example: Neil Young's
After the Gold Rush,
Sullivan Street, NYC

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• POP CULTURE - NEW YORK: THE ULTIMATE LOCATION FINDER, based on PopSpots, has maps to over 2,000 Pop Culture locations you can visit in New York CIty.

RELEASED IN 2018!

Ask for it it at your at your local bookstore, or buy it online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart and other online dealers.

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Reference section:
DYLAN RESEARCH and
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PopSpots in the media.

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Click here to get to the website for: Bob Egan's MOST EXCELLENT LIST OF 3-CHORD and 4-CHORD SONGS"

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To read Bob Egan's twenty-page illustrated children's book: Shakespeare and the Million Monkeys online - click here. To see the 30 minute video reading of SHAKESPEARE AND THE MILLION MONKEYS on YouTube, click here. PopSpots is a website about those places where interesting events in the history of Pop Culture took place; primarily album cover shots, places where movies and tv shows were filmed, and sites on which paintings were based. Many are from Manhattan, where I live. Manhattan is constantly being torn down and rebuilt anew, and I'm trying to find these places while they are still around. Thanks for visiting. POPSPOTS MASTHEAD Bob Egan / Creator, researcher, web producer Marie Fotini / Chief European Correspondent, researcher

  BOOK ROW - THE FOURTH AVENUE BOOKSTORES - circa 1940

    You can click twice on the photos to fully expand them. Then click the left arrow (back page) to get back.

  (Pictured: the east side of 4th Avenue (Book Row) beween East 10th and East 11th Streets circa 1940.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

An Introduction to BOOK ROW - Fourth Avenue from Astor Place to Union Square, New York CIty

Between roughly 1890 and 1980 there were dozens of used bookstores along Fourth Avenue between Astor Place (8th Street) and Union Square (14th Street) in New York CIty. The area was known as Book Row.

The area was at the eastern edge of Greenwich VIllage where it meets the East Village.

This website shows the major bookstores that made up Book Row during it's heyday - around 1940. The information was taken primarily from 1940 phone books at the New York Public Library, photographs found in the Municiple Archives of NYC, and the book BOOK ROW: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade by Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador (2004/Carroll & Graf, NYC; paperback reprint 2019/Skyhorse, NYC)

A publicity map of Book Row circa 1950, showing many of the bookstores.

Used bookstores like to cluster together so those browsing could go from one store to the next until they found the book they liked.

People came from all over the world to shop here, though many customers were New Yorkers passing through Book Row on their way to work, or shoppers walking between the immense Wanamakers Department store at East 9th street and Union Square.

Most stores had bookcarts outside with books selling for as low as five cents. The reason: when these customers came into the store to buy their bargain purchase, they were often enticed to buy more additional higher priced books.

Starting in the 1950's high rents cause some of the stores to move off the avenue and onto Broadway, nearby sidestreets, or move upstairs into office buildings.

Some stores carried over 25,000 titles. Many were bought from book auctions, private estates, or overstock from publishers. Some stores specialized in "book hunting" - hunting for your book at other stores.

There were several book auction companies on the Row. They bought huge libraries from individuals, libraries, and businesses, and auctioned them off to the boooksellfers on Book Row.

Some stores specialized in bargain basement books. Others had rare books, fine bindings, first editions or autographed copies. Most sent out brochures listing the books they had in stock and sold them through mail order.

Some store owners were legendary for locating a particular book in their huge stock in less than a minute. Other store owners seemed like they'd actually prefer to keep all their books and were not great at customer service.

With the coming of the Internet and millions of books being advertised online, the need for used bookstores lessened, causing many to close or go online themselves.

One used-book store store, called Alabaster Books, still remains on Book Row. It opened about 15 years ago on Fourth Avenue near 12th Street.

There are still about 20 used bookstores in the New York City area, mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. There are also many antiquarian and rare book stores, some with store fronts, which are located mostly in midtown."

About 1/3 of the buildings that had bookstores along Book Row remain up today.

