Going Deep:

Seminary Co-op Bookstores has been getting a lot of press this week for director Jeff Deutsch’s recent book “In Praise of Good Bookstores.” The book’s publisher, Princeton University Press, describes Deutsch’s work as “loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered institutions.” 

Deutsch joined Seminary Co-op in 2014, with the belief that bookstores should transcend solely being retailers. Key to Deutsch’s argument for the necessity of bookstores is the value of losing oneself in the act of browsing, or, as he writes, “the experience of being among books.” Deutsch continues in “In Praise of Good Bookstores”: 

 “(The architect of Sem Co-op) understood that the good bookstore is about interiority. Deep in the browse, many of us move through space as though we were inside the Mind itself—of the universe or God, depending on one’s fancy. And many of us turn inward as we do so, finding the space especially conducive to self-reflection.”  

“In Praise of Good Bookstores” is a bit verbose and over reliant on quotations — the Washington Post calls it “high-minded” — but it does effectively posit that the true value of a bookstore lies in its physical space and in its role as a community and cultural institution.

When COVID-19 began, Deutsch writes “these bookstores, bereft of their community indefinitely, were not indifferent spaces, to use Bachelard’s term…They were haunted spaces, thick with ghosts.” Soon, he writes, “we found ourselves operating a warehouse fulfillment center, not a bookstore…Bookstores are roused by their patrons; it is the encounter that fulfills a bookstore’s purpose.” 

Though there are different views of what a bookstore should be for, finances have long dominated the conversation. 

In 2005, then-president of Sem Co-op, Fredrich Burich, reported in a shareholder letter that the store had a profit loss of more than $69,000, despite an increase in membership and sales; the same year that literary retail giant Borders posted profits of $101 million. However, in 2006 and 2007, Sem Co-op turned a profit, “signaling the comeback of the cooperative bookstore despite an industry in turmoil,” the Herald reported in 2007.

Founded in 1961, Sem Co-op used to operate out of the basement of Chicago Theological Seminary. In 2012, it moved to its current location at 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave., and houses one of the largest collections of academic books in the country. 

It’s called a co-op (or cooperative) because it allows people to buy a membership or “stock” in the store, and their membership has historically spanned different continents. In 2019, they changed models, becoming the first not-for-profit bookstore in the U.S. 57th Street Books, the sister store to Seminary Co-op, tends to offer more children’s books, science fiction, mysteries and cookbooks. (Now anyone can become a member for free). 

Powell’s Books also continues to be a Hyde Park staple. Opened by U. of C. graduate student Michael Powell in 1970, the store specializes in academic and scholarly books, as well as having some general interest sections for art, music, film, photography and fiction. It has resided at the same location, 1501 E. 57th St., since its founding. 

When Amazon arrived on the scene in 1994, the online retailer sold only books (until 1998). By 2000, the number of independent booksellers had dropped by 43%, according to TCK Publishing. Hyde Park felt this shift, as you’ll see in many of the closures to follow. As Dorothy S. Latiak notes in a 2001 Herald, while she was reading “Bookstore” by Lynne Tillman, her “mind traveled back to the wealth of bookstores that we had in Hyde Park, and in a sense, that we still do.”

We did a deep dive into several bookstores past and present in Hyde Park. With more than 1,200 results for “bookstore” in the Herald archives, I surely have missed a few that have existed over the years (If you know of any others, reach out!)

The Golden Age of

Hyde Park bookstores

A good place to start is with one of Chicago’s oldest bookstores and a longtime Hyde Park fixture, O’Gara and Wilson Antiquarian Bookseller, originally known as Woodworth’s and dating back to 1882. The shop operated for more than a century in the neighborhood before closing its doors at 1311 E. 57th St. in 2013.

Started by Joseph O’Gara, who ran it with his cat, Lady Jane Grey, before training owner Doug Wilson in a “rigorous five-year apprenticeship,” the store was known for its tightly filled shelves and strange decor – like a buffalo head and stuffed monk poised in inscription. Eccentric patrons of theirs over the years included writer Saul Bellow and civil rights advocate-turned local alderman Leon Despres (5th). (Despres also apparently built up a sizable personal library, which, following his death, was sold back to the store and displayed with his photograph).

Then there was one called the “Red Door Bookstore” or “Staver’s Bookstore,” (seemingly the same store, as they are both identified as being located at 1301 E. 57th St. and closing in 1983). “A small store in an English basement which stocks a broad range of new paperbacks,” John Wilson wrote of Red Door in the Herald in 1980. “Books are shrink-wrapped to protect them from grubby fingerprints, but patrons are welcome to unwrap them and browse.” 

A few blocks down 57th Street was the Green Door Bookstore (unrelated to Red), which used to take up the front half of Medici’s, 1450 E. 57th St., opened as the Medici Coffee House and Gallery in 1958. Former U. of C. student Robert Shelfer wrote in a 2021 blog post: “They always looked like they were on the verge of going out of business…Then at some point The Medici started serving burgers and beer. Then the Green Door really did close, and The Medici expanded to fill the whole storefront and started selling pizza.” It’s not clear what year Green Door closed. 

Though not a Hyde Park store per se, In 1976 Kenwood resident Flora Faraci and Hyde Parker Nancy Finke opened the Jane Addams Bookstore and Bakery in the Loop, 37 S. Wabash Ave. Having already mastered the combo model, or art of selling “sidelines” — items like socks and pastries — that Deutsch vilifies, their bookstore featured “out-of-print and rare children’s books, women’s literature, cookbooks, illustrated books, and fiction.” 

