It was more exciting than the circus coming to town. At long last (although in the normal course of Martha’s Vineyard rebuilding, records for speed were set), the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Main street in Vineyard Haven, destroyed last July 4 in a fire that started next door at Café Moxie, stood this past Saturday, June 13, at 9 in the morning with a purple ribbon stretched across windows and doors awaiting the celebratory snip of the scissors.

At least a hundred people assembled outside by the sidewalk clock that stopped on the night of the fire, now perfectly re-tooled. Retired Methodist minister and food pantry director Armen Hanjian noted that the minute hand clicked promptly to the next line rather than gradually approaching it at second by second increments. Clearly the assembled crowd was in a mood to delight in every last detail of the resurrected bookstore.

Ann Nelson, former owner of the emporium and continuing landlady of the two-story building, glowed with the satisfaction of a pioneer woman who’d finally made it over the Sierras to the west coast; “I could never have re-constructed the building so quickly without [contractor] Leo de Sourcy.” Ms. Nelson was also thrilled by the improvements made in the layout of the store, thanks to the input of the new owner, Dawn Braasch (who took courses and read up on everything she could find about independent bookstores), and commercial space designer Jeff Patterson.

As both Ms. Nelson and Ms. Braasch pointed out, the natural flow of customers entering a store tends to be to the right. For the first 37 years of its incarnation, the check-out counter had presided in the front center section, then it moved over the right-hand wall. Now it sits on the left-hand side to enable browsers to make their unconscious counter-clock-wise passagiata. The central space houses tables and lower shelves so that the visual scan of the room includes the double set of stairs ascending to the second floor. Ms. Nelson said, “We learned that some people never realized we had an upstairs.”

Anticipation built as the festive throngs waited for the ribbon to be cut. In attendance were book folk both nationally known and locally celebrated — authors Geraldine Brooks, Cynthia Riggs, David McCullough, and Tom Dunlop, photographer Alison Shaw, cookbook writer and widow of the late mystery writer Philip Craig, Shirley Craig, storyteller Susan Klein, artistic director of The Yard, Wendy Taucher, and publisher Jan Pogue. (Meanwhile a lady greeted Pulitzer-prize winner Geraldine Brooks, then turned and chirped out a bright hello to the man who happened to be standing beside her, presuming it was Ms. Brooks’s husband, also a Pulitzer winner: “Hi, Tony [Horwitz]!” The bystander was actually Island home inspector Donald Cronig, who looked startled to be hailed as someone named Tony.)

At about 12 minutes after the hour, Ms. Braasch rose to the fore to thank everyone from her parents, who’d been helping her move boxes of books all week, to Steve Fisher, president of the New England Independent Booksellers Association, to her wildly enthusiastic staff, including Pamela Street, Web site writer and coordinator; Dailis Merrill, book buyer; Katherine Fergason, children’s book buyer; and Mara Sullivan, sidelines buyer.

At the top of the stairs gleamed the roseate window which all Bunch of Grapes lovers recall from before — the rounded glass with slices of red, yellow and blue. The upstairs offices have been transferred to the refurbished basement, conferring fresh window light on the expanded children’s section, replete with a table and chairs. A small boy climbing the stairs was overheard to say, “Hey, this isn’t a new bookstore! I’ve been here before!”

For the next couple of hours on the street, pedestrians called out to one another that they were headed either to or from the newly opened Bunch of Grapes. “It’s the heart of the community and we missed it so much!” said one woman. Another woman, bearing a black-and-white Shitzhu in her arms, said, “I’m heading straight to the section of Vineyard writers.”

Yesterday, June 15, the Gazette called the bookstore to confirm that, as reported along the grapevine, weekend sales were wickedly, madly huge. “Most definitely!” said Lindsey Webster at the front desk.

Sometimes bad endings turn into brilliant beginnings.