On the corner of East 57th Street and South Harper Avenue is a bookstore which, like an old friend, is held in the hearts of many Hyde Park residents. With books stacked from floor to ceiling and narrow aisles further filled with every kind of book imaginable, it welcomes all with its faded brick and cozy ambiance.
Powell’s Books, which sells both used and new books, has been a force contributing to Hyde Park’s identity and helping hold it together like glue for almost 50 years.
Powell’s Books first opened its doors in 1970 and is one of the largest independent bookstores, mostly dealing with secondhand books. It serves the Hyde Park community in ways unique to just about any other bookstore.
“Hyde Park residents love to read,” Powell’s manager Alex Wolfe said. “I mean it’s unlike any other place in Chicago. Hyde Parkers have books in their bathrooms, closets and bedrooms. We want all of those books.”
Mr. Wolfe has worked at Powell’s for almost 25 years, stating that Powell’s has tried to expand and opened other locations in Chicago, but they always end up back in the heart of Hyde Park, further demonstrating the idea that nobody reads like a Hyde Park resident.
In recent years, they have added a new employee and another of man’s best friends: Moss, the dog.
Moss, with his unmistakable thick, black fur, with a big white patch on his head and chest, sits in the store’s doorway window every morning before the store opens to greet all comers: Children walking to school, joggers and even security guards on the neighborhood streets.
“We’ll have the security guards, from every corner, stop in every so often asking, ‘Where’s my good Moss?’” Powell’s employee Andrew Peart said. “He’s also just a really great companion to have at the store — all the employees love him.”
“Once the store opens, he goes into the back and just sleeps the rest of the day,” said Mr. Wolfe, Moss’ owner.
But even when Moss is taking his daily nap in the back, that’s not the end of his part in the bookstore community.
“Little kids who see him before school will come back to the store on their way home from school and ask for him,” Mr. Wolfe said.
When Mr. Wolfe is not busy with the younger customers coming in to check on Moss, he is busy with the endless supply of secondhand books in need of sorting and shelving.
For even larger collections, Powell’s employees will go to the resident’s house and remove the books and bring them back to the store, doing this for you like any good best friend would do.
For the dog that sits in the window, just like Powell’s Books itself, nobody loves him more than Hyde Parkers. Mr. Wolfe and the other employees welcome all in the community to stop in to drop off a book, buy one — or just say hello and pat the head of one of Hyde Park’s newest best friends.