One of few bookstores in Hyde Park that supplied books in different languages, Scholars’ Books was opened in 1985 at 1379 E. 53rd St. by a corporation of around 30 shareholders affiliated with the U. of C. The store stocked a large selection of primarily academic works imported from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and in 1985, the Herald reported that its manager, Peter Tso, dreamed of becoming the Midwest’s largest Asian studies bookstore. 

Hyde Park has also been home to historic Black-owned and Afrocentric bookstores, nearly all of them residing at one location: 5206 S. Harper Ave.

The Freedom Found was the first bookstore in Hyde Park to promote Black authors, open for roughly seven years before it changed hands; In 1998, owner Beth-Sheba McGruder then took over with the Reading Room, 5206 S. Harper Ave, creating a space for writers and readers to converge and discuss. Every third Thursday of the month, they held “McGruder’s Sip and Reads,” where opinions (were) expressed freely.” 

Closing after only four years, in 2002, Sirius Books, owned by Yokhana and Yoel Ahmechshadye, then filled the void, offering a “wide selection of titles in black history, current events, metaphysical science and spirituality.” 

There was also a store by the name of Motherland Books, Art and Culture, at 1635 E. 55th St. (the only one not at 5206 Harper Ave.), which operated for around a year, before merging with Bronzeville’s Afrocentric Bookstore in 2004—owned by Desiree Sanders and her husband Adewale Haastrup (and honored with national awards). 

This past year, former Herald contributing writer Corli Jay covered the fight to keep the latest in this long line of stores at 5206 Harper Ave., Rastafari and Pan-African shop Frontline Books and Crafts, open. Sadly, they had their last weekend at their Hyde Park location in early September. 

Other stores that merit mention include: Urban Renewal-demolished Clarke and Clarke on 55th Street, the Ex-Libris Theological Bookstore, 1340 E. 55th St., and Jack’s Book Center in Harper Court. There was also Bob’s Village Newsstand at 51st and Lake Park Ave., which supplied one of the widest selections of magazines in the city.

(Regarding chains in Hyde Park: There was a Borders on 53rd St. which closed in 2011, and the University of Chicago bookstore, your typical textbook and apparel store, remains partnered with Barnes & Noble. Korch’s & Brentano’s (K&B) bookstore, Chicago’s oldest independent bookstore chain, also had a location in Hyde Park, at 1530 E. 53rd St, until it was “undone” by Crown Books). 

An underground pulp fan and “quiet cultural powerhouse,” Herald editor Hannah Faris also pointed me to Hyde Park’s independent horror publisher It Came From Beyond Pulp. Mike Phillips runs his homegrown digital bookstore on Drexel Avenue, selling vintage sci-fi and horror, and was profiled by contributing writer Morley Musick in 2021.   

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Hyde Park shops weren’t spared, and many brick and mortar stores struggled to stay afloat while pivoting to online and curbside sales. Though Powell’s Books remained, owner Bradley Jonas expressed some of the strain the pandemic took on the store and the loss of “serendipity,” or of finding a book simply by browsing the shop. 

Ironically, the relative wealth of bookstores used to be such that there were an intriguing number of robberies documented in the Herald. For example, there was one in 1969 at Green Door Bookstore, in 1993, at Powells’ and Louis Kiernan Booksellers in the 1500 block of E. 53rd St., again at Powell’s in 1989, and at Seminary in 1999 (where the man “fled with the $3 book he had originally requested” and in a Jesse James-esque plotline, the bookstore clerk claimed to have “stopped the robbery”). 

Similarly, in 1950, the Community Book Shop, 1404 E. 55th St., was said to pass a peaceful week after earlier incidents “described by police as reprisals for the store’s display of communist propaganda.” During the Red Scare, a time when American fears of internal communist subversion were spiking, this is an interesting instance of a bookstore acting as more than just a retailer.

In a Letter to the Editor in 1951, the owner defended his choices, saying: “Contrary to your assumption the Community Book Shop is not an “institution.” It is a business which I own; like other bookstores in Hyde Park mine offers books, pamphlets, periodicals and newspapers for sale. It is true that some of the literature I sell gives information about Communism, the Soviet Union and China. In view of the situation in the world today, I feel that such information is essential to world understanding and world peace.”

Though area bookstores have been shuttering for years, this is not intended as a eulogy. In some cases, these closures were not without considerable pushback. 

In 2013, O’Gara and Wilson closed its doors due to rising costs and relocated to Chesterton, Indiana, “where he says taxes and rents are cheaper.” But only after community members circulated a petition and organized a fund called “Save O’Gara’s Bookstore” (the Herald contributed the first $50 towards this fund). 

Decades earlier, Red Door Bookstore also inspired a campaign to save it. “‘Only in Hyde Park’ the residents saved a neighborhood institution by raising funds to move the Red Door from a building to be torn down in the urban renewal program,” a 1964 Herald states.

Despite closures, Hyde Park has kept a few strong independent and community-oriented bookstores, including Sem Co-op. 

Students continue to buy course materials here, people travel to visit the shop, and they host frequent events and author talks. 

The Hyde Park Book Club, part of the Historical Society, continues to celebrate the rich history of Hyde Park and South Side authors and presses. If you are interested, they will be hosting a talk with Deustch about “In Praise of Good Bookstores” on November 21, 7:30 p.m. via Zoom.

This piece was originally published by the Hyde Park Herald as part of their subscriber-only newsletter series. Interested in more neighborhood deep dives? Become a Herald print or digital subscriber today.

This piece was originally published by the Hyde Park Herald as part of their subscriber-only newsletter series. Interested in more neighborhood deep dives? Become a Herald print or digital subscriber today.

Author: Zoe Pharo, Hyde Park Herald