The beloved video store that called Fremont home for nearly three decades has found a second life in Seattle’s University District.
Last weekend, Scarecrow Video received the entire Video Isle collection as a donation, the largest single donation in the nonprofit’s history, according to the store’s social media posts Feb. 24. Tonya Perfect, who owned Video Isle from 2014 until its closure, arranged the gift in memory of the store’s founder, Craig Wilson, who died in 2016.
“The Video Isle collection has been a testament to the community’s passion for film,” Perfect said in Scarecrow’s announcement. “We are thrilled to see it find a new home at Scarecrow.”
Video Isle first opened in Queen Anne in 1986, with Wilson running the shop seven days a week and living just down the street, according to Vanishing Seattle’s documentation of the closure. The store expanded to Fremont in 1989, setting up shop at 4459 Fremont Ave. N. For more than 30 years it was a neighborhood fixture, known for free popcorn and a deep catalog of cult and foreign films.
The Queen Anne location closed in 2015 due to rising rent and parking challenges. The Fremont store followed on New Year’s Eve 2018, ending more than 32 years in business, The Stranger reported at the time.
Scarecrow, which holds more than 155,000 titles and is the last video rental store operating in Seattle, says films from the Video Isle collection will begin surfacing in the coming weeks, either as new additions or as second copies of titles the store previously had just one of.
Scarecrow Video is located at 5030 Roosevelt Way NE. Rentals are available in-store and by mail at scarecrowvideo.org.
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