Branching Out of Waco! ‘Fixer Upper’ Star Chip Gaines Buys Famous Bookstore in Texas Town

Branching out of Waco. Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines purchased a famous bookstore in his parents’ hometown of Archer City, Texas.

Chip, 48, purchased two buildings which house Booked Up – a book store once owned by famed author Larry McMurtry – in November 2022, Closer Weekly can confirm. The McMurtry family had owned the properties since 1987 until the Magnolia Network owner’s acquisition. The Terms of Endearment novelist reportedly left the properties to the store manager upon his March 2021 death. 

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“Chip’s connection to Archer City traces back to his parents and grandparents, who grew up there,” a representative for the Texas native 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.”

While it is unclear how much Chip purchased the properties for, according to the deed records, the used bookstore was sold for ten dollars “and other good and valuable consideration.”

Chip and wife Joanna Gaines rose to fame when their HGTV series premiered in May 2013. The show was an instant success and ran for five seasons before the couple decided to step away from the cameras. 

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“While we are confident that this is the right choice for us, it has for sure not been an easy one to come to terms with,” the pair said in a statement in September 2017. “Our family has grown up alongside yours, and we have felt you rooting us on from the other side of the screen. How bittersweet to say goodbye to the very thing that introduced us all in the first place.”

The couple – who share children Drake, Duke, Ella, Emmie and Crew – would go on to revive their beloved home renovation series on their own network, Magnolia Network, a replacement of DIY Network. Fixer Upper: Welcome Home premiered in January 2021. 

In addition to Chip’s new bookstore and the pair’s highly successful television endeavors, the Gaineses have each written books of their own, including Chip’s New York Times bestseller Capital Gaines. They also own and operate multiple home decor and furniture lines for stores such as Target and Living Spaces and run a two-block shopping complex in the heart of Waco, Texas, complete with a coffee shop, baseball field, bakery and multiple shops. 

There’s no limit on what the Gaineses will do next!