the Freedom Trail: OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE

Constructed in 1718, the Old Corner Bookstore is downtown Boston’s oldest commercial building and was home to the 19th-century publishing giant Ticknor and Fields, producer of many venerable American titles including Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Longfellow's Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, and the Atlantic Monthly including Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic. Saved from demolition in 1960, the building’s leases help subsidize important historic preservation projects in Boston’s neighborhoods.

Located on the site of Anne Hutchinson’s home, the Old Corner Bookstore was constructed in 1718 by Dr. Thomas Crease as his home and apothecary shop. It later housed a number of booksellers and publishers, the most famous of which was Ticknor and Fields, publishers of many well-known American titles including Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Alcott’s Little Women, Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the Atlantic Monthly. Many of the great writers of the American Renaissance — Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many others — were first published here, and the first American editions of Charles Dickens works were issued from this building.

In 1960, when the site was to be demolished for a new parking garage, a group of Bostonians, concerned about the impending loss of an important piece of the city’s architecture and heritage, formed the non-profit Historic Boston Incorporated (HBI) and pooled their resources and connections to acquire and restore the building for continued use as retail shops and commercial offices.