Photos: Porn shop to become cafe and bookstore

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Co-owners Vered Mares, left, and Kathy McCue pause from cleaning booths in the former Adults Only shop on Friday, December 11, 2015, in Spenard. The two plan to offer the cleaned, repainted and re-carpeted space to artists and musicians over the winter, then demolish the building in the spring to make way for their new venture, The Writer's Block Bookstore and Cafe. While the current space measures 1,000 square feet, their new building will enclose 2,500 square feet on the expansive lot the small structure now sits on.

The peep show booths in the last and nastiest sex shop on Spenard Road will soon make way for a trendy independent book shop with folk singers, craft-brewed beer and multi-ethnic food.

Sleazy Spenard has mostly become a memory. The gray building near the intersection with McRae Road, which had only one sign outside -- "Adults Only" -- was one of the last holdouts on what used to be a row dedicated to alcohol and prostitution. Its new owner, Vered Mares, wouldn't venture in without latex gloves until she had disinfected the place with bleach.

With business partner Kathy McCue and other mostly female members of the local writing community, Mares plans to open The Writer's Block Bookstore and Café next fall as a center for creative people of all kinds. It would be the only independent bookstore in town selling primarily new books, and the women hope to make it an evening hang-out with a venue for music and poetry readings.

Read more: As Anchorage porn shop becomes indie bookstore, Spenard sleaze becomes history