Garcia Street Books
Santa Fe's Neighborhood Bookstore on the East Side (1991–Present)

Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred

The founding: Greg Ohlsen and Ellen Stelling, 1991

Garcia Street Books was founded in 1991 by Greg Ohlsen and Ellen Stelling. The couple chose 376 Garcia Street — a quiet, walkable block in Santa Fe's Historic Eastside neighborhood, just a short distance from the galleries that line Canyon Road. The location was deliberate. Canyon Road had already established itself as one of the most concentrated art districts in the American West, drawing a steady flow of collectors, tourists, and the Santa Fe art community. A bookstore a block off that corridor was positioned to serve both neighborhood residents and the foot traffic that Canyon Road generates.

Ohlsen and Stelling ran Garcia Street Books through the 1990s. The store's identity during that founding decade was shaped by the community it served: Santa Fe's east-side residents, many of them connected to the arts, and the visitors who found the shop while walking the gallery district. By the time Ohlsen was ready to move on — he would later co-found Travel Bug, the Santa Fe map and travel bookstore, in the late 1990s — Garcia Street Books had established itself as a neighborhood fixture with a loyal local following.

The neighborhood: Garcia Street and the Canyon Road corridor

Understanding Garcia Street Books requires understanding where it sits. Garcia Street runs through Santa Fe's Historic Eastside — one of the most sought-after residential neighborhoods in the city, characterized by classic Pueblo Revival adobe homes, narrow streets, and mature landscaping that gives the area a settled, village-within-a-city character. The Eastside has been home to artists, writers, and affluent retirees for decades. It's the kind of neighborhood where people walk to the bookstore.

Canyon Road, one block away, is the anchor. The road's transformation from a Spanish farming lane in the eighteenth century to a first-tier gallery district happened gradually over the twentieth century, and by the time Garcia Street Books opened in 1991, the corridor already contained more than a hundred galleries, studios, and specialty shops. The relationship between the bookstore and the gallery district has always been symbiotic: gallery visitors discover the bookstore; bookstore customers wander into the galleries. The proximity to Canyon Road has shaped Garcia Street Books' inventory from the beginning — art books, architecture titles, and books about contemporary art collecting have always been prominent on the shelves.

The building at 376 Garcia Street also houses Downtown Subscription, a coffee and tea cafe that shares the address and creates the kind of bookstore-and-cafe pairing that neighborhood bookstores rely on. You buy a book, you sit down with an espresso, you read. That pattern has been part of the Garcia Street Books experience for years, and it's one of the reasons the store has survived the transitions that closed other Santa Fe bookstores.

Edward and Eva Borins: the Toronto booksellers (2000–circa 2011)

In 2000, Edward and Eva Borins purchased Garcia Street Books from Greg Ohlsen. The Borinses were not casual buyers. They came from Toronto's book trade, where they had built and managed a small chain of bookstores plus a wholesale warehouse over more than thirty years in the business. Edward Borins had established his first store on Queen Street West in Toronto in 1979, eventually growing it into multiple locations. When the Borinses decided to relocate to Santa Fe, they brought deep professional bookselling experience to a small neighborhood shop.

Under the Borins ownership, Garcia Street Books continued to serve the Eastside community while benefiting from owners who understood inventory management, publisher relationships, and the economics of independent bookselling at a professional level. The Borinses ran the store for roughly a decade — a period that included the rise of Amazon, the growth of online bookselling, and the broad economic pressures that forced many independent bookstores to close. Garcia Street Books survived that period in part because of its neighborhood position, in part because of the Canyon Road foot traffic, and in part because the Borinses knew how to run a bookstore through difficult market conditions.

Adam Gates and Rick Palmer: employees who became owners (circa 2012–2017)

The third ownership transition followed a pattern that booksellers appreciate: employees buying the store they worked in. Adam Gates had started working at Garcia Street Books more than seven years before taking ownership. Rick Palmer joined the staff a couple of years after Gates. Both had come to Santa Fe from elsewhere — Gates from South Carolina (he also attended St. John's College in Santa Fe), Palmer from Colorado, with prior bookstore experience in Denver and Houston. When the Borinses were ready to sell, Gates and Palmer were the natural successors.