A map of Book Row during the 1950's created by Marvin Mondlin and Robin Crutchfield for the book Book Row.

I have added the store names next to their respective numbers for easier viewing.

The three maps below show most of the bookstores along Book Row circa 1940 which was around the heyday of the street.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 8th Street and East 9th Street.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 8th Street and East 9th Street..

This is the Wanamakers (department store) Building Annex that was built in 1906-7 (and added to in 1925) as an annex to the main Wanamakers store (the shorter building to the right). The annex building is still there today.

The ground floor on the Fourth Avenue side has long had large stores in it. When it was a K-Mart in 1997, U2 launched their PopMart tour there.

A lot of Wanamakers customers would visit Book Row after a visit to the store, or while walking through Book Row on the way to Union Square and the subways there.

The Wanamaker Annex (the larger building at left) was connected to the original Wanamaker Building by an enclosed "skybridge" called the "Bridge of Progress." The original Wanamakers began life as the A. T. Stewart department store in 1862.

The east eide of Fourth Avenue between East 9th Street and East 10th Street.

This is the building that where IBM'S Watson computer is being developed. It replaced a Cooper Union building.

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 8th Street and East 9th Street, 1940.

The entire triangular-shaped block was taken up by a building called Bible House.

The six-story building had dozens of offices in it, several bookstores and booksellers, and a large company that printed BIbles on large machines.

You can see the Astor Place subway station in the center of the picture.

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 8th Street and East 9th Street, 1940

This is a diagram of BIble House. It had stores along at least two sides and about 100 offices upstairs in its six floors. It housed the ofices of The American Bible Society which printed and distributed millions of Bibles from 1853 to 1956 when the building was replaced by a Cooper Union classroom building. In 2013, that building was replaced by the glass tower of 51 Astor Place, an office building that is the headquarters of IBM's Watson Group. A Jeff Koons sculpture of a giant red balloon rabbit graces the lobby and can be seen from the street.

The BIble Society enjoyed the presence of other bookstores in the building, and bookstores were located at the retail level and upstairs, making this, along with Wanamakers Department Store across the street, one of the reasons so many other used bookstores were attracted to Fourth Avenue. The building was one of the first to be built on cast iron columns making it well suited to bear the weight of large numbers of books.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 9th Street and East 10th Street.

This apartment building was built after the Wanamaker Building was destroyed by a fire in 1956.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 9th Street and East 10th Street, 1903.

This is a picture of the cast-iron A. T. Stewart Department Store which was built in this space in 1862. The Wanamaker Department Store chain from Philadelphia would take over the space in 1903. They would later expand with an even larger annex one block south. A skybridge over 9th Street would join them together.

When it was first built the interior of Wanamaker's Annex had a grand staircase in the center.

Here's a shot of the Wanamaker fire from 1956. (photo Yung Lee)

This is the view up Fourth Avenue to 14th Street from the front awning of Wanamakers circa 1920,

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 9th Street and East 10th Street, 2022

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 9th Street and East 10th Street - 1940.

I am including this short street off Fourth Avenue as part of Book Row because it had three used bookstores on it (more pictures in the photos of individual bookstores, below) and was probably frequented as much as any part of Book Row.

The Strand Bookstore had an early location here. In addition, long after most of Book Row had moved, the Paragon Bookstore remained on the street for many years. A well-known scene from Woody Allen's '"Hannah and Her Sisters" (photos further down) was filmed at Paragon before it left the street.

One of the stores along the north side of the street from 1937-1939 was the Strand Bookstore before it moved around the corner to 81 Fourth Avenue. The south side of the Street was a side of BIble House.

In the photo below I have superimposed a photo of the Strand over its location at 103 East 9th Street.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 10th Street and East 12th Street.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 10th Street and East 12th Street - 1940.

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 10th Street and East 11th Street, 2022.

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 10th Street and East 11th Street - 1940.

(click on picture to ENLARGE it)

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 11th Street and East 12th Street.

