After earning a college degree and in her mid-20s, Autumn Peterson wanted to learn as much as she could about construction design, home repair, making furniture and really anything hands-on. She bought a house that “was ancient and falling apart and I couldn’t afford people to fix it up for me.”
Self-education through books was a big part of the journey then eventually led to timber framing, a world that she’s been in now for roughly 25 years.
The Philomath-based owner of Heritage Natural Finishes, Peterson has expanded her services to include a specialty bookstore. Its tagline? “A building-related arts bookstore for builders, makers, dreamers and do-ers.”
It’s called Summer Beam Books and it shares retail space with Heritage Natural Finishes in a store at 1337 Main St. The collection of titles covers just about every topic imaginable for those who want to build, create, self-educate or just be entertained.
“We have timber framing and Japanese carpentry, we have engineering and mass timber, we have books on logging and timber and forest management and forestry, arborists and historic preservation and tools and axes and blacksmithing and architecture,” Peterson said and after catching her breath, continued, “and gardening, crafts, food and lots of Pacific Northwest-related stuff, we have nonfiction and hands-on stuff … woodworking.”
In addition to books, the store also has gift items such as cards, notebooks and stationery.
“I’m just trying to slowly build it out and I’m still not done with the space,” Peterson said. “I could triple this bookstore — and I would love to because it’s really fun.”
Peterson purchased the bookstore’s name in February 2023. Summer beam is a timber frame term — “It’s basically the biggest beam in a house or barn that’s holding up the whole roof.”
“Summer Beam Books was basically a traveling bookstore from a woman who would come to our Timber Framers Guild meetings — her husband was a timber framer and she was a librarian so she would bring us all these nerdy books,” Peterson said.
The bookseller, who had launched the business in 1996, wanted to retire last year.
“So I was like, ‘I want to take that over’ and I love it,” Peterson said. “It just turned into a perfect addition to making a retail space — you know, something for the community besides just a wall of wood finishes.”
Heritage Natural Finishes produces finish for wood products such as furniture, antiques and decks. Peterson has been running the business for 20 years.
She first moved her business into Philomath just a few months before the COVID outbreak with its location in what had been the Nectar Creek Meadery (and now houses Philomath Family Medicine). Peterson then rented in “south-town” Corvallis for a stretch before returning to Philomath in the current location on Main Street in January 2023.
The store serves as retail space with the natural finishes production facility located “five minutes from here,” she said.
The majority of the bookstore’s sales are online with Peterson shipping titles all over the country.
“I’ve just been slowly buying more books and filling it out,” Peterson said. “We had kind of a soft opening during Sip and Stroll last year but I haven’t really promoted it at all because of all of the construction.”
Peterson isn’t so keen on this digital world that we now live in and believes that there are people who still want to hold a book in their hands while growing tired of screens.
“We just want to sit outside with our coffee and flip through a book and have that physical experience,” she said. “Books are never going to go out of style … they’re valuable.”
Peterson plans to have a grand-opening celebration at some point and will also host a stop at this year’s Sip and Stroll, a Philomath chamber event scheduled for July 20.
Summer Beam Books is open weekdays from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, call 541-250-3226.