The two brought complementary strengths to the business. Gates was especially knowledgeable about fiction and mysteries; Palmer's expertise ran toward nonfiction, history, and politics. Together, they curated the store's inventory to reflect both their own reading and the tastes of the Santa Fe community they had been serving as employees for years. Their ownership lasted approximately five years. For anyone looking to sell books in Santa Fe today, understanding this bookstore lineage helps explain why Garcia Street Books provenance appears regularly in the estate libraries I evaluate.

During the Gates and Palmer era, Garcia Street Books continued to host author events, maintained its position as the east-side neighborhood bookstore, and competed in a market that was increasingly difficult for small independents. The store's survival through this period was a testament to the strength of its location and community loyalty — but also to the decisions Gates and Palmer made about inventory, events, and maintaining the store's identity as a place where the staff knew the books and knew the customers.

Jean Devine: the fifth owner (2017–present)

In June 2017, Jean Devine purchased Garcia Street Books from Gates and Palmer, becoming the store's fifth owner. Devine's path to book ownership was different from her predecessors. She was a native of St. Louis who had spent her career as a corporate executive at Kelly Services, a management consulting company based in Michigan. She relocated to Santa Fe several years before buying the store, and the purchase was the realization of a long-held ambition to own a bookstore.

Devine's approach has centered on what she saw as the independent bookstore's core advantage over online retailers: relationships. A neighborhood bookstore where the owner knows the community, remembers what customers are reading, and can hand-sell a title based on genuine knowledge of the reader — that's something no algorithm replicates. Under Devine's ownership, Garcia Street Books has continued to host author readings and events, maintained its curated inventory of art, literary fiction, Southwest titles, and poetry, and remained open through the challenges of the pandemic era.

As of 2026, Garcia Street Books is still open and operating under Devine's ownership. Thirty-five years after Greg Ohlsen opened the doors, the store continues to do what neighborhood bookstores do: serve the people who live nearby, attract visitors who discover it while exploring the area, and put carefully chosen books into the hands of readers who trust the curation.

Author events and the signing-venue role

Garcia Street Books has hosted author readings and book signings throughout its history, across all five ownership eras. The store's intimate scale — this is a neighborhood shop, not a cavernous event space — makes it a particular kind of signing venue. Readings at Garcia Street Books are close-quarters affairs where thirty or forty people might fill the space, the author is a few feet from the audience, and every copy sold at the event passes through the hands of a bookseller who can facilitate the inscription.

For collectors, signing-event copies from Garcia Street Books have a specific provenance character. A first edition signed at a Garcia Street Books reading, with a date that corresponds to a documented event, carries a provenance story that connects the book to a particular evening in a particular Santa Fe bookstore. That connection matters more for some books than others — a signed first of a major literary novel acquired at its Garcia Street Books reading has a stronger provenance narrative than a signed mass-market paperback. But in both cases, the event ties the book to a documentable moment.

The store has hosted both regional New Mexico authors and national touring writers. Santa Fe draws a disproportionate number of author tours relative to its population size — the city's literary reputation, its affluent and well-read population, and its concentration of independent bookstores make it a worthwhile stop. Garcia Street Books has been one of the venues those tours include, alongside Collected Works Bookstore and other Santa Fe independents.

Specialty areas and inventory character

Garcia Street Books' inventory has always reflected its location and its community. The store's proximity to Canyon Road and the broader Santa Fe arts scene means that art books, architecture titles, and design volumes have been a consistent strength. But the inventory extends well beyond the visual arts:

• Art, architecture, and design. Georgia O'Keeffe monographs, contemporary art collecting titles, Southwest art surveys, photography books, and design volumes — the Canyon Road adjacency drives this category.
• Literary fiction, both new and classic. Curated by owners and staff who actually read the books. The fiction shelves reflect taste, not just bestseller lists.
• Southwest and New Mexico titles. Regional history, Native American studies, nature writing, and the Southwest cooking and lifestyle books that visitors seek out.
• Poetry. A consistently maintained section that goes deeper than most general bookstores would carry — a sign of a store that takes its literary identity seriously.
• Cookbooks. Santa Fe's food culture supports a strong cookbook section, and Garcia Street Books has maintained one across ownership eras.
• Children's and young adult titles. The neighborhood-bookstore function includes serving families, and Garcia Street Books stocks accordingly.
• History and biography. Serious nonfiction for the kind of reader who builds a reference library over decades.

