FOLEY — Three years after opening its doors, Dorothy June Booksellers in downtown Foley continues to be a champion of independent bookstores in Baldwin County in an era of corporate and digital booksellers.

For owner and founder Reide Irwin, it’s a testament to the hard work and love that have been poured into her business, as well as a place where she has met some of her best friends through the business and her Dottie J’s Book Club.

“It’s such a crazy thing because I just feel like time has flown by so fast,” Irwin said. “It’s been really, really cool to just see the community that has grown in the last three years, the friends I’ve made, the people I’ve met, and that's what matters the most to me through all this.”

Irwin, who grew up in Foley, said her interest in reading began at a young age, when her mother, Jodi, was a volunteer for the local Scholastic Book Fair while she was in elementary school. She and her family are avid readers, with Irwin and her sister growing up reading books such as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and the Boxcar Children.

Irwin went on to attend Belmont University, where she studied English and film, and worked in film in New York before returning to her hometown of Foley, where she opened Dorothy June Booksellers in 2023 at 107 W. Orange Ave.

“It’s never really stopped. It’s just grown,” Irwin said on her love of reading. “Whenever I moved back this way after college and working in New York for a few years, I was like ‘I can’t believe we don’t have a small independent bookstore that only sells new books and does events for the community,’ and so I really wanted to bring that and provide that.”

The name Dorothy June Booksellers combines the names of Irwin’s two great-grandmothers, one named Dorothy and one named June, who both liked to read. The book club is also named after Dorothy, who went by “Dottie” or “Dot.”

Dorothy June carries books from all genres, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as children’s books and books by local authors. If you are looking for a particular book, the store also takes orders and ships nationwide.

Dorothy June also hosts midnight release parties for highly anticipated books and listening parties for new music releases, such as Taylor Swift’s most recent studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

“I am a huge Swiftie and I feel like anyone who knows me knows that, and so when Taylor Swift’s album came out last fall, I was like ‘We have to do an event here. It’s just going to be too much fun,’ and so I ordered all of the Taylor Swift books I could find, so we still tied in books there, and we just had a blast,” Irwin said.

Besides the bookstore, Dorothy June has also expanded with the opening of the Telegraph Espresso Bar, which also has some history behind its name. Irwin said her grandfather’s great-grandfather was a telegraph operator at the local railroad station when he first moved to Foley.

“Because of that, I was like ‘There’s a cool tie in there,’ because telegraphs, telegrams were like early communication and now it’s like we have texting, we have social media, you meet and chat with a friend over coffee and you’re swapping stories, so to me, it’s all communication,” Irwin said. “It’s all storytelling and it all kind of goes together.”

The coffee shop carries Valor Coffee from Alpharetta, Georgia, and serves hot and cold coffee options, along with seasonal drinks such as its Pumpkin Butter Latte and Spiced Apple Pie Chai, available as part of its fall menu.

“I did a lot of traveling and I’ve tried a lot of coffee,” Irwin said. “I care so much about coffee that I was like, ‘If we’re going to add that to the bookstore, it needs to be good quality.’”

With three years of running an independent bookstore under her belt, Irwin says opening Dorothy June is the best thing she has ever done.

“It really brings me joy every day to come in. It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever done,” Irwin said. “I would say the most rewarding thing is truly the people I’ve met and the friends I have made, as silly or cheesy as that might sound, just because I look back and I’m like ‘I wouldn’t know most of these people if I hadn’t started this business with my support of my family and just the people I met,’ so that’s honestly my favorite part.”