Landmark Booksellers: A Historic Haven for Book Lovers

Landmark Booksellers, Local Small Business of the Week

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When you walk through Landmark Booksellers, on 114 East Main Street in Downtown Franklin, it is like entering someone’s home. Perhaps a beloved but eccentric Uncle, or Grandparent- there is a distinctive feel of lived-in history. The phrase that comes to mind is good, old bones. Or maybe a tangible nostalgia.

But the main, and important difference, is that every nook and cranny is stuffed with books. Old, historic and rare books, to new, fiction and cook books. In fact, they have 60,000 new and hard to find rare books including over 1500 signed first editions. Maps, prints, post cards and ephemera. The original inventory that helped open the bookstore — a 50,000-plus collection — came from Dad’s Old Bookstore, which was located in Green Hills and closed in 2005, according to their website.

oldfactorystore_opt
the factory store

Owned and usually operated by Joel and Carol Tomlin, and open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. to  5 p.m., the first thing you notice is the building itself.

Originally adjacent to the site of a steam-powered cotton and grist mill, in about 1808 it became the Factory Store. Built for workers at the nearby mill, of course, in the Greek Revival style that was popular at the time and throughout the south. It has four distinctive Doric columns that support a Greek Pediment.

Through the years, Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston all passed through its doors.

Today, as you walk up you notice the tables set out under the columns for reading and enjoying the day, along with a few rows of books on display. As you walk in, like I said, it is like walking into the house of an old relative. Very cozy, with just the right amount of lived-in feeling of slight disorganization. It is charming. Behind the huge set of front-facing windows are rows of books, organized themselves diligently, lead you back by category. On the left is a sitting room, large comfortable couches on top of antique rugs, nestled among the books.. As you continue there is a preserved 19th century office toward the back, before the back room where children’s books are, and next to the staircase that leads to the second floor, to the fiction and cooking sections.

Going along with the overall motif, there is a full and in-operation kitchen that, of course, is where the cook books are. Smelled like fresh coffee when I was there.

In the front, overlooking the street, on the second floor is a large room with a large table. Along all the walls are fiction books. It is a bright room that invites you  to grab a book and sit at the table in the sun and read.

“We carry new, old and rare books, but we specialize in regional literature and history,” told Joel Tomlin to Downtown Franklin. “And we’ve handled the sale of some of the most important books in this area—including a book that at the time of the Civil War was the definitive reference on battlefield surgery.”

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