A St. Petersburg artist spends his Saturdays in front of a shuttered store trying to manifest a miracle for book lovers across the Tampa Bay area.
You can find Felipe "Fil" Bergson selling T-shirts and zines in the hopes of raising enough money to buy Haslam's Book Store off Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. He estimates needing to sell 500,000 of the items.
You may already know Bergson from his "Pizza's Connection to Space Travel," "BunnyJane" comics or seeing his art around town.
John and Mary Haslam opened Haslam's Book Store in 1933 during the Great Depression. According to the store's website, they were avid readers and began the business to provide others with used magazines and books at "bargain prices."
Following World War II, they were joined by the second generation: Charles and Elizabeth. The business started to expand, and they moved four times to accommodate the growth. By 1993, they were joined by the third generation, daughter Suzanne and her husband, Ray Hinst.
The store grew so much that it covered 30,000 square feet with over 300,000 books. It was considered Florida's largest bookstore.
But then 2020 hit, and so did a global pandemic. When COVID-19 happened, the store closed.
"There's this weird portal that opens up between the past and the present where someone had to drop this book off for me to pick it up."Felipe "Fil" Bergson
It's been six years, and those like Bergson are still waiting for the day when the doors reopens to a "portal" to the past. A place where cats stroll around and patrons relax among the coziness of books. And a building where famous writers like Jack Kerouac would visit — maybe even catching him in the act of moving his books to be eye level for visitors.
For Bergson, the store holds many memories. When he was a kid, his dad would take him there a few times. He moved away but came back to the area for college. And that's when his love for the store reignited.
Bergson said he would walk around, "taste test everything," pet some cats and then leave. But then, every so often, a book would call to him, and he would get it.
He attributes this pull to the magic of used bookstores.
"There's this weird portal that opens up between the past and the present where someone had to drop this book off for me to pick it up," he described.
One example he can think of was when a woman was trying to find a Bible. Haslam's had a big theology section, but she found one that ended up being connected to her.
"It was either her mother's or her grandmother's Bible, who lived on the other coast like somewhere in California, and somehow it ended up at Haslam's," he told "Florida Matters Live & Local" host Matthew Peddie.
Bergson added that the Bible had her name in it and different notes.
"There's just these weird synchronicities that occur in a store that has that much history," he said.
The St. Petersburg native's journey to reopen the bookstore started about four years ago — thanks to a man he met in New York City.
"Growing up in St. Pete, there's never been a good comic book store or, like, indie zine shop, and there's this really cool zine shop in New York called Desert Island Comics. It's run by this guy named Gabe, and he's actually from Orlando, and I went over there maybe four years ago because I wanted to talk to him about opening up the shop," Bergson recalled.
During their conversation, Haslam's was brought up.
"While I was talking to him about it, he asked me about Haslam's. I was like, 'It's closed.' He was like, 'Well, why don't you just open the shop and Haslam's, just use a little corner of it? I'm sure you can figure it out,' " he recalled.
Bergson said he laughed at the time because all the signage at the store was painted over.
"I was like, 'Well, if there's a time to try and do this, now is the time.' So that's kind of where the initiative started," he said. "And I just thought to myself, 'Well, no one else is going to try and do this.' "
So, he and his friends decided to "galvanize the community" and see how far they could take it. He wants to get in contact with the family owners and talk with them about it.
"Truthfully, they don't have to sell us the building; they don't have to sell us the business. We could just run it for them and see how that works," Bergson said about Haslam's.
"My favorite thing to do in life is to present some hopelessly optimistic project that no one thinks can happen, and then see how far we can take it."Felipe "Fil" Bergson
WUSF reached out to Haslam's, but the phone number is disconnected. We also emailed and hadn't heard back in time for publication. But back in 2021, co-owner Raymond Hinst told the Tampa Bay Times the family was undecided about reopening and that the cats that frequented the store were happy in new homes in the area.
Bergson said the best-case scenario of his project is that the family sees how much the community misses Haslam's and reopens it.
"And then I go about my merry way, starting some other art project," he added.
Overall, Bergson feels the community has lost a "third space" through Haslam's closure. That's a social environment separate from one's home and work.
"So many stories have come forward of friends and new friends who said similar things to me where they would go to the bookstore because they knew it was a safe place just to hang out — just to kill some time, be in the air conditioning for a while, pet some cats and decompress in a very safe environment," Bergson said. "I miss those spaces where you don't have to buy anything, per se; it's more about the community, and that's how you support that place."
He didn't realize how big the effort to reopen the store would get, adding that he's had to reschedule his life around it.
But no matter the time commitment — or the result — he's having a fun time with this passion project.
"My favorite thing to do in life is to present some hopelessly optimistic project that no one thinks can happen, and then see how far we can take it," Bergson said.
You can find Bergson at 2025 Central Ave on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. His T-shirts, stickers and zines can also be found on his website.
This story was compiled from an interview by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
