BALDWINSVILLE — Quarters at 12 Oswego St. in the village of Baldwinsville have become a bit cozier with the relocation of the Greater Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce office and the addition of a new business: Triquetra Books and More.
Liverpool resident Jay Snyder is holding a soft opening for his new bookstore this Saturday, May 7.
“As a former English teacher, I’ve always wanted to have my own bookstore,” Snyder said. “This is not just a bookstore to me. I want it to be part of the community.”
In addition to used and new books, Snyder is planning to offer SAT and ACT prep classes, tutoring and writing workshops once Triquetra is more established. The shop will also sell crystals and other metaphysical items.
Snyder and his family moved to Central New York in 2017. While they set down their stakes in Bayberry, the Snyders have made friends in Baldwinsville and have come to love the little village.
The closeness of the B’ville business community drew Snyder to the Four Corners, the heart of the village’s business district.
“I like the fact that it’s right there by the square where everything seems to happen, and I can look out the window and see the river,” Snyder said. “I think being in that centralized location will allow me to do more in the community.”
With events such as the holiday tree lighting and Parade of Lights, Au Chocolat and Margaritafest, Snyder is hoping to collaborate with other B’ville businesses. He said he has already connected with Robin Mack, owner of Sweet Dream Candy Shoppe, and Shelley Hoffman of 315 Realty Partners and Heart, Home and Community. (Hoffman owns the building at 12 Oswego St.)
“The more I’ve seen Baldwinsville the more [I’ve realized] this is a really cool place. This is a place that could feel like home,” Snyder said. “You don’t always get that, where businesses aren’t competing with one another but are supporting each other.”
Snyder wants Triquetra Books and More to be just as welcoming to community members as Baldwinsville has been to him.
“Everyone’s welcome there and it’s a comfortable place to be,” he said. “I want it to be that type of place that people want to hang out and that people can come there and they are who they are.”
In his posts on Triquetra Books and More’s Facebook page, Snyder celebrates diversity and equality for all people regardless of gender and sexuality, abilities and disabilities, race, age and culture.
“It’s who were supposed to be as humans. We’re created different for a reason, and it’s a good reason,” Snyder said.
The former English teacher also champions the freedom to read and is opposed to book censorship.
“We support the right to read. Ban narrow-mindedness, not books,” reads a post from April 6.
As for the name and logo of the business, the triquetra is a three-pointed Celtic knot.
“I have a Scottish-Irish background and it’s one of those symbols that comes from my heritage,” Snyder said.
The three points of the triquetra can represent interconnected concepts such as the past, present and future. Books connect people through time, teaching readers about the past and imagining what is possible in the future.
For Snyder, the symbol has another meaning connected to the mission of the bookstore.
“Triquetra Books and More, LLC will be a place where every effort is made to create another three-cornered combination, that of knowledge-tolerance-diversity, to be celebrated within the Baldwinsville community through its selection of books, merchandise, and classes/discussion events,” he wrote in an April 25 post on Triquetra’s Facebook page.
Since Snyder has a full-time day job, Triquetra Books and More will be open on weekends and limited weekday evenings. Email [email protected] or follow Triquetra Books and More, LLC, on Facebook for more information.
