In 1974, RB Fitch, and his late wife Jenny, purchased the tranquil 600+ acre Fearrington farm just south of Chapel Hill, NC and began the pleasant task of designing and building a country village. As the years passed, RB saw a need for growing the commercial offerings in the Village Center. He always enjoyed spending time in bookstores when traveling and felt a good fit was possible for a literary bookshop in Fearrington.

RB turned to his eldest daughter, Keebe, to pull the store together. A voracious reader, Keebe spent more of her collegiate time at UNC in the Bull’s Head Bookshop than attending class, which actually proved beneficial for her calling. With the help of a retired librarian and a former Charles Scribner editorial assistant, they combined their strengths to create a quirky and solid inventory which complimented Jenny’s upscale, yet relaxed interior of the shop. On April 20, 1989, the Fitch family opened the doors to McIntyre’s Fine Books, so named in honor of RB Fitch's mother.

The guiding vision was that the bookstore should be a reflection of signifying characteristics of Fearrington. The shop features strong cooking and gardening sections (a reflection of the five star Fearrington House Inn’s amenities) as well as strong fiction, mystery, and children’s collections. It is as all great bookshops should be: a place to get lost in.

From the initial planning phases of the shop, Keebe also felt that the store should host readings, as she had been moved by events she attended on the UNC campus by John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut. McIntyre’s was the trailblazer in the Triangle area for hosting readings. Accordingly, McIntyre’s has two venues for events: The Barn, a renovated dairy barn with PA system and food service, seats 600 people and the Reading Room, which accommodates 50 people. The shop hosts roughly 30 reading groups’ selections, offers a midweek preschool story hour, and is a strong contributor to the area’s cultural offerings.

The McIntyre’s staff, led by manager and events coordinator Jamie Fiocco, is attuned to providing exemplary customer service and thrives on sharing great books they've discovered and helping our patrons find exactly what they're looking for.

Looking to the future, our local area, Chatham County, is poised to experience explosive growth, and McIntyre’s is ready to grow with our community.

Over the years, McIntyre's has welcomed hundreds of talented authors into the bookstore. Some notable visitors have included Khalid Housseini, Ernest Gaines, Amy Tan, Paula Deen, Peter Mayle, Cokie Roberts, Haven Kimmel, Alan Furst, George Pelecanos, Frances Mayes, P.D. Grimes, Tony Horwitz, Reynolds Price, Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton, Charles Frazier, Kaye Gibbons and former president Jimmy Carter.

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