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 11th Street and East 12th Street - 1940

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, 1940.

The west side of Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, 1940.

(click on picture to ENLARGE it)

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, 2022

The east side of Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, 1940

(click on photo to ENLARGE it)

The west side of Fourth Avenue Between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, 2022.

It's hard to find a picture of this block. The right side of this picture shows the west side of Fourth Avenue from 13th to 14th Street. The bottom half of the block (the large windows) was taken up by the back of a large Rogers Peet department store whose front was on Broadway. The city only took a picture of the front of the building, not the back.

The east side of Fourth Avenue b etween East 13th Street and East 14th Street, 2022.

ThIs photo shows the the northern end of the east side of Fourth Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street circa 1940.

This photo shows the the southern end of the east side of Fourth Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street circa 1940.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE STORES ON BOOK ROW FROM SOUTH TO NORTH (8th-14th Streets)

This is a snapshot of the stores that were on Book Row during the years around 1940 based on photos at the NYC Municipal Archives and 1940's phone books.

The stores along the Row were constantly moving from location to location. In an average 20-year period some of the stores moved four or five times as they grew in size and needed more space, or were forced to move by higher rents.

But this will give you an idea of the sheer number and variety of stores along the half dozen blocks that made up Book Row.

45 Fourth Ave (8th-9th) - Argosy Book Store (In The Bible House). The store will later move to an entire 5-story building 116 East 59th Street where you can still visit it. You can see the reflection of the Wanamaker Department Store Annex in the window.

The authors of the book Book Row say that owner Louis Cohen wanted a name that began with an "A" so it would be in the front or directories, and came up with "argosy" which in romantic literature is a word for "a large merchant ship bearing great treasures," in this case, books. The store's logo, seen in the window, was "A Book for Every Mood."

45 Fourth Ave (8th-9th, East Side) - Mosk's Book Store (In The Bible House) (1935 photo)

45 - Mosk's Book Store (8th - 9th, East Side) (In The BIble House)

The BIble House in 1890, looking south along Fourth (to the right).

The BIble House as seen looking west from 9th Street and Third Avenue. Wanamakers is the big building in back.

57 Fourth Avenue (9th - 10th, East Side) - Biblo & Tannen Booksellers. (1939-1941 photo). This is a screengrab from the documentry "The Booksellers." It is sharper than other shots because a print was ordered and purchased from the NY Municipal Archives.

57 Fourth Avenue (9th - 10th, East Side) - Biblo & Tannen Booksellers. 1939-1941 photo.

57 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, East SIde) - Biblo & Tannen Booksellers. They would also be up the block later at #63, where the Iliad Book Shop was at one time. We can see the Wanamaker Department Store across the street. (Photo circa 1940 by Roy Perry.)

57 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, East Side) - Biblo & Tannen Booksellers. WIth the Wanamaker Department Store to the left across the street.

59 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th, East SIde) - Pageant Book Co. This store would later move to 109 East Ninth Street between Fourth and Third Avenues.

59 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Pageant Book Store. 1939-1941 photo. The Pageant Book store would later move to 109 East 9th Street.

61 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th, East SIde) - P. Stammers & Sons, Booksellers and Bookhunters. Biblo & Tannen at 63 Fourth is the next store up. At one point in the 1950's Biblo & Tannen would be be in 63-65 Fourth Ave.

61 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th, East SIde) - P. Stammers - Here's another view of Stammers (with the string of pictures in the window) from a decade or so before the photo above.

61 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - P. Stammers & Sons, Booksellers and Bookhunters. 1939-1941 photo.

63 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Iliad Book Store. 1939-1941 photo. Biblo and Tannen would later take over this space.

65 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th, East SIde) - A. Hershbain Books

69 FourthAvenue (9th -10th, East SIde) - Louis Schucman, Bookseller. He would later move to 77 Fourth Avenue.

65, 67, 69 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) 1939-1941 photo. #69 is on the left. In 1940 that was Louis Schucman Bookseller. To the right was #65. That was A. Hershbain.

