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Occupational Hazards: Franz Bader Bookstore Closes
October 24, 2007
We've all heard too many bookstore-closing stories over the years. I'm at the point of wanting to start a campaign for landlords and property corporations to grant any bookstore fixed, subsidized low rent in perpetuity.
The latest closing here in D.C. illustrates exactly how the loss of a bookstore can also mean loss of community. The Franz Bader Bookstore was founded by Bader, an Austrian Jew who with his wife Antonia fled the Nazis in the late 1930s. He opened his own shop in 1953 and over years and a couple of moves established a place where architects and artists could not only find the specialty books they wanted, but the advice that they needed:
"For patrons such as [long-time customer Kris Norden], this isn't just another mom-and-pop business disappearing. It's the disappearance of a home -- for art lovers, academics, museum directors and, especially, local architects, who decided last week to honor the Yanuls with this year's Glenn Brown Award, which honors those who support architecture. The award is given by the American Institute of Architects and the Washington Architectural Foundation... Architect or not, and whether they have known the store for four decades or just one, some customers have made a habit of turning up on Saturdays for the free-flowing discussions. 'Many people don't go there for the books,' Norden says, recalling times she has often overheard customers engaged in 'deeply intellectual conversation with Dick.' 'I say they run a salon,' she said."
I'm a blogger, and I believe that there are many wonderful things that can happen online, including discussions -- but I don't believe that online life is a worthy full-time substitute for real life -- and that includes Second Life (I love the tongue-in-cheek "Get A First Life" t-shirts). While former Bader customers could certainly sit down at the closest Gotbucks coffee shop and have a discussion, that discussion wouldn't have current store owners Sabine and Richard Yanul, or the lush volumes of art, photography, and essay that lined the walls of their "third place."
The Yanuls are looking forward to retirement, but it hasn't quite sunk in, Sabine says: "When the catalogues come, I say, 'I would like that,' but then I have to say, 'No, I don't have a store anymore.' "
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on October 24, 2007 | Comments (6)
