Strand Book Store and Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace

Our jaunt into Manhattan on Saturday wasn't purely for fun, we were actually on the hunt for some new dress shoes for Brian. We usually go to a place called Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) near Union Square. They have good quality shoes of all styles and brands for pretty reasonable prices. I wandered through the women's section trying on all kinds of fun shoes while I left Brian to his own devices. He tried on a few pairs to find the right sizing, style, and brand he liked, but didn't want to decide on anything right then and there. We left with a list of options for him, and once he decides he's going to look around online to see if he can find them at a better price. I'm just happy that I got him in the door without any grumbling this time--a sign that he's really fed up with his current shoes.

Just a block or two away on East 12th Street and Broadway is the famous Strand Bookstore.  

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A bit about it's history from their website:

"The Strand was born in 1927 over on Fourth Avenue on what was then called “Book Row.” Book Row covered six city blocks and housed forty-eight bookstores. Ben Bass, the father, was all of twenty-five years old when he began his modest used bookstore. An entrepreneur at heart and a reader by nature, this erudite man began with $300 dollars of his own and $300 dollars that he borrowed from a friend. Ben sought to create a place where books would be loved, and book lovers could congregate. He named his bookstore after the London street where avant-garde writers like Thackeray, Dickens and Mill once gathered and interesting book publishers thrived. The Strand quickly became a Greenwich Village institution where writers went to converse, sell their books and find a hidden treasure to buy. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor of Book Row’s colorful past."

 I love the phrase "... a place where books can be loved and book lovers can congregate," and it's the perfect description for this place.

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I'm so glad we took the time to stop by. Walking in the doors, we were greeted with a sign that said "Welcome Book Lovers," I turned to Brian and asked him how they knew we were coming. ;) 

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It was such a fun store, with table after table and shelf after shelf filled to capacity with books of all shapes, sizes, and colors. A wonderland for voracious readers like us. The narrow aisles around the piles and stacks of books, combined with the myriad of customers, made the store quite crowded, but we didn't mind. 

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It's very believable that you could find any new, used, out-of-print, or rare book in this place. Along with all the newly published and classic books, they have a whole section of leather bound rare books. We enjoyed looking through this section.

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They have a really great children's section on the upper floor. We had a lot of fun looking around on this floor, and found many classic books that we remember fondly reading as children. Brian randomly found this ginormous superhero pop-up book, and felt like he'd won the lottery. It was the most intense pop-up book either of us had ever seen. Some of its scenes were over 12 inches high and a few of them even had lights. 

We spent quite a bit of our afternoon there, and reluctantly pulled ourselves away because we wanted to visit another shoe store before we headed home. We walked north through Union Square Park. The weather was perfect--not too hot or too cold, but just right. The small sections of grass in the park were crowded with people, as were the benches lining the pathways. The parks are always crowded in Manhattan, especially on beautiful days. You sit almost shoulder to should with strangers, while you all enjoy the outdoors.

          

Every Saturday in Union Square Park they have a farmers market. We had fun wandering through the tents looking at the fresh produce, potted flowers and herbs, smelling the homemade bread, and browsing the hand-spun wool yarn. It's easy to forget that just outside of this crazy metropolis, are acres and acres of beautiful farmland. It's nice to be able to see a touch of this country life here in the city. We stopped at a stand and bought a cup of ice cold apple cider. It was delicious!

A couple blocks north of the park is a Dr. Martens store. Brian wanted to stop and see if they had any dress shoes he liked. He tried on a few pairs, added some more options to his list, and then we left.

Not too far away from where we were, sits Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace. We decided to walk over and check it out. On the way, while we were stopped at a light waiting to cross an intersection, we saw this beautiful building highlighted by the late afternoon sun. I had to snap a picture, because it was just so pretty. You really gain an appreciation for architecture living in a place where you are constantly surrounded by buildings.

Roosevelt's birthplace was easy to find. It's this cool brownstone townhouse sandwiched among the other buildings on East 20th Street. I loved the stairway leading up to the front door.

     

Unfortunately for us, it closed on May 1 for renovations and accessibility improvements and won't open again for about a year. We missed being able to tour it by only a few weeks. Ugh! Oh well, we'll just put it back on our bucket list for next year. You can learn more about it here if you'd like. It looks like it would be a cool place to see, with its historically furnished rooms and displays of photographs of and items from his life. Even though we didn't get to go inside, it was still fun to see the exterior.

Here's a random fact, while on the house's website I learned that Roosevelt's Rough Rider uniform was tailored by Brooks Brothers and his safari outfit was tailored by Abercrombie and Fitch. Apparently he was quite the fashionable fellow. 

We've had a bit of a hard time lately trying to find things to do over here that we haven't already done, or that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and so we've been feeling kind of bored with the city. It was nice to find a couple of new things to visit.