A Visit to Furby House Books in Lovely Port Hope, Ontario

The main street of quaint  Port Hope, Ontario, boasts one of the loveliest book stores I’ve seen in my travels, and it’s selling my book, A Good Home.

Furby House Books on Walton St. reminds me of the very first time my family went into the famous Nicholas Hoare bookstore ( now closed) in Toronto  – years ago. We felt so enthralled, and so at home, we didn’t want to leave. At Furby House, the staff, including Janet Richard in photo below,  are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.

Helpful and friendly seems to be a trait on this strip of Walton St, because just a few doors down, while visiting the elegant G. Facey store (fashions), we spied the owner rushing out to relieve two bikers of the parking tickets they had just received. Teri-Jo Collina-Ashton later revealed that the bikers would likely not shop in her store, but she wants shoppers’ memories of Port Hope to be pleasant ones. So she and a few other merchants on Walton have been known to pay the parking tickets of their customers and even those who are not customers.

Watching the bikers’ faces, my husband says they could not have been more surprised and pleased at this example of small-town courtesy.

So – visit Port Hope one day soon, pop into Furby House to browse and buy a book and talk to the staff, then drop into a few of the other lovely stores on Walton Street. They and their staff are among the reasons that Port Hope is seen as one of Canada’s best small towns.