Leary's book store

Leary’s Book Store was a landmark in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for nearly one hundred years. In 1969, when it closed, it was known as the “oldest book store in the United States.”

Downtown location

Leary’s Book Store (later renamed Leary, Stuart, and Co.) was located in the heart of the downtown district of Philadelphia at 9 South 9th Street, a short distance from Market Street.

The very large Gimbel’s Department Store occupied the corner of 9th and Market, and the relatively tiny Leary’s Book Store on 9th Street was separated from it by a small cobble stoned alleyway.

Building structure

Leary’s Book Store was contained in a large three-story building with basement and sloped roof. The building consisted of three floors and a basement full of books. On the third floor, an opening in the floor allowed a view of the mezzanine down below.

Additional books were placed outside on shelves on the Leary’s side of the alleyway separating it from Gimbels. Some provision was made to shelter the books and the readers in the alley way, but, most of the time, the books and browsers, suffered the inclemency of the outdoor Philadelphia weather.

Throughout the building, numerous used books were everywhere: on wall shelves and piled high on tables for readers to browse through. The policy of the bookstore was not to interfere with readers and browsers, but simply to direct customers to their areas of interest if asked.

A famous trademark, of sorts

Leary’s Book Store tied its advertising to the “The Bookworm,” a painting done in 1850 by the German painter and poet Carl Spitzweg. A cropped portion of this painting, showing the bookworm on a ladder, was used in Leary’s advertising and commercial signage.

Customers and browsers were routinely given bookmarks containing this image as well as informative posters related to the bookstore and its history.

Function

Leary’s Book Store was in the business of buying and selling used books. It purchased large collections of books from private libraries and offered them individually for sale. It claimed to have "twenty thousand square feet of books, representing nearly five hundred thousand volumes."

There is some evidence that Leary’s Book Store also published books, such as:

*The Talmud: Selections from the Contents of that Ancient Book, Its Commentaries, Teachings, Poetry, and Legends. Also, Brief Sketches of the Men who made and commented upon it. Translated from the Original By H. Polano, Philadelphia: Leary's Book Store, 1876.

Origin

The initial date of the establishment of Leary’s Book Store at the 9th Street location is not known, but it is possible it evolved from the W. A. Leary & Co., No. 138, N Second Street., (between 1849 and 1853).

Closure

Leary’s heyday was during the “Golden Age of Books,” a period during the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s when books were the key source of entertainment and enlightenment.

After World War II consumers for books moved to suburbia where competing book stores and distance to Leary’s resulted in a declining demand for Leary’s used books.

The bookstore closed in 1968. During the final cataloging of its remaining book stock for sale at the Freeman auction house, a number of ancient documents – reported to have languished in the stock for one hundred years -- were found in its contents including an original broadside of the Declaration of Independence dated to 1776.

This was a John Dunlap first printing and it was placed on sale at auction and sold for over $400,000. The buyers – two wealthy Texas businessmen -- donated it to the city of Dallas, Texas, and it now remains on permanent display at the Dallas Public Library.

Leary’s Book Store and the adjoining Gimbel’s Department Store, originally acquired by Gimbel’s in 1894, were demolished and the land turned to more modern usage.

For further reading

*The Story of the Book Worm Interesting Facts Concerning a Famous Painting, classic description of Leary's Bookstore in Philadelphia. (Soft cover reprint from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.)

Sea also

* Philadelphia
* Old City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Reference

* [http://books-rare.blogspot.com/2006/07/this-is-picture-learys-old-book-store.html Leary’s book store]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/76283671@N00/157834642/ learys bookstore receipt]
* [http://libwww.library.phila.gov/HIP/HIPSearchItem.cfm?ItemID=pdcl00084 Gimbel’s]
* [http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers/131subs.htm My Father's Books]
* [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0471264814/ref=sib_fs_top?ie=UTF8&p=S00L&checkSum=pz4Is7sa6KPtRXLrjiBskqjuM6T1aVqAJM0t5QgGXmM%3D#reader-link The Riddle of Coburn’s Volume]
* [http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/jul/102302.shtml The Story of the Book Worm Interesting Facts Concerning a Famous Painting]
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0703/p1s5.html THE PRICE OF 'INDEPENDENCE']