Solomon Everta bought Eureka Books in April of 2022. Purchasing the building was an important part of making this project viable. Solomon was able to purchase the building in March of 2023. There is so much to do to make it sustainable! Support is still appreciated. Read below to understand Solomon’s vision for Eureka Books.
These are the things that you can do to help make the Eureka Books project sustainable:
- Buy from Eureka Books. Buy books, kites, t-shirts, tote bags, plushies, games, and many other items from Eureka Books. This is the best way to support the project of keeping this beautiful place thriving in the years to come. Visit in person or buy from the website.
- Buy Gift Certificates from Eureka Books. Not only does this get cash in the system, it also (potentially) brings in new customers who have never been to the store. These can be bought in person or over the phone at 707-444-9593.
- Gift money to Solomon. There is so much upkeep on this historic building so nothing takes the place of money in this case. Venmo @Solomon-Everta or mail a check to 426 Second Street Eureka, Calif. 95501.
- Spread the Word. Tell folks about why you love Eureka Books, why you believe Solomon is uniquely situated to shepherd Eureka Books into the next decade, and why you would love a Eureka Books gift certificate.
Maintenance Projects
Keeping a building constructed in 1879 operational is a serious endeavor! The insurance alone is an annual payment of over $8,000. The property taxes are sizable! After paying those, we move on to actual repairs and basic maintenance that must take place to keep the JLo looking it’s best!
Front Facade Cleaning, Repair, and Repainting
In Summer of 2025, Hamanaka Painting is giving the front facade of the building a fresh coat of paint, restoring Eureka Books to its photo worthy glory. This will cost over $16,000.
Brick Repair and Repointing
In the Autumn of 2024, Humboldt Hearthstones repointed and repaired brickwork on the back facade of the building. This project was over $13,000.
See above for ways to support this work.
JLo Gallery
Enjoy this gallery of images of the JLo on a separate page. If you have an image to share, please get in touch!
View the gallery here.
Detail on the Building Purchase
With a similar interest in the bookshop continuing for many years, building owner Jack made a generous offer to sell the building that is the home of Eureka Books to Solomon so that the business can be secure into the future. Now that the purchase has happened you can help the project be viable!
The J. Lowenthal Building
Built in 1879, the J. Lowenthal Building at 426 Second Street in Eureka, California and was described as “Elizabethian and Corinthian” by the local paper at the time of construction. With it’s row of columns, recessed front and decorative parapet, it is unique among the historical Victorian architecture in the small seaport city of Eureka, California. The National Register of Historic Places describes the building as having an “original playful design, and a rare surviving example of locally produced cast-iron architectural elements.”
It housed a men’s haberdashery until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires created a new business opportunity for the clothier as the city began to rebuild (plenty of Humboldt County’s old growth redwood went to that effort as well). It then became a livery to supply pre-automotive transportation needs.
At one point the upper floor was added and walled off to create the Louvre Cafe, the sign for which is still visible on the back of the building. The downstairs became the High Lead — a roughneck logger bar among a string of such establishments on “Two Street.” A dispute between the owners of the two businesses led to one fatally shooting the other as he tried to run out the back door.
This (as well as other stories) makes the home of Eureka Books a stop on the haunted history tours we hope to see soon, though we have not noticed any paranormal activity.
The current crew takes safeguarding this local treasure seriously. That means keeping the bookshop running well so that we can afford the maintenance an old building requires. Sealing the bricks facing Opera Alley, replacing skylights before they leak, and continual cleaning and repairing numerous details stand before us. We are ready for the challenge.
Please help us take care of this locally recognized treasure for years to come.
The J. Lowenthal is the J.Lo
Since Solomon bought Eureka Books, we have been referring to the building as the J.Lo with much respect to multitalented superstar Jennifer Lopez.
If the J. Lowenthal building’s namesake is somehow reading this… well… you know what to do.
The Future of the Building
Solomon has plans for the building that is home to Eureka Books.
Building on his public and community service background, he plans to lean into making the Eureka Books into more of a “third place” where community can come together. While the shop will need to sell books (and other things) to make money to pay the bills, an exploration of how to make a space where more than just commerce can thrive has begun in earnest. This is the next step.
We have this great chance to build upon the work of many employees and owners over the years. We can make it happen with your help.
Onward!
Learn More About the Steward
Solomon Everta has been a community builder his entire life. His purchase of the Eureka Books building is the culmination of a life’s work in customer service, public service on a federal and county level, and community service primarily in theater based social change efforts.
Solomon grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Humboldt in 1993. He immediately immersed himself in community service, feeding the hungry, exploring social issues through theater, and organizing neighbors for a sustainable economy.
As his children have grown into their teens, he has been available for more creative endeavors to improve our world.
The Eureka Books project is a serendipitous and sweet opportunity to apply his unique skill set.
Contact for more information.
“I envision a community space that will continue to serve as a book store, but will be so much more. As we settle into understanding how the systems at Eureka Books have operated for decades, our team looks for ways to improve the experience for our guests, our staff, and our families.
While providing the team with the stability of a steady paycheck, I am working to inspire a sense of ownership that harbors the opportunity of actual ownership in the future. I believe in democracy and that includes workplace democracy. The full realization of that value is ownership of the business by the majority of the folks who work in the business. We have a way to go with that project, but we will get there as soon as possible.
