The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic commercial building at the northwest corner of Washington and School streets in the Downtown Boston section of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The building consists of four attached structures: the main corner building at 283 Washington Street, and annexes at 277 Washington Street and 5–7 and 11 School Street. The corner structure was built in 1718 as a residence and apothecary shop, becoming a bookstore in 1829. The building is a site on Boston's Freedom Trail, Literary Trail, and Women's Heritage Trail. The Old Corner Bookstore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and listed as a Boston Landmark in 2025.
The site was formerly occupied by the home of Anne Hutchinson, which was built in 1634 and burned down in the Great Boston Fire of 1711. Its owner, Thomas Crease, constructed a new building on the site in 1718 as a residence and apothecary shop. The neighboring Cunningham House at 277 Washington Street initially functioned as a separate structure. The corner building's first use as a bookstore dates to 1829, when Timothy Harrington Carter leased the corner space and built the two annexes on School Street. From 1832 to 1865, it was home to publishing companies led by William Ticknor, including Ticknor and Fields. During this time, it became a meeting place for such authors as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
The last bookstore tenant moved out in 1903, after which the building had multiple commercial tenants in the 20th century. The Cunningham House and bookstore properties were consolidated into one building between 1917 and 1922. After the Old Corner Bookstore building was threatened with demolition and replacement in 1959, Historic Boston was formed to save the building, acquiring it in 1960. The Boston Globe newspaper moved into the ground floor in 1964, and several tenants, including the Globe Corner Bookstore and a Globe company store, occupied the building over the years. Since 2011, the ground floor of the corner structure has been occupied by a Chipotle Mexican Grill fast-food restaurant; the other structures have been occupied by various businesses over the years.
Site The Old Corner Bookstore is situated on the northwest corner of Washington and School streets in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The building consists of four attached structures. Its primary structure's address is 283 Washington Street, though the adjacent stretch of Washington Street has been known by multiple names over the years, including Cornhill, Marlborough Street, and Orange Street. The building extends into annexes at 277 Washington Street (originally a home) and 5–7 and 11 School Street (built as annexes to the primary structure).
The bookstore sits at one end of Boston's former Newspaper Row. Just south of the building is a vest pocket park developed by the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, whose building faces the Old Corner Bookstore. The Old Corner Bookstore is a stop on the Freedom Trail, a path connecting historic sites in Boston. Sequentially, it is between the site of Boston's first public school (originally the Boston Latin School) and the Old South Meeting House. The Old Corner Bookstore is also located on the Literary Trail and the Women's Heritage Trail.
History The first European settler of the Old Corner site was Isaac Johnson, who was granted the land when the town of Boston was founded in 1630; he died shortly thereafter. It was then occupied by the house of Anne Hutchinson, whose family had built the first house on the site in 1634. Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts in 1637 for heresy, and a succession of people owned the site over the next seven decades. The last of these was the family of the merchant Henry Shrimpton, whose daughter Abigail Bourne eventually sold the building to the Old Corner Bookstore's developer Thomas Crease. Crease purchased the Hutchinson home in 1708, and it burned down in the Great Boston Fire on October 2, 1711. This resulted in wood buildings being banned in the area.
Early history A new brick building, later to become the Old Corner Bookstore, was built at Washington Street (then Cornhill) after the fire, in 1718. Although sources have given construction dates of 1712 or 1714, the historian Warren S. Tryon retrospectively wrote that the Old Corner Bookstore was described as being built "sometime after 1712", which was sometimes misinterpreted as being built 1712. A report from the Boston Board of Selectmen in July 1718 indicated that the building was still under construction; in another report that September, the selectmen referred to the building as the place "where he now dwells", in reference to Crease. The Old Corner Bookstore building is one of the oldest brick buildings in Boston and is sometimes cited as being the city's oldest such structure altogether, though the Pierce–Hichborn House is older, having been built in 1711. It is also Boston's oldest commercial building. Over the years, the Old Corner Bookstore and its subsequent tenants have hosted various commercial concerns.
