Old Corner Bookstore

{{Short description|Building in Boston, Massachusetts}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Old Corner Bookstore | nrhp_type = | image = 2017 Old Corner Bookstore.jpg | caption = The building in 2017 | image_size = 275px | location = 283 Washington Street<br>Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | coordinates = {{coord|42|21|27|N|71|3|32|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Boston#Massachusetts | area = | built = 1718<ref>[http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/freedom-trail/old-corner-book-store.shtml "Old Corner Bookstore"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504013703/http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/freedom-trail/old-corner-book-store.shtml |date=May 4, 2017 }} - The Freedom Trail Foundation</ref><ref name=hbi>[http://historicboston.org/portfolio_page/old-corner-bookstore/ "Old Corner Bookstore"] - Historic Boston Incorporated</ref> | architect = | architecture = | added = April 11, 1973 | refnum = 73000322<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref> }}

The '''Old Corner Bookstore''' is a historic commercial building located at 283 Washington Street at the corner of School Street in the historic core of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1718 as a residence and apothecary shop, and first became a bookstore in 1828. The building is a designated site on Boston's Freedom Trail, Literary Trail, and Women's Heritage Trail.<ref>Wilson, Susan. ''Boston Sites & Insights: An Essential Guide to Historic Landmarks in and Around Boston''. Beacon Press, 2004: 173. {{ISBN|978-0-8070-7135-9}}</ref>

The Old Corner Bookstore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and listed as a Boston Landmark in 2025. The building's current tenant {{As of|2017|lc=y}} is a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant.

==History== thumb|Today's 11 School Street was one of the two additions to the original building around 1828 The site, situated on what was then part of Cornhill, was formerly the home of Anne Hutchinson, who was expelled from Massachusetts in 1638 for heresy.<ref>[http://www.frommers.com/destinations/boston/A29759.html Old Corner Bookstore Building | Museum/Attraction Review | Boston | Frommers.com]</ref> Thomas Crease purchased the home in 1708, though it burned down in the Great Boston Fire on October 2, 1711.<ref name=Wilson175>Wilson, Susan. ''Boston Sites & Insights: An Essential Guide to Historic Landmarks in and Around Boston''. Beacon Press, 2004: 175. {{ISBN|978-0-8070-7135-9}}</ref> Crease constructed a new building on the site in 1718<ref name=hbi/> as a residence and apothecary shop. For generations, various pharmacists used the site for the same purpose: the first floor was for commercial use and the upper floors were residential. In 1817, Dr. Samuel Clarke, father of future minister James Freeman Clarke, bought the building.<ref name=Wilson175/>

The building's first use as a bookstore dates to 1828, when Timothy Harrington Carter leased the space, whose address had now changed to 135 Washington Street, from a man named George Brimmer. Carter spent $7,000 renovating the building's commercial space, including the addition of projecting, small-paned windows on the ground floor.<ref name=Wilson175/> Two 3-story buildings were added beside the School Street elevation around the same time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Congress |first=United States |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reports_and_Documents/C9EjAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=OLD+CORNER+bookstore+school+street+1828&pg=PA13-IA23&printsec=frontcover |title=Reports and Documents |pages=138 |language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://lostnewengland.com/tag/school-street-boston/ School Street, Boston] — Lost New England</ref>

thumb|left|Corner Bookstore building, 19th century 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 T. Fields. For part of the 19th 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.<ref>Miller, Edwin Haviland. ''Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 281. {{ISBN|0-87745-332-2}}</ref> Ticknor and Fields rented out the whole building, using only the corner for a retail space. Other sections of the building, particularly upstairs rooms and storefronts facing School Street, were in turn sublet to other businesses.<ref>Winship, Michael. ''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}}</ref> 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.<ref>Tryon, Warren S. ''Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963: 279.</ref> A succession of other publishing houses and booksellers followed Ticknor and Fields in the building.

