Rick Murray, owner of Astoria Coffee Co., is closing his storefront at 37th Street and Leif Erikson Drive by the end of the year.

In 1991, Rick Murray and Peg Davis fled Seattle to reestablish their small-town roots in Astoria. The couple founded an espresso bar, Astoria Coffee Co., at the time one of the only purveyors of gourmet coffee in town.

Two years later, they purchased a former grocery store at 37th Street and Leif Erickson Drive, famous for its part in the “The Goonies,” and began roasting their own beans.

Four years after the death of his wife, Murray is planning to continue the roasting business from his home near Knappa, closing his iconic storefront by the end of the year and selling the building. He is searching for a retail site to carry his coffees and teas, while setting up online sales.

“When Peg suddenly died in 2014 I tried to keep the dream alive, and have tried some new and fun things, but now understand that what we did was a moment in time and cannot work without her,” Murray wrote to customers in a recent message on Facebook.

Murray and Davis, originally from small towns in Indiana, left for Seattle in 1973. Murray’s experience with the coffee business stretches back to 1979, when after applying on a paper bag he landed a job at the third location of then-nascent local coffee chain Starbucks. He began roasting coffee in 1984 until the two decided to flee the big city and start their coffee company in Astoria.

They started with an espresso bar downtown, sourcing beans from Seattle, before purchasing the current location, buying a gas-powered coffee roaster and moving upstairs.

“We had planned on doing this for as long as we could,” Murray said. His wife’s death “changed what was going on, and so I tried to do some other stuff. We opened a little deli, hired some people. But the location of the shop was probably not good for that.”

A year before Murray and Davis began roasting in Astoria, Columbia River Coffee Roasters started in Uniontown. Its coffee is now commonplace in many businesses around the region. Astoria Coffee Co. has eschewed the idea of growing bigger or selling wholesale, except to the Blue Scorcher Bakery & Cafe.

Murray’s Probat coffee roaster makes about 10 pounds of beans at a time, allowing him to offer upward of 30 varieties out of his store. The small-batch mentality appeals to Murray, who said the customers are what have kept him interested for the past quarter century of roasting.

“I got to meet the whole town,” he said. “I got to know people. I got to watch their kids grow up. I got to watch their families change over time.”

Murray recently bought a home near Knappa, where he is planning to relocate the roastery inside a pole barn. He will continue offering small batches of coffee to individual customers out of his home, but is also looking for a local retail outlet such as the Astoria Co-op Grocery to carry his products.

Despite planning to sell the building, Murray hasn’t entertained selling the business, knowing part of Astoria Coffee Co.’s success has been his experience roasting and the relationships he’s formed with customers. At 67 years old, he said he could continue roasting coffee for at least another 10 years.

“It’s really not that hard of work,” he said. “I have to keep my mind and my eyes together. It’s kind of like being a blacksmith or something like that. You get a trade, (and) you can do it for as long as you can.”