73 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, East SIde) - H. K. Briggs - Books 'n' Things (see, far right)

This space (73 Fourth Ave.) would also hold at different times, Pickwick Books and The American Book Auction.

(photo via Getty images)

73 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, East SIde) - American Book Auction. Many of the bookstores along Fourth Avenue would buy some of their stock at book auctions, where used, rare and antiquarian books were sold individually and in lots through out the year. 73 Fourth was the location of the American Book Auction company. Its sign is in the second floor window. It would later move to 303 Park Avenue South. A description follows two pictures below

(photo via Getty images)

73 Fourth Avenue - In close up.

(photo via Getty images)

73 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, East SIde) - American Book Auction. Another picture from a different photographer.

(photo via Carole Teller / GVSHP)

73 FourthAvenue (9th -10th, East Side) This is a description of American Book Auctions from 1964 after it moved north from Fourth Avenue to Park Avenue South.

73 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Pickwick Book Store. 1939-1941 photo. At one time this location was also the site of the American Book Auction store. and Books 'n' Things.

77 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Harris Book Store. 1939-1941 photo.

79 Fourth Avenue (10th -11th, East Side) - Arcadia Book Shop. To the right is the bookstore of Louis Schucman at #77. He was at #69 at one time. To the left of Arcadia is #81. #81 was the Strand Bookstore at one time.

79 Fourth Avenue (10th -11th, East Side) - Arcadia Book Shop is at front left at #79. Harris Book Store is next door behind it at #77. #77 was also Louis Schucman Books Store at one time.

79 Fourth Avenue (10th -11th, East Side) - Before it was the Arcadia Bookstore 79 Fourth Avenue was Geffen's Book Store. This is a very similar picture to one just above.

According to the book Book Row, Abraham Geffen began on book row in the 1920's at 79 4th Avenue. He was later bought out by Milton Applebaum of the Arcadia Bookshop. Arcadia would later move to 856 Broadway.

79 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Arcadia Book Store. 1939-1941 photo.

79 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Arcadia Book Store. 1939-1941 photo.

Arcadia Book Shop is at right. Strand Book Shop (81) is to its left in the picture.

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. In the 1970's this would become Abbey Book Shop. Until the arrival of the Strand this was the largest of the Fourth Avenue Bookstores. It had a extra wide floor area surrounded on three sides by a balcony filled with books.

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. (photo 1939-1941)

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. (photo 1939-1941)

80 Fourth Avenue (9th -10th, West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. The intersection of 10th Street and Fourth Ave is to the left of the man in the hat. You can see the Cooper Union building in the back at right.

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. A woman looks through a bargain bin. (from Getty Images)

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. A man looks through the bargain bins outside the store. ((from Getty images)

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store. A bargain bin outside the store. (from Getty Images)

80 Fourth Avenue (9th-10th West Side) - Schulte's Book Store - description from Hart's Guide 1964.

81 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Strand Book Store. 1939-1941 photo.

83 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Friendly Book Store. 1939-1941 photo.

84 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - Benday Bookshop - (later the Banner Book Store). 1939-1941 photo.

85 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Altree Book Store. 1939-1941 photo

91 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, East) - Max Mantus Lunchroom. 1939-1941 photo.

100 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West SIde) Memory Book Store (and later The Atlantis Book Store) (description from Hart's Guide 1964)

102 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West SIde) Corner Book Store (photo 1939-1941) The Corner Book Store opened this space in 1940, so this photo was likely taken in 1939.

102 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West Side) The Corner Book Shop (description from Hart's Guide 1964)

104 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West Side) The Colonial Book Shop was located at one time in this space. (photo 1939-1941)

108 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West) - Weiser's Book Store. The space was also occupied by Vanity Fair Book Store at one time.

108 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West) - Weiser's Book Store.

110 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West) - Green Book Shop. (photo circa1939-1941)

110 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West) - Green Book Shop. (photo 1939-1941)

112 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - The Raven Book Shop.