In keeping with its literary past, in the 1890s the shop carried magazines such as: ''Arena'', ''Argosy'', ''Army and Navy Journal'', ''Art'', ''Art Amateur'', ''The Atlantic'', ''Black Cat'', ''Bookman'', ''Bradley His Book'', ''Catholic World'', ''The Century Magazine'', ''The Chap-Book'', ''The Church'', ''The Churchman'', ''Current Literature'', ''Donahoe's Magazine'', ''Every Month'', ''Forum'', ''Gunton's Magazine'', ''Harpers Bazaar'', ''Harper's Round Table'', ''Harper's Weekly'', ''Home and Country'', ''Judge'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'', ''Leslie's Weekly'', ''Life'', ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'', ''Munsey's Magazine'', ''The Nation'', ''North American Review'', ''Outing'', ''Pocket Magazine'', ''Poet Lore'', ''Public Opinion'', ''Outlook'', ''Puck'', ''Puritan'', ''Red Letter'', ''Review of Reviews'', ''Scientific American'', ''Scribner's Magazine'', ''Shoppell's'', ''St. Nicholas Magazine'', ''Town Talk'', ''Truth'', ''Vogue'', ''What to Eat'', ''Yale Review'', and ''Youth's Companion''.<ref>"On the News-Stands." Printers' Ink, v.18, no.13, March 31, 1897.</ref>

==Preservation== The building was threatened with demolition and replacement by a parking garage in 1960 and was "rescued" through a purchase by Historic Boston, Inc. for the sum of $100,000.<ref>[http://www.historicboston.org/old_corner_bookstore_buildings.htm Old Corner Bookstore Buildings] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806034511/http://www.historicboston.org/old_corner_bookstore_buildings.htm |date=2007-08-06 }}</ref> Historic Boston is a not-for-profit preservation and real estate organization that rehabilitates historic and culturally significant properties in Boston's neighborhoods so that they are a usable part of the city's present and future.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>{{cite web |date=January 8, 2025 |title=Old Corner Bookstore (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/old-corner-bookstore.htm |access-date=March 3, 2026 |website=NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service)}}</ref> In May 2025, it became a Boston Landmark under the auspices of the Boston Landmarks Commission.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mesdjian |first=Sarah |date=May 21, 2025 |title=Panel makes historic Old Corner Bookstore and Cunningham House official landmarks in Boston |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/21/metro/old-corner-book-store-landmark/ |access-date=March 3, 2026 |website=BostonGlobe.com}}</ref>

==Tenants== ===Historical=== thumb|right|175px|Henry Oscar Houghton, 19th century

====Tenants of 76 Cornhill==== * 1718: Thomas Crease<ref>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</ref> * 1789: Herman Brimmer, merchant,<ref name="Boston Directory. 1789">Boston Directory. 1789</ref> John Jackson, broker<ref name="Boston Directory. 1789"/> and Samuel Thayer and Minott Thayer, shopkeepers<ref>Boston Directory. 1789, 1807</ref> * 1807: John West<ref>Monthly Anthology, June 1807</ref> * 1817: Dr. Samuel Clarke, apothecary<ref>Henry Jenks. Old School Street. [https://books.google.com/books?id=m7YVAAAAYAAJ New England Magazine], Nov. 1895</ref><ref>Boston Directory. 1823</ref>

====Tenants of 135 Washington Street==== * 1828: Carter & Hendee (Richard B. Carter, Charles J. Hendee)<ref>Boston medical and surgical journal, May 19, 1829</ref><ref name="Shurtleff. 1871">Shurtleff. 1871</ref> * 1829: Benjamin Perkins & Co.<ref>Boston medical and surgical journal, March 17, 1829</ref> * 1830: Gray and Bowen (Frederick T. Gray, Charles Bowen)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8zkAAAAAYAAJ North American Review], v.30, 1830</ref> * 1833: Allen & Ticknor (John Allen, William D. Ticknor)<ref name="Shurtleff. 1871"/> * 1838: Samuel H. Parker<ref>Scott. Waverley Novels, v.3. Boston: Parker, 1838</ref> * 1840: Parker & Ditson (S.H. Parker, Oliver Ditson)<ref name="Boston Almanac. 1841">Boston Almanac. 1841</ref> * 1841: William D. Ticknor<ref name="Boston Almanac. 1841"/> * 1844: Oliver Ditson<ref>Freemasons Monthly Magazine. 1844</ref> * 1847: William D. Ticknor & Co. (Wm. D. Ticknor, John Reed Jr., James T. Fields)<ref>Boston Almanac. 1847</ref><ref>Boston Directory. 1849</ref> * 1853: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields * 1854: Ticknor and Fields * 1868: E.P. Dutton & Co. (Edward Payson Dutton, Charles A. Clapp)<ref name="Boston Directory. 1868">Boston Directory. 1868</ref><ref>Boston Almanac. 1871</ref> and H.O. Houghton & Co.<ref name="Boston Directory. 1868"/> * 1869: A. Williams & Co. (Alexander Williams)<ref name="Shurtleff. 1871"/><ref>Boston medical and surgical journal. 1872</ref>