The corner building was initially known as the Thomas Crease House. It was a -story brick edifice with a hip roof. The corner building, originally carrying the address 76 Cornhill, was a residence and apothecary shop; Crease had his store at ground level and lived upstairs. Such an arrangement was commonplace for pharmacists of the time, and several successive residents maintained this configuration. The store was accessed from Washington Street, while the residence was reached through a garden from School Street. In 1728, Andrew Cunningham built a house adjacent to the Crease House. The Cunningham House was physically separated from the other buildings for nearly two centuries. Crease operated his store for years, eventually selling it for 1,200 Massachusetts pounds.
The merchant Herman Brimmer eventually bought the house for 1,600 pounds. The first directory of Boston was published in 1789, at which point the corner building was occupied by Brimmer and the broker John Jackson. In 1795, Cunningham's grandson rented the Cunningham House to John West, a publisher, who became its first commercial tenant. West operated a store on the first floor and converted the upper stories to his own residence. Brimmer continued living in the Crease House until his death in 1800, though that building's shop was taken over by Samuel M. and Minot Thayer from 1798 until 1816. In 1817, Dr. Samuel Clarke, father of future minister James Freeman Clarke, bought the corner building, using it as an apothecary. and residence. After 1822, the Cunningham family lost the deed to their house, which was successively conveyed to several of Andrew Cunningham's female descendants. In 1824, when Cornhill was renamed Washington Street, the corner building's address was changed to 135 Washington Street.
Use as bookstore + Proprietors From Until Proprietor 1828 1833 Carter & Hendee18331837Allen & Ticknor18371844William Ticknor18441865Ticknor, Reed & Fields18651869E. P. Dutton & Co18691883A. Williams & Co.18831893Cupples, Upham & Co.18931902Damrell & Upham19021903Old Corner Bookstore
The corner building's first use as a bookstore dates to 1828, when it was leased by the firm of Carter & Hendee. Afterward, the building was not used as a residence again. Over the years, it hosted publishing companies under eight different names, remaining in operation as a bookstore until 1903. Among the tenants was Ticknor and Fields, which, for part of the 19th century, was one of the most important publishing companies in the United States. The writer Hugh Walker retrospectively said in 1975 that "the bookstore won enduring fame" during the Ticknor era. The Cunningham House was similarly used by publishing companies between 1828 and the 1880s.
1828–1833: Carter & Hendee When Timothy Harrington Carter leased the corner building from George Brimmer in 1828, the adjacent section of Washington Street extending north to the Old State House had been developed into Boston's Newspaper Row. Carter spent $7,000 renovating the building's commercial space, including the addition of projecting, small-paned windows on the ground floor. He lowered the ground story slightly to provide easier access Washington Street, requiring the reduction of some space in the cellar, renovated the first floor facade and may have also been responsible for the building's slate roof. Two 3-story buildings were added beside the School Street elevation around the same time,School Street, Boston — Lost New England which were developed by Carter on the site of Crease's former garden. Carter also set up a wooden building behind the School Street buildings, with seven printing presses.
The store opened in 1829 and was operated by Carter in conjunction with Charles Hendee. The store sold books in multiple European languages, along with stationery and medical literature. Isaac R. Butts opened a printing office in the building after Carter & Hendee's move. Carter & Hendee remained in the store until about 1833, when they moved to 131 Washington Street. One writer retrospectively said in 1893 that Carter & Hendee "published volumes that even at present lie on the top shelves of libraries". Upon Carter's death in 1894, he was held in high regard for his role in founding the Old Corner Bookstore.
1833–1865: William Ticknor and partners In 1832–1833, ownership passed to William Ticknor, whose companies occupied the building for three decades, beginning with Ticknor & Allen. Ticknor originally operated the store alongside John Allen. By no later than 1837, the store was under Ticknor's sole proprietorship. After 1844, Ticknor operated the building in partnership with John Reed Jr. and James T. Fields, under the name Ticknor, Reed and Fields. Ticknor, Reed and Fields used only the ground floor of the corner structure for a retail space, where it displayed volumes behind glass cases. Ticknor and Fields had offices raised above the rear of the store, and there was a coffeehouse in the annex. Other sections of the building, particularly upstairs rooms and storefronts facing School Street, were in turn sublet to other businesses. The upper story tenants—in addition to Butts—included the bookbinders George Gould and Peter Low, as well as the hairdresser William Dudley.