The first step in that process is purchasing the J. Lowenthal building at 426 Second Street in Eureka because I want to secure the location at the earliest possible opportunity and the lowest possible price. This will allow us to keep the rent low and make a transition to building ownership by the worker owners sooner as well. The price will increase in the Spring of 2023, so the time is now!
I need the community to support this project in workplace democracy by making this holiday season a good one for Eureka Books. I am in a unique position to leverage what privilege I have to continue the work of making Eureka Books a special place for our community, but I can’t do it alone. I need folks to contribute now, even if that is only to purchase a used or discounted book. Every little bit helps.
In this way, I can foresee the community rallying around a simple former wage worker and government employee who gave up the security of those roles to try himself in service of a project bigger than himself. I believe in the ability of this community to create good things. The Eureka Books project is one of those good things.
I envision a place where readers find their book, where neighbors come together, where workers feel empowered, and where a building is more than a building. The J. Lowenthal Building has been many things over the years, but I can see it becoming a safe place for the dreams of our best selves to be nurtured and realized in the heart of Old Town Eureka.”
Solomon Everta, 2022
See above for ways to help make this vision a reality.
Dedication at Eureka Books Building Purchase Fundraiser
On February 11th 2023 the community came together to support this project. Below is the dedication that I read at the beginning of the evening.
Eureka Books Purchase Benefit Cabaret at Synapsis Union on February 11th 2023
I learned at the Original Synapsis down on third street about what happens during performance.
When on stage, the audience is arrayed before the performer, but there is something that many folks don’t see. And this is the information that changed my life: Behind the performer are all the ancestors who make this performance possible.
So tonight, out of the many arrayed behind me, I want to illuminate the presence of five men who I have been thinking a lot about over the last couple of weeks.
Emil DeMontigny was my father’s father. Born on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Reservation only one generation after the reservation had been created. He had seven children — two daughters and five sons. I only have one picture of him, smiling wide with me on his knee. He died of complications from alcoholism. I invoke his spirit tonight.
Paul Mantle was my mother’s father. When his brothers started having heart attacks in their early forties, he began to follow an extremely healthy diet and began a regular exercise regimen. He went back to college later in life, but was self-taught in many ways including teaching himself to be ambidextrous. He asked his second wife to list his profession on his death certificate as “piano player.” He died after nearly a decade battling Parkinson’s Disease. I invoke his spirit tonight.
James Lawson was from Louisiana and fought in World War Two in a segregated Black naval unit. After the war he was an active union member at the hospital where he worked. There, he met my grandmother, who he married. They would move to rural Oroville where he would take my brother and me to his Baptist Church, introducing us as his grandsons. Later in life he died of prostate cancer. I invoke his spirit tonight.
Stanley DeMontigny was my father. As a teen he ran away from an Indian Residential School and eventually ran away from North Dakota, but he couldn’t outrun the Vietnam War. He liked science fiction and to cook. He introduced my brother and me to Jimi Hendrix, among others. He left his secure job to start his own janitorial business when I was a teenager. Many years later, he killed himself without meeting his first newly born grandchild. I invoke his spirit tonight.
Ali Modabber left Iran just before the fundamentalist Revolution. He met my mother at a disco and while getting to know her asked, “Where is your family?” not understanding how or why she would be raising two kids on her own. He became our family and worked tirelessly to support us. He had a flower shop on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco one block from the chocolate factory where he was known as the sidewalk philosopher. He courageously left that work to follow his heart in a new career as a teacher of English to new immigrants in a community college near Portland, Oregon late in life. He died five years later from pancreatic cancer. I invoke his spirit tonight.
While my mother and grandmothers have certainly inspired me in mays ways, tonight I recall these men who have lived out stories that I can borrow from to become the man I want to be. They were not perfect, and neither am I, but I hope to serve in love as they did and to improve myself so that I might be of better service. I hear so many echoes of their lives in mine and I am glad.
I would not be here but for them and I could not move forward but for you – my friends, my community, my loves… Special thanks to Leslie and Derek of Synapsis Union for hosting us for free. Torch passing thanks to Jack (previous owner of Eureka Books) and Katie (previous Manager of Eureka Books) who have been so generous through this whole process. Enthusiastic thanks to my sweetie Amanda for being a constant source of inspiration and loving encouragement. Fraternal thanks to my friend Bob who has supported me through the bookstore project in many ways. Blue Raspberry House thanks to my housemate Zuzka who is the key person in making my new life possible. Workplace gratitude and bossman thanks to my incredible staff at Eureka Books who specifically requested to not be mentioned by name. They really do make it all happen every day.
A professional thank you to this amazing crew of performers tonight. The bill filled up so quickly, I had no need to search for performers. I look forward to the day when the bookstore is so successful that I can sponsor a show where the performers are paid for their performance AND rehearsal time. Lastly, a love laden thank you to all of you in the audience tonight. No matter what you gave (or will give) tonight to this effort, it means much more than that to me.
Now to get this show started I am going to ask for some audience participation…
The following is a story that I would like to tell at the end of the night if I could go back in time. At least I can tell it here.
Solomon Everta 