(photo via Jeffrey Kraus)

112 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - The Raven Book Shop.

112 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - The Raven Book Shop. (photo 1939-1941)

112 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - The Raven Book Shop. (photo 1939-1941)

110 - 112 Fourth Avenue (10th - 11th, West) - The Green Book Store (left, 110) The Raven Book Shop. (right, 112) (photo 1939-1941). This is a sceengrab from the film The Booksellers - the sharp focus indicates they paid to have a copy made by the NY Municipal Archives. The awning for the Green Book Store reads "Watch These Tables for Bargains."

114 Fourth Avenue (11th-12th, West Side) - Anchor Book Store. Teens looking at books. A sign in the back reads "The Junk Shop." (via Getty Images)

114 Fourth Avenue (11th-12th, West Side) - Anchor Book Store. A man looking through a book cart. A sign above reads "The Junk Shop." The sign in back right reads Eagle Barber Shop #116 (Fourth Ave.). (via Getty Images)

114 Fourth Avenue (11th-12th, West Side) - Anchor Book Store. (photo 1939-1941)

114 Fourth Avenue (11th - 12th, West SIde) - Manny's Books and Records. circa 1980's (photo by Bill Rocco)

117 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, East Side) Samuel Weiser Book Shop. In 1954 this store was at 108 Fourth Ave.

117 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, East Side) - Sam Weiser Book Store. This store would also be at 123 Fourth Avenue at one point.

120 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - City Book Auction

122 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - Fourth Avenue Book Store.

122-124 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - Fourth Avenue Book Store. In this photo, it looks like The Fourth Avenue Book Shop has expanded northward into the next store at #124 Fourth Avenue.

122 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - Alabaster Book Store. The Alabaster was begun by Steven Crowley in October 1996. He was the first peson in over 20 years to place a bookstore on 4th Avenue. He discovered the location while bicycling from his home in the Lower East Side. It is located at #122 which was the same address as the Fourth Avenue Book Store decades before.

124 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - Fourth Avenue Book Store. This photo focuses on #124 which could be an expansion of The Fourth Avenue Book Shop at #122.

123 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, East Side) - Sam Weiser Book Store. This store would also be at 117 Fourth Avenue at one point.

123 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, East SIde, Basement) Alexander Deutschberger Books Store

130 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West SIde) This is most likely the Fourth Avenue Book Store. In the back right of this photo you can read the words "Bowling" and "20 Alleys." This is referring to the bowling alley that was once on the ground floor of the large classical looking builing next door at the southwest corner of 13th and Fourth Avenue. In the 1940's photos it is an automobile dealership. In the 1980's the building held the Cat Club. Now it's the entranceway to a hotel.

138 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) This is a reference to the bowling alley that we see named in the photo above. The excerpt comes from the book "Hart's Guide to New York City, by Harold Hart, Hart Publishing Co., 1964.

138 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West SIde) - Fourth Avenue Book Store. The street number #138 comes from the Map of Fourth Ave bookstores circa 1950 above. This store was down the block at 122 Fourth Avenue in the 40's. By the masonry above the sign, we can see that this is locted in the building at the corner of 13th St and Fourth Avenue that was an automobile dealership at one time. (And in the 1990's it was a rock club called The Cat Club).

138 Fourth Avenue (12th - 13th, West Side) - Fourth Avenue Book Store.

137 Fourth Avenue (13th - 14th, East SIde) - Ben Harris sign (I'm not not sure where the Ben Harris store was, although it could refer to the Harris Book Store at 77 Fourth Avenue.) - Photo from 1930s.

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139 Fourth Avenue (13th - 14th, East SIde) - Dave's Books. 1985. (Dave is the tall gentleman at right.)

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A FEW STORES JUST OFF FOURTH AVENUE

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9TH STREET - JUST EAST SIDE OF FOURTH AVENUE -1940

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Throughout the years of Book Row there were always up to 5 or 6 bookstores on this side street just east of Book Row.

