Maine’s Oldest Bookstore Expanding to Windham and Topsham

Maine's oldest book store has survived two world wars, the great depression, the great recession, the COVID-19 pandemic and a world of online book sales and digital downloads. It's an impressive feat for Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shops which has announced that it is expanding by adding three new stores across Maine.

Sherman's gets its name from Bill Sherman who opened up W.H. Sherman, Printer & Stationer in Bar Harbor in 1886 after buying a printing press. The business began to focus more on books at the turn of the century and as of 2021, has been in business for 135 years.

The original store in Bar Harbor is still there, but over the years additional Sherman's Book Shops have opened up in Boothbay Harbor, Freeport, Damariscotta and Portland a. Now Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shops is opening up three new stores, two of which will be the first locations not in a costal Maine town.

Sherman's announced on their website this week that a new store will open this summer in Rockland on Maverick Street between McDonalds and Hannaford. Two stores will also open up this summer that are away from the water at the Topsham Fair Mall between Renys and Lamey Wellehan, and at the Windham Mall in the vacancy to the left of Renys.

The addition of Sherman's in Windham will be the fifth new business to open up at the Windham Mall recently. Portland Pie Company opened in the former Friendly's location in 2020. A Jersey Mike's is planned in the former Payless Shoe Source and construction has begun on a coffee shop and restaurant, rumored to be Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill, at the former Pizza Hut location.

Sherman's growth will create at least 15 new jobs and they are currently hiring at all their current locations.