SALT LAKE CITY — A legendary bookstore in Salt Lake City celebrated its 95th anniversary on Friday. But more than that: Weller Book Works is celebrating a story that could fill a book of its own.
According to the store, in 1929, Weller Book Works founder Gus Weller wanted to sell used furniture and other goods he had purchased, including books. He decided that selling books would be better than selling furniture or radios, and so the bookstore, then called Zions Bookstore, was created.
After running the business for years and raising a family of 13, Weller purchased a property and turned the bookstore over to his two eldest sons, John and Sam Weller.
Sam Weller was drafted into military service in World War II in 1943 when he was 21 years old. He served as a private and in the military police and cared for prisoners, according to the store. When he returned in 1946, he wanted to study musical theater with the help of the GI Bill. Instead, his father asked him to manage the bookstore, a request that Sam Weller was not particularly happy with at the time, according to the store.
But he was ultimately persuaded. The store describes him as a “charismatic and hardworking” man and under his leadership he managed to get the store out of debt within a few years.
He met his future wife, Lila Nelson, in 1949 when she worked at the Deseret News. She worked in the store from 1950 and later took over the accounting and finances. They married in 1953.
Together with a team of employees, the two built up the company in the post-war economy.
In 1969, the name of the store was changed to “Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore.”
Read the full story from KSL TV here.
