NORTHAMPTON — After 64 years on Masonic Street, one of downtown’s longest-running stores has closed.
Open since 1958, The Old Book Store turned its final page last month. In a phone interview, owner Henry Walz confirmed that he is looking to sell the business.
“I have mixed emotions about getting out of there, there’s no doubt about that,” Walz said. “I figure if I don’t retire at age 73, when the heck am I going to get around to retiring?”
Walz took over the business in the early 1990s from his parents, Carl and Bliss.
“I don’t think anybody gets into the used book business to make their fortune,” Walz said. “I liked it. I like books.”
But being an avid reader is hardly all it takes to run a bookstore, especially for as long as The Old Book Store has operated. Walz said it helped that the family bought the space in 1987. When people tell him they love books and would love to run a bookstore, he said his “smart-aleck” answer is to say that’s like telling your bartender, mid-drink, that you like drinking and would consider running a bar.
“There’s a lot more to it than enjoying books and enjoying reading,” he said.
Walz still remembers when firefighters used to come in frequently from the fire station down the street, where Woodstar Café is now located. Back then, he said downtown used to have many more reasons for a wider variety of people to visit — law and dentist offices, a stationary shop and a hardware store, to name a few.
“I think downtown then was in a lot of ways more diverse than it is now,” Walz said. “It’s turning more and more into an entertainment district.”
A lot has changed since then. Online retail and e-books have made life more difficult for book sellers and other brick-and-mortar stores. Customers and fellow businesses have come and gone, and downtown has gone through its boom and bust periods.
Walz said he has seen everything from kids growing into adults to marriages going south. Just being a part of the community has been the best part of the job, he said.
W. Michael Ryan, a retired judge and former northwestern district attorney, reacted with sadness when informed that the bookstore was closing. He said that of the thousands of books at his house, at least a couple of hundred came from Walz’s store.
He said he first fell in love with the place as a child, and recounted a flood of memories the store evoked for him.
“You could go in and talk about books, talk about writers,” Ryan said. “It was a wonderful thing for me growing up as a child and all through my life.”
“There will always be used bookstores,” Walz said, “but the glory days are probably behind us.”
Bookstores have been Walz’s life since he was little. He met his wife when the two were working at a different bookstore. Her father taught English and ran a bookstore, and of course his parents ran a bookstore, too.
“It’s kind of in my blood,” he said.
But after all this time, he’s ready for a new chapter.
“It’s been a good run, but time for something else,” Walz said.