Chip Gaines purchases author Larry McMurtry’s historic Texas bookstore

By Ed Lavandera and Ashley Killough, CNN

One half of television’s most famous renovation duo is the new owner of an iconic literary landmark built by author Larry McMurtry in the hard-scrabbled town of Archer City, Texas. Residents are now wondering what Chip Gaines, who with wife Joanna built the Magnolia Network, is planning for the shop’s next chapter.

Last November, Gaines quietly bought two buildings that are home to Booked Up — the bookstore that was McMurtry’s lifetime passion project in his hometown. The author of “Lonesome Dove” and “The Terms of Endearment” opened the bookstore in 1987 and over the decades it became a pilgrimage site for McMurtry fans and book lovers from around the world.

They also come to see The Royal Theater, which inspired McMurtry’s classic novel “The Last Picture Show,” and was seen in the classic 1971 film starring Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges.

In this dusty town of roughly 16-hundred people, where the summer heat can feel like getting hit in the face with a scalding iron skillet, McMurtry accomplished what one resident described as the unlikely dream of “making Archer City a little book town.”

The bookstore has been closed for at least a year. The news that it’s now in the hands of Chip Gaines, who became famous for his exuberant passion for “Demo-Day” destruction on his television shows, has created a buzz through the town’s gathering spots.

Some residents are anxious to know if Gaines has bigger plans to give Archer City a fixer-upper makeover or if the books are about to disappear and the buildings left vacant, like many other buildings on the town square.

“Chip’s connection to Archer City traces back to his parents and grandparents, who grew up there,” a spokesperson for Gaines told CNN in a statement. “He loves this community and has been a big fan of Larry McMurtry for years. Chip is honored and excited to preserve this incredible book collection with the respect it deserves.”

The representative declined to comment on specific future plans for the bookstore.

Jerry Phillips, the former owner of the Archer County News, said the city is proud of its ties to one of the most influential writers of the last 100 years.

“People would be devastated if the bookstore disappeared. It needs to have some presence here just for his legacy,” Phillips told CNN.

When Larry McMurtry died in March 2021, predicting the fate of the bookstore and the thousands of books stacked inside became a routine parlor game.

Before his death, McMurtry bequeathed Booked Up to the store’s longtime manager Khristal Collins, according to James McMurtry, the writer’s son, and well-known musician.

Archer County deed records show that on November 4, 2022, the two bookstore buildings, still holding a breathtaking collection of books, were transferred to an investment company listing Chip Gaines as the director.

The deed records show the properties were sold for ten dollars “and other good and valuable consideration.” Khristal Collins did not respond to CNN’s calls about the sale of the store.

However, on Wednesday, she launched a new online bookstore, keeping the name “Booked Up” but confirming she no longer owns the building, nor the inventory of McMurtry’s bookstore.

The bookstore’s sale was first reported in December by Nathan Lawson, the news editor of the Archer County News.

The tip came from Jerry Phillips, who called Lawson when he saw Chip Gaines and his father carrying boxes of books out of the store. Phillips said he approached the star and said, “Inquiring minds want to know what’s going on?”

Chip and Joanna Gaines turned their HGTV home improvement show into the Magnolia lifestyle brand empire. The Magnolia Silos in Waco, which opened in 2015, transformed the city’s central business area and attracts more than one million visitors a year, according to local tourism officials. (HGTV and CNN are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

In a January 2019 interview with Cowboys & Indians magazine, Chip Gaines talked about his family’s connection to Archer City, the place where his parents grew up and is located about 200 miles northwest of Waco.

While Gaines grew up in Albuquerque, he said he would often spend summers with his grandfather in Archer City, riding horses and mending fences, and that’s where a suburban kid from the big city learned to appreciate the farming and ranching lifestyle.

“I don’t know what it was about it, but it certainly got in my blood at a very young age,” Gaines told the magazine.

There’s a great deal of interest in what happens next. For decades, Booked Up was a huge tourist draw for local businesses. But Archer City residents see what the Gaines’ did for Waco and they can’t help but wonder if they’re planning a “Magnolia North” kind of destination that would bring even more tourists to town.

There are a lot of people, Lawson said, that don’t want to see the buildings sit vacant or, worse yet, see the massive collection of books taken out of town.

“We’re forever intertwined with Larry McMurtry,” Lawson said. “There would still be a large portion of our community that would be sad to see the bookstore go, and I think our economy would be sad to see the bookstore go.”

The Spur Hotel in Archer City is owned by Dotty and John Hudson. The hotel is often filled with McMurtry fans visiting the writer’s hometown. His books are left in each room and the top floor guest room is known as The Lonesome Dove Suite.

Her husband, John, lived in Archer City when Hollywood came to town to shoot “The Last Picture Show.” He was one of the many locals picked to work as extras in various scenes shot on location. If you watch close enough, Dotty said, you can spot him eight times in the movie.

Dotty Hudson says many of their guests are McMurtry fans and writers who come here to get inspired. Hudson says the hotel is a frequent stop for people who route vacation road trips through town to see The Royal Theater and the downtown square where “The Last Picture Show” was filmed.

Hudson told CNN if the bookstore closed permanently it “would leave a little hole in Archer City’s heart.”

Hundreds of McMurtry’s most intimate items are also set to be sold in an auction on May 29.

From typewriters to personal copies of his famous books; from his grand piano and bed to his cowboy boots held together with duct tape, the catalogue of roughly 400 items is already drawing widespread interest, according to Rob Vogt, director of the Vogt Auction gallery in San Antonio.

“The buzz has been the biggest thing that’s ever happened to us,” Vogt said. “It’s very exciting.”

While Vogt described Archer City as the “romantic heartland of the McMurtry story,” he said his team worked with McMurtry’s son, James, to plan the sale at the auction house in San Antonio, which Vogt said has the infrastructure to plan a proper, modern auction.

Several hundred people are expected to attend in person, with thousands more likely joining online, Vogt said.

“We’ve been around almost 50 years. We call ourselves the Texas auction. These are the stories and the land and objects that we specialize in,” he said. “It’s a huge, huge honor.”

Jerry Phillips is organizing a public effort to preserve the county’s historic three-story jail into a museum and arts center. He would love to see the building hold McMurtry’s bookstore.

Business owners like, Dotty Hudson, are hopeful. She says the Gaines’ have proven they have the “magic touch.”

In “The Last Picture Show” the world saw Archer City on desolate black and white film, they quietly hope if the cameras return again McMurtry’s hometown will be in full color.

A previous version of this story stated “The Last Picture Show” was released in 1973. It has been corrected to reflect the film was released in 1971.

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