Our Story

Twig Timeline

In the early 1970’s The Twig opened in the Quadrangle Mall on Broadway north of Loop 410 as a branch of Harris Smithson’s L&M College Bookstore. (I’m not sure of the exact date of its opening, but I remember hearing radio spots advertising The Twig when I moved to SA in 1974).

I began work at The Twig in its Quadrangle location in the fall of 1976. In 1977 we moved to Castle Creek Village, a newly built center one block south of the intersection of Blanco and Loop 410.

In 1978 Harris Smithson acquired Higgins Bookstore in the Arcadia Grove Center on the East side of Broadway in Alamo Heights. Dr. and Mrs. Higgins had retired a few years earlier and sold to another owner who only briefly owned it. The original Mr. Higgins store had opened in 1960.

In 1980 we moved the Blanco Rd store one block north to the Blanco Junction shopping center just across from Central Park Mall.

In 1980-something Harris Smithson opened a third Twig Book Shop in the newly built Colonnade I at Wurzbach and IH10.  A few years later, the Wurzbach Twig morphed into The Red Balloon, a children’s only store.

In late summer of 1985 the Blanco Junction store closed.

In January 1989 the Broadway store moved to a larger space (the original Scrivener's location) on the west side of Broadway in front of Cappy’s restaurant. The north side of the space housed a children’s section known as the Red Balloon; the middle and south spaces became The Twig.

In the early 1990’s Harris opened Booksmith’s, on the west side of Alamo Plaza. Sometime before 1995 he closed the Wurzbach Red Balloon.

The Twig and Broadway Red Balloon were under water in the flood of 1998 with six inches of water inside the store and 24 inches around the outside. Only the opening of the trap door to the under-space saved us from more damage inside.

John and Frannie Douglas bought The Twig in August of 1999 renovating the damaged interior and replacing waterlogged shelving.

In 2009 Susanna retired, and Claudia became manager.  While The Twig opened at Pearl in the Full Goods Building in Nov. 2009, the Broadway location remained open through the end of 2009.

On Battle of Flowers Day (April) 2013, we moved The Twig to its current location in the Can Plant at Pearl.

Susanna Nawrocki

Sept. 29, 2015