Bob Slate To Reopen This Fall

Bob Slate, Stationer will re-open one store in Harvard Square this fall under new ownership.

The local art and office supply chain shut down its three Cambridge locations last spring after the owners of the family business decided not to renew the stores’ leases.

The new owner, Laura E. Donohue ’85, will set up shop at 30 Brattle Street, a previous location of the store from more than two decades ago.

Bob Slate had been a fixture of Harvard Square for 78 years. The stores were owned by Justin and Mallory Slate, sons of founder Bob Slate. The Slates closed all three locations at 1288 Mass. Ave, 63 Church St., and in Porter Square in March.

Panera Bread purchased the Mass. Ave location and plans to open a store there this fall.

The Slates, who reconfigured their business as a stationery store after Staples moved into the Square in 1986, had been searching for a “new owner to re-invent the company and take it forward into the 21st century.”

Donohue, a patron of the store since her days as a Harvard undergraduate, hopes she can bring a forward-thinking vision that still pays homage to the store’s past.

“There will be some updating of the product line,” Donohue said. “There will be a lot of the regular products that customers liked, yet there is always a need for innovation and freshness, so those things will be folded in gently. The intent is to keep the content of the store the same, yet bring in new things that shift as time goes by.”

Donohue also plans to hire former employees from Bob Slate’s three locations, though she acknowledged that with less retail space, she cannot employ everyone. “Bob Slate employees were a key part of the customer experience,” she said. “They were knowledgeable and long-time employees. Customers knew them by name, and they knew customers by name. I’m hoping some will continue that legacy.”

Building on this history while incorporating new elements like a social media presence and an online store is a challenge she is ready to undertake, Donohue said.

The Slate brothers worked closely with Donohue as she has taken over the store’s management.

“What they’re looking for is to continue their legacy, but with new and fresh ideas,” Donohue said. “I’m very sensitive to the fact that this is their father’s name, and they didn’t sell it to just anyone. We are working together to bring the best of the past and the future together.”

—Staff writer Leanna B. Ehrlich can be reached at lehrlich@college.harvard.edu.