Harvard Book Store announced Monday that it will open a second location in Boston this fall at 33 Union Street, near Haymarket and Faneuil Hall.
In a letter to customers published on the store’s website, the management team highlighted the location’s historic appeal: the shop will occupy the old Yankee Publishing Building on the city’s oldest commercial district, Blackstone Block.
On an initial visit to the Boston building, co-owner Jeff Mayersohn was drawn to its large windows and exposed brick walls, which reminded him instantly of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. Because it’s from roughly the same era as the 94-year-old store in Harvard Square, he said it had the same “look, feel, and vibe” of the original location.
In Boston, the bookshop will include a cafe run by locally-acclaimed Lakon Paris Patisserie. And although Mayersohn self-identifies as “sorta basic” in his appetite for croissants, he said Lakon excels at pastries that are both “beautifully rendered and really, really delicious.” The new space will also offer wine, which Mayersohn said the team has been wanting to serve at talks with authors. These expanded offerings, along with a dedicated children’s section, will allow the team to think of more events for more people, he said.
Because of the store’s name and proximity to Harvard University, Mayersohn said the Cambridge location caters to a scholarly crowd. At the new location, customers might see a different ratio of books that are “general use” versus “academic.” Given the location — it’s on the Freedom Trail — he imagines there might be more books about Boston history.
North of the Charles River, Mayersohn said the Cambridge location “isn’t changing” and will remain the flagship location, where the company’s office and central functions will be based.
Why open a second store? Culturally, Mayersohn said, “the more bookstores, the better.”
“The free exchange of ideas is important and bookstores represent that,” he said. Bookstores also welcome an “in-person, community experience” for “people feeling isolated in this digital age.”
From a business perspective, he said the company had the infrastructure to expand. Its warehouse in Needham could be maximized by serving multiple locations.
Its events program, too, is growing. Currently, the store hosts nearly 400 author talks annually, Mayersohn said, with some happening on the same day in multiple locations across Cambridge.
And, perhaps most importantly, Mayersohn says the store reported its highest revenue in its near-century-old history during the last fiscal year.
This expansion comes over four years after John W. and Linda Henry, owners of Boston Globe Media and Fenway Sports Group — which includes the Boston Red Sox — became principal owners of the book store in 2021.
“They came along at a time when the store really needed help,” Mayersohn said of the store’s “tough” pandemic years. “They have a number of other things on their plate, but they have been involved in the decision process for this [second] store.”
He said the partnership has been “fruitful,” noting The Boston Globe, where John W. Henry is publisher, has helped with publicizing store events.
This isn’t the first time Harvard Book Store has attempted to expand its footprint. In 2022, the store announced it would open a second location at the Prudential Center, but cancelled the 29,000 square foot project in 2024. In a letter to customers at the time, the management team said the project was “unsustainable,” citing “disruptions to the supply chain and escalating costs.”
At the time, Harvard Book Store workers, who are unionized with UAW Local 1596, were also negotiating for higher wages, writing to supporters that they needed “an open line of communication … from [Henry] and his team, instead of waiting for sporadic press releases to hear about his plans.”
Currently, workers are in the middle of a three-year contract, said Mayersohn, who said the store’s ambitions to expand were anticipated when it was signed. Now, staff members are kept “up to speed” on the project via regular staff meetings.
“We’ve organized field trips to the new location and a lot of the current staff has visited,” he said.
The shop’s workers, via its steward Rachel Schneck, declined to comment.
Mayersohn said the cancellation of the Prudential location two years ago was disappointing, but it never diminished his enthusiasm for the business, which he said has “thin margins” even in the best of times.
“These past 18 years have been marvelous, but there also have been difficult times,” Mayersohn said of the nearly two decades he and his wife Linda have been owners of Harvard Book Store. But “what happened in our previous attempt [to open a new location] felt like a part of [the pandemic], not anything to do with bookselling.”
In Harvard Square, independent bookstores are abundant. Grolier Poetry Book Shop is around the corner from Harvard Book Store. Rodney’s Bookstore offers used books. The Million Year Picnic specializes in comics and graphic novels. The latest addition is Lovestruck Books, which opened on Brattle Street in 2024.
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