What the store has never been is a discount operation or a remainders outlet. Garcia Street Books sells new books at full price, curated by people who read. That matters for provenance: books acquired at Garcia Street Books were typically purchased by readers who chose them deliberately, kept them in good condition, and shelved them alongside other carefully selected titles. A Garcia Street Books customer's library is, on average, a considered collection rather than an accumulation.

Provenance markers: identifying Garcia Street Books in estate libraries

When I'm working through a Santa Fe estate library, certain markers signal that the household purchased books at Garcia Street Books. These aren't always present — not every bookstore leaves a physical trace on every book — but when they appear, they're useful for understanding the library's character and authenticating its provenance:

• Garcia Street Books bookmarks and bag remnants. Printed bookmarks from the store, sometimes tucked between pages and forgotten. Occasionally the store's branded paper bag is still wrapped around a book that was purchased and set aside without being shelved.
• Signed copies with Santa Fe dates. Books signed at Garcia Street Books author events carry signatures with dates that correspond to the store's documented event calendar. The combination of a Santa Fe date and a first edition in the right condition range is a strong provenance indicator.
• Receipt paper tucked inside front covers. Some readers use the receipt as a bookmark. A Garcia Street Books receipt inside a book confirms where and when it was purchased.
• Consistent inventory profile. Even without a physical store marker, a library heavy in art books, literary fiction, poetry, and Southwest titles — purchased new, in excellent condition, with the kind of curation that reflects a browsing relationship with a knowledgeable bookseller — is consistent with a Garcia Street Books customer.
• Downtown Subscription coffee rings. Less a provenance marker than a neighborhood signature — the occasional coffee stain on a book that was read at the cafe next door.

How Garcia Street Books appear in Santa Fe estate libraries

Santa Fe estate libraries are different from Albuquerque estate libraries, and Garcia Street Books' presence in those collections reflects the differences. Santa Fe households that shopped at Garcia Street Books tend to be arts-oriented, often with connections to the gallery world, and often with higher-tier book-buying habits. The libraries I encounter in Santa Fe estates that include Garcia Street Books purchases typically share certain characteristics:

Strong visual-arts sections. Art monographs, exhibition catalogs, photography collections, and design books — often in large format, often in excellent condition, often from publishers like Taschen, Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, and the University of New Mexico Press. These are books that were bought to be looked at repeatedly, not read once and shelved.

Literary fiction that reflects taste rather than trends. Garcia Street Books customers weren't buying whatever was on the bestseller table at a chain store. Their fiction shelves contain the books that a knowledgeable bookseller recommended, and the older titles in these collections often include first editions that have appreciated in value because the original buyer had taste.

Regional titles that go beyond the tourist level. Not the Santa Fe gift-shop coffee-table book, but the serious regional history, the scholarly Native American studies volume, the literary treatment of Southwest landscape. These are the books that a neighborhood resident buys, not a tourist — and they tend to be in better condition and more complete as a collection.

Poetry in depth. This is the most telling category. A Santa Fe estate library with a substantial poetry section — chapbooks from small presses, collected works of major poets, signed copies from readings — almost certainly includes books purchased at Garcia Street Books or Collected Works. Chain bookstores don't build poetry readers; independent bookstores do.

Garcia Street Books in the broader Santa Fe bookstore landscape

Santa Fe has supported a notable number of independent bookstores for a city of its size. Garcia Street Books has coexisted with Collected Works Bookstore (on Galisteo Street), Nicholas Potter Bookseller (the legendary used and antiquarian shop), Travel Bug (the map and travel bookstore that Garcia Street Books founder Greg Ohlsen later co-created), and various other specialty shops. Each store serves a different function and a somewhat different clientele, though there's overlap.

