatory at some point during the closing sale, so that she can make a few last bookstore friendships. If she can impart even a \u201cmodicum of the love\u201d she has for books on a final visitor or two, she\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n
Longenbaugh will likely only make a couple of appearances, if that, in the next 10 days. Still, Betsy Longenbaugh, who will be helping her brother John manage the sale, encourages all longtime friends of the Observatory to drop by. There will be a guest book in which visitors can write messages to Dee, and Betsy and John will hand out postcards with Dee\u2019s address for anybody interested in writing to her.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to tell that Longenbaugh will miss The Observatory. She would break eye contact and stare off into the distance to avoid crying when asked what she\u2019ll miss most about the shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything,\u201d she said after returning from a brief but intense silence. \u201cI loved it all. I wouldn\u2019t have been doing it all these years if I hadn\u2019t loved it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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