“It’s a special gem in this town,” Andover home to oldest independent bookstore in US

By KATRINA KINCADE

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    ANDOVER, Massachusetts (WBZ) — The oldest continuously running bookstore in the United States is right here in Massachusetts, tucked in the side of a little house in Andover.

“It’s a special gem in this town,” Andover Bookstore manager Sarah Klock told WBZ-TV.

Andover Bookstore opened in 1809 as a printing press, producing textbooks for students at Philips Academy before it expanded.

“There was a good stretch of time where the bookstore was affiliated with the work being put out by theologians and scholars at PA,” Klock said.

It’s moved locations a few times now, but the bookstore has always been independently owned. Now it sits inside of a former doctor’s home that was appropriately built in 1811.

“A lot of people know and they come here because they want to see the oldest independent bookstore in the country,” Klock explained.

The shop carries centuries of local history.

“People have been shopping at this store for decades. People have been bringing their children in and so we have people who were tiny children who are are now in their 90s,” she said.

Klock said Andover residents’ love for shopping locally is what’s kept the store alive.

“We’re lucky to live in a place where people really are intentional about keeping their dollars in our town. It really depends on people to remember us, to remember that we’re here, and people who care about local businesses on their main streets,” she said.

In the age of being able to get your books cheaper online than from an independent bookstore, it can be a challenge for them.

“It’s really Amazon that’s the biggest threat to independent bookstores in the country,” Klock explained. She said Amazon undersells their books because they can afford to lose the profit due to how much is made on other items. But an independent bookstore makes its money from selling books at the cost that publishing houses set.

To keep them going for another 213 years, all they ask is that you remember them.

“If you just remember every once in a while, that a brick-and-mortar bookstore exists, it’ll keep us going,” Klock said.

For Andover residents and their love of the bookstore, it doesn’t seem like that’ll be too hard.

“It’s independently owned but it’s also community owned. We feel like it’s our store,” she said.

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