===Recent=== In recent times, the Old Corner Bookstore's retail space was the original location of the Globe Corner Bookstore (a division of the Old Corner Bookstore, Inc.), which operated there for 16 years from 1982 to 1997 and specialized in travel books and 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. Then the space was briefly used as a showroom for crafts created by North Bennet Street School students and faculty. By 2017, the space housed a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant.<ref>{{cite web | author=Annear | title=This building on the Freedom Trail turns 300 next year | website=Boston.com | date=July 10, 2017 | url=https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2017/07/10/this-building-on-the-freedom-trail-turns-300-next-year-but-some-think-its-just-a-chipotle/ | access-date=March 3, 2026|first=Steve}}</ref> The Chipotle restaurant's presence was controversial, prompting several thousand people to sign a petition calling for its removal, but Historic Boston Inc. stated that Chipotle's lease payments helped pay for the organization's other programs.<ref name="Levitz f509">{{cite news |work=The Wall Street Journal | last=Levitz | first=Jennifer | title=On Freedom Trail: Paul Revere's House, the Old North Church—and Burritos | date=November 30, 2018 | issn=0099-9660 | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-freedom-trail-paul-reveres-house-the-old-north-church-and-burritos-1543595308 | language=en-US | access-date=March 15, 2026 | page=}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery class="center" widths="175" heights="200"> File:1832 Carter Hendee BostonDirectory.png|Advertisement for Carter & Hendee, 1832 File:1837 AmericanMagazine v3 Sibley Ticknor.png|''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'', v.3, 1837 (published by John L. Sibley, William D. Ticknor) File:1839 Schoolmaster Parker Ditson Boston.png|Sheet music, published by Parker & Ditson, 1839 (illus. by David Claypoole Johnston) File:CornerBookstore Boston.png|A. Williams & Co., 19th century File:CornerBookstore ca1904 Boston.png|{{circa|1904}} File:Old Corner Bookstore - Boston, MA.jpg|2015 </gallery>

==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist}}

'''Further reading''' * Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff. "Old Corner Bookstore." [https://books.google.com/books?id=UWkUAAAAYAAJ 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== {{Commons category|Old Corner Bookstore}} * [http://www.cityofboston.gov/FreedomTrail/oldcorner.asp Listing at City of Boston official site] * [http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/old-corner.html Official listing on Freedom Trail] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091118024728/http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/old-corner.html |date=November 18, 2009 }} * Boston Public Library. [https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157626660382158 Images related to the bookstore], various dates * Bostonian Society. Photos: ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160307234934/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001748.jpg Old Corner Bookstore], corner of Washington and School Streets, c. 1870-85 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160309125922/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/002387.jpg Old Corner Bookstore], corner of School and Washington Streets, c. 1880-85 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191217/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/004216.jpg Old Corner Bookstore], Washington Street, c. 1884; photo by Boston Camera Club ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201546/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001346.jpg Old Corner Bookstore] at 283 Washington Street, c. 1890 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193906/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001339.jpg Old Corner Bookstore] at 283 Washington Street, c. 1900 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201413/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001342.jpg Old Corner Bookstore], October 1960 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304202253/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001344.jpg Old Corner Bookstore] at 285 Washington Street, 1964 ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201104/http://rfi.bostonhistory.org/boston/full/001080.jpg Globe Corner Bookstore] at 285 Washington Street, c. 1970

{{s-start}} {{succession box | before=Site of the first public school, Boston Latin School | title=Locations along Boston's Freedom Trail | years= '''Old Corner Bookstore''' | after= Old South Meeting House}} {{s-end}} {{NRHP in Suffolk County, Massachusetts}} {{Authority control}}

Category:Houses completed in 1718 Category:Bookstores in Boston Category:Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Category:Financial District, Boston Category:Retail buildings in Massachusetts Category:National Register of Historic Places in Boston