Denton: Recycled Books, Records & CDs

The building has been a lot of things. W.C. Wright built it in 1899 from bricks salvaged from a lightning-struck courthouse. Then it became an opera house. Then a department store. Then an office supply company. In 1990, Don Foster moved his record shop in. The Wright Opera House finally found its calling.

Recycled Books Denton opened in 1983, first across from Texas Woman’s University. Don Foster — “Uncle Don” to regulars — had been hunting records across North Texas since the early 1960s. He and a friend made trips to Dallas and Fort Worth searching for vinyl. He had a different ear. He turned people on to free jazz and indie labels putting out strange and brilliant music. Eventually, he opened his own shop. When the space got too crowded, he moved to the Denton Square. The purple paint came in 1998.

Half a Million Things on Three Floors

Three floors now hold half a million items — books, vinyl, CDs, Blu-rays — each one someone’s former favorite. Hand-drawn signs point to sections like Local Vinyl and Vintage Pulp. The witchy books section occupies its own dark corner. Walls carry posters hung catawampus. University of North Texas sits about a mile away. Texas Woman’s sits closer. That double-university current has always given Denton a funky edge. Don says something’s going on every night now. Recycled Books runs on that same current. You can spend hours in here and still miss rooms.

Books & More on University Drive has been at it since the mid-’90s. They keep 20,000 vinyl records across six rooms. Denton’s record culture runs deeper than most cities its size.

The purple opera house on the Denton Square has outlasted everything the building was before it. That says something.

I’ve been here ♪