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103 East 9th Street - The Strand Book Store

Here's a picture of the Strand Bookstore which was at 103 East 9th (you can see the 103 in the window) from about 1936-1939. The Strand would later move to 81 Fourth Ave around 1940, then to 828 Broadway at 12th Street in 1957.

With this superimposition, you can see where the Strand fit in on the block.

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I HAVE ALSO DONE A COMPLETE HISTORY OF STRAND BOOKSTORE LOCATIONS - 52 East 8th St.; 52 East 9th St.; 103 East 9th St.; 81 Fourth Avenue; 828 Broadway - IN A WEBPAGE WITH OVER 100 PICTURES. TO SEE IT, CLICK HERE.

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The Pageant Book Store was located at 109 East 9th Street.

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The Pageant would later a role in Woody Allen's 1986 movie "Hannah and Her SIsters. Here are Michael Caine and Barbara Hershey in front of the store.

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Here they are inside the stacks of the Pageant Bookstore. The store is now a bar/restaurant.

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The background picture was taken before the Pageant Bookstore was located at 105 East 9th Street. We can also see where the Strand bookstore was located for several years at 103 East 9th Street.

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This is a picture of 113 East 9th ("to let sign") and 115 East Ninth (with "books" sign") At one time #113 had Hershbein Books and #115 had Gilman Books. This picture was taken earlier than 1940 so I'm not sure if it's Gilman Books.

Note the subway entrance at the end of the block on Third Avenue. The foot traffic this would bring is probably the reason that many stores were found on this block.

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This is most likely a picture of Gilman Books at 115 East 9th Street from another angle around 1940.

The store two to the left (behind the car) at 113 East 9th would have held the Hershbein Book Store at one time.

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A massive sheet music bookstore just south of Book Row.

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Special Note: This is a 1983 picture of the Carl Fisher Music Store located at 62 Cooper Square. The address is virtually an extention of lower Fourth Avenue just before it runs into the Bowery. So it was just below Book Row.

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The Carl Fisher Music company built this building in 1923 and produced and printed sheet music on the upper floors. On the ground floor they built a massive retaill store selling all varieties of sheet music. I only include it here because some of the people visiting Book Row would probably have frequented this store too. The sheet music store is now a gym.

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Miscellaneous Extra Material for Researchers

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If you want to know more about the history of Book Row, this book is chock-full of histories of the Row and all the shops. and proprieters. Both the hardcover and softcover versions are shown.

The hardcover came out from Carrol & Graf Publishers (NY) in 2004. The paperback came out from Skyhorse Publishing (NY) in 2019.

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This is a copy of a map of Book Row I made in 1979 for a book I wrote called THE BOOKSTORE BOOK (Avon) which listed all the new and used bookstores in New York City. You can see how the number of stores had dwindled from it's heyday in the 1940's.

From THE BOOKSTORE BOOK - 1979 - by Robert Egan

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This is a photo of the cover of the book that held the map above..

From THE BOOKSTORE BOOK - 1979 - by Robert Egan

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These are the photos of Fourth Avenue circa 1940 ( from the New York CIty Municipal Archive files that I used to make the panoramas.

Between 1939 and 1941 the city sent out a team of photographers to photograph every build in the city.

To get to the page above, click here.

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Map of Book Row (click to ENLARGE)

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Ariel Photo of Book Row in 1924 (click to ENLARGE)

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This is an example of a 1940 addressed-based phone book at the NYPL on Microfilm. The bookstores at #81, #83, #84, and #85 are highlighted. This is how I figured out where the bookstores were located in the photos of Book Row.

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To expand their client base, the bookstores on Book Row would send out special catalogues of rare books and first editions on various subjects. This is a sample of one such catalogue sent out by a used bookstore a few blocks west of Book Row. See below for an interior shot of the catalogue.

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Here's the interior of the Bodley Book Shop catalogue above.

If you bought three or more books at $1.00 each, the store would pay the mailing costs. Discount "book rate" postage started in 1938 in the U.S.

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