Old Corner Bookstore - Where Books Changed America

Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Boston Freedom Trail, a free self-guided tour.

This small brick building at the corner of School and Washington Streets dates to about 1718, which makes it one of the oldest commercial buildings in the city. It began as an apothecary shop with a home upstairs.

In the 1800s it became the heart of American publishing. The firm of Ticknor and Fields worked here, and its authors read like a list of the books in your school library: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Harriet Beecher Stowe among them.

The ground itself has an older story. Before this building stood, it was the site of Anne Hutchinson's home. She held religious meetings here that challenged Puritan ministers, and in 1638 she was banished from the colony for her beliefs, a reminder that early Boston's freedom had firm limits.

Take in the steep gambrel roof and imagine authors stopping by to argue about their newest manuscripts.

Getting here: Continue down School Street to the corner of Washington Street; the Old Corner Bookstore is the little brick building on your left.

Did you know?: In the 1960s the building was nearly torn down for a parking garage before preservationists stepped in to buy it.

Photo op: Stand across Washington Street to fit the whole corner building and its gambrel roof into one shot.

More on Wikipedia: Old Corner Bookstore · Ticknor and Fields · Anne Hutchinson

Stops on this tour

1. Boston Common - Where Cows Grazed and Redcoats Camped
2. Massachusetts State House - The Golden Dome
3. Park Street Church - Brimstone Corner
4. Granary Burying Ground - Patriots at Rest
5. King's Chapel - The Church That Ran Out of Money
6. Boston Latin School Site - America's First Public School
7. Old Corner Bookstore - Where Books Changed America
8. Old South Meeting House - The Tea Party Starts Here
9. Old State House and Massacre Site - Shots on State Street
10. Faneuil Hall - The Cradle of Liberty
11. Paul Revere House - Home of a Busy Silversmith
12. Old North Church - Two Lanterns in the Steeple
13. Copp's Hill Burying Ground - A View Across the River
14. USS Constitution - Old Ironsides Still Afloat
15. Bunker Hill Monument - The Battle on Breed's Hill