Garcia Street Books' particular niche has always been the east-side neighborhood bookstore with Canyon Road adjacency. It's not the downtown bookstore (that's Collected Works). It's not the antiquarian and used specialist (that was Nicholas Potter). It's the place where Eastside residents walk to buy a new book, where Canyon Road gallery visitors duck in during an art walk, and where authors come for the intimate neighborhood reading. That niche has sustained the store through thirty-five years and five owners, which is a remarkable run by any measure.

For anyone working with New Mexico bookstore history more broadly, Garcia Street Books is part of the picture. Northern New Mexico's bookstore ecosystem — Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque together — has been one of the strongest in the American West for independent bookselling. Understanding which stores served which communities, and how their inventories differed, is useful background for anyone evaluating estate libraries in the region.

The collector value question

Garcia Street Books provenance matters in specific situations:

• Signed first editions from documented author events have the strongest provenance connection. A first edition signed and dated at a Garcia Street Books reading, with the date corresponding to a known event, is a book with a documentable acquisition story. For higher-tier literary fiction and poetry, that documentation adds modest collector interest.
• Art books and monographs in excellent condition, purchased new from a store that specialized in the category, signal careful ownership. These are books that were chosen by someone who knew what they were buying, kept well, and shelved alongside other quality art titles. Condition tends to be above average.
• Small-press poetry chapbooks acquired through Garcia Street Books' curated poetry section represent legitimate distribution-channel provenance. A chapbook from a small press that reached Santa Fe through Garcia Street Books entered the market through a recognized independent-bookstore channel, not through a secondary market or remainder table.
• Association copies — books inscribed by an author to a Garcia Street Books customer who was themselves a notable person in the Santa Fe arts or literary community — carry association interest that goes beyond the book itself.

For ordinary purchases — an unsigned new novel, a cookbook, a children's book — Garcia Street Books provenance doesn't change the book's market value. The store's contribution in those cases is cultural rather than financial: it put the right book in the right reader's hands, and that's what bookstores are for.

If you're clearing a Santa Fe estate with Garcia Street Books provenance

When I find Garcia Street Books markers in a Santa Fe estate library, I treat the collection with a specific kind of attention. The advice for families and estate handlers:

1. Check the art books carefully. Art monographs and exhibition catalogs from Santa Fe's gallery-oriented households can carry meaningful resale value, especially large-format titles from quality publishers in near-fine condition. Don't assume they're coffee-table decorations.
2. Look for signed copies throughout the collection. Garcia Street Books customers attended readings across thirty-five years. Signed first editions can appear in any section of the library — fiction, poetry, Southwest titles, even cookbooks from author events.
3. Don't overlook the poetry section. Chapbooks and small-press poetry collections are easy to dismiss as pamphlets. Some have meaningful collector value, especially signed copies of early works by poets who later became prominent.
4. Preserve all provenance markers. Bookmarks, receipts, event flyers tucked between pages, and any Garcia Street Books branding on or in the books should stay in place. They're part of the book's documentation.
5. Consider the library as a whole. A Garcia Street Books customer's library was typically built with intention. The collection itself — its range, its depth in certain categories, its condition — may tell a story about the reader that descendants want to understand before the books are dispersed.

Why this bookstore matters

Garcia Street Books has survived for thirty-five years in a market that has closed most independent bookstores. It has done so not by becoming something different with each new owner, but by maintaining a consistent identity: the east-side neighborhood bookstore near Canyon Road, serving Santa Fe's literary and arts-oriented community with carefully chosen inventory and personal relationships between booksellers and readers.

Five owners have maintained that identity. Greg Ohlsen and Ellen Stelling established it. Edward and Eva Borins brought professional bookselling depth. Adam Gates and Rick Palmer added the energy of employees who loved the store enough to buy it. Jean Devine brought a fresh commitment to the relationship-centered model that independent bookstores depend on. Each transition could have been the end — many bookstore sales are — but each new owner chose to preserve what the store was rather than reinvent it.

For the broader bookstore-history project I'm building, Garcia Street Books represents something specific: the neighborhood literary bookstore that survives by being indispensable to its immediate community. Not every bookstore achieves that. The ones that do tend to last, and their books tend to show up in the best estate libraries in their neighborhoods. Garcia Street Books has done both.