- Old Corner Bookstore
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Old Corner Bookstore
The Old Corner Bookstore in 2008, then occupied by Ultra Diamonds.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts Coordinates: 42°21′27″N 71°3′32″W / 42.3575°N 71.05889°WCoordinates: 42°21′27″N 71°3′32″W / 42.3575°N 71.05889°W Built: 1712 Architect: Unknown Architectural style: No Style Listed Governing body: Private NRHP Reference#: 73000322
[1]Added to NRHP: April 11, 1973 The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic building in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the corner of Washington and School Streets, along the Freedom Trail of revolutionary and early American historic sites.
Contents
History
The site was formerly the home of Anne Hutchinson, who was expelled from Massachusetts in 1638 for heresy.[2]
Corner Bookstore building, 19th c.
The building itself was constructed in 1712 by Thomas Crease as a residence and apothecary shop. From 1832 to 1865, it was home to Ticknor and Fields, a publishing company founded by William Ticknor, later renamed when he partnered with James Thomas Fields. For part of the nineteenth century, the firm was one of the most important publishing companies in the United States, and the Old Corner Bookstore became a meeting-place for such authors as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.[3] Ticknor and Fields rented out the whole building, using only the corner for a retail space. Other section of the building, particularly upstairs rooms and storefronts facing School Street, were in turn sublet to other businesses.[4] After the death of Ticknor, Fields wanted to focus on publishing rather than the retail store. On November 12, 1864, he sold the Old Corner Bookstore to E. P. Dutton; Ticknor and Fields moved to Tremont Street.[5] A succession of other publishing houses and booksellers followed Ticknor and Fields in the building.
Preservation
Threatened with demolition in 1960, the building was "rescued" through a purchase by Historic Boston, Inc. for the sum of $100,000.[6] Historic Boston Incorporated is a not-for-profit preservation and real estate organization that rehabilitates historic and culturally significant properties in Boston’s neighborhoods so they are a usable part of the city’s present and future. In recent times, its retail space has held a branch of the Globe Corner Bookstore (a division of the Old Corner Bookstore Inc.), which operated there from 1982 to 1997 and specializes in travel books & maps. A Boston Globe company store operated in the building from 1998 through 2002, selling Boston Globe products and tourist memorabilia. A national discount jewelry chain, Ultra Diamonds, occupied the retail space from 2005 until the company's bankruptcy in 2009. The retail space is presently (2010) vacant. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is Boston Landmark under the auspices of the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Image gallery
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Advertisement for Carter & Hendee, 1832
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American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, v.3, 1837 (published by John L. Sibley, William D. Ticknor)
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Scott's Guy Mannering, published by Samuel H. Parker, 1838
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Portrait of Fields, Hawthorne, and Ticknor, 1860s
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Advertisement for A. Williams & Co., 1872
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A. Williams & Co., 19th c.
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ca.19th-20th c.
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ca.1904
Tenants
Tenants of no.76 Cornhill
- 1712
- Thomas Crease[7]
- 1789
- 1807
- John West[10]
Sheet music, published by Parker & Ditson, 1839 (illus. by D.C. Johnston)
Henry Oscar Houghton, 19th c.Tenants of 135 Washington Street
- 1829
- Benjamin Perkins & Co.[15]
- 1830
- Gray and Bowen (Frederick T. Gray, Charles Bowen)[16]
- 1833
- Allen & Ticknor (John Allen, William D. Ticknor)[14]
- 1838
- Samuel H. Parker[17]
- 1840
- Parker & Ditson (S.H. Parker, Oliver Ditson)[18]
- 1841
- William D. Ticknor[18]
- 1844
- Oliver Ditson[19]
- 1853
- Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
- 1854
- Ticknor and Fields
- 1868
- E.P. Dutton & Co. (Edward Payson Dutton, Charles A. Clapp)[22][23]
- H.O. Houghton & Co.[22]
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ Old Corner Bookstore Building | Museum/Attraction Review | Boston | Frommers.com
- ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 281. ISBN 0877453322
- ^ Winship, Michale. American Literary Publishing in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Business of Ticknor and Fields. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 180. ISBN 0-521-45469-7
- ^ Tryon, Warren S. Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963: 279.
- ^ Old Corner Bookstore Buildings
- ^ Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff. "Old Corner Bookstore." A topographical and historical description of Boston], Part 1, 2nd ed. Boston: Printed by request of the City Council, 1871
- ^ a b Boston Directory. 1789
- ^ Boston Directory. 1789, 1807
- ^ Monthly Anthology, June 1807
- ^ Henry Jenks. Old School Street. New England Magazine, Nov. 1895
- ^ Boston Directory. 1823
- ^ Boston medical and surgical journal, May 19, 1829
- ^ a b c Shurtleff. 1871
- ^ Boston medical and surgical journal, March 17, 1829
- ^ North American Review, v.30, 1830
- ^ Scott. Waverley Novels, v.3. Boston: Parker, 1838
- ^ a b Boston Almanac. 1841
- ^ Freemasons Monthly Magazine. 1844
- ^ Boston Almanac. 1847
- ^ Boston Directory. 1849
- ^ a b Boston Directory. 1868
- ^ Boston Almanac. 1871
- ^ Boston medical and surgical journal. 1872
Further reading
- Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff. "Old Corner Bookstore." A topographical and historical description of Boston, Part 1, 2nd ed. Boston: Printed by request of the City Council, 1871
- "Old Corner Bookstore." New England Magazine, Nov. 1903.
External links
Preceded by
Site of the first public school, Boston Latin SchoolLocations along Boston's Freedom Trail
Old Corner BookstoreSucceeded by
Old South Meeting HouseCategories:- Buildings and structures completed in 1712
- Freedom Trail
- Buildings and structures in Boston, Massachusetts
- Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
- Financial District, Boston
- Retail buildings in Massachusetts
- Bookstores in Boston, Massachusetts
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