Dozens of eager book readers stood in a line that wrapped around Lake Street as a new Barnes & Noble opened Wednesday in Oak Park, where while Chicago native and local author Mia Manansala hosted a ribbon cutting and signed copies of her latest mystery, “Death and Dinuguan.”
The new bookshop opened in the historic Marshall Field’s building, 1144 Lake St., which was last home to a Borders bookstore that closed over a decade ago. The Marshall Field’s store in the building closed in the late 1980s.
This location marks the third new Barnes & Noble to open in the Chicago area and a fourth one is expected to open on State Street in downtown Chicago on Aug. 19 as the company expands its physical presence.
The new Oak Park store is nearly 24,000 square feet over two floors filled with books, gifts and games, along with a newsstand and cafe.
Before the official ribbon cutting, Vicki Scaman, Oak Park’s village president, thanked community members and officials for helping give the historic building a new purpose.
“This historic landmark has long been a centerpiece of our downtown,” Scaman said. “Seeing it thoughtfully restored and reimagined as a flagship Barnes & Noble honors its name, while giving it new life, a place where people can gather, learn and discover.”
The new bookstore is the future of downtown Oak Park, Scaman said, and boosts the vitality of the village’s business community.
“A bookstore is more than a place to buy books,” Scaman said. “It is a place where curiosity is sparked, imagination is encouraged and neighbors of every generation come together.”
Community members were eager to explore the new bookstore and were impressed with the outcome.
Ashley Seward, an Oak Park resident, said she works from home and the opening will give her a new place to do her work.
“There’s a lot of selections.” Seward said. “I found my favorite mystery and thrillers downstairs.”
For Manansala, a Chicago author whose first book was published in 2021, being able to host the ribbon cutting ceremony was an honor, she said.
“I didn’t even realize doing a ribbon cutting was something on my author bucket list until I got asked to do it,” Mansala said.
She said she started writing professionally in 2015 and currently has seven books published and has two more coming out next year.
“I’m still pretty early in my career, so it’s really hard to say how I feel,” she said. “It’s a little bit unreal. I’m living my dream, but it’s also still a job.”
The opening of the new location comes about a year after the closing of The Book Table, a popular Oak Park bookstore that was open for over two decades.
When the new store was announced, existing book sellers in Oak Park said it was welcome news.
“I’m a firm believer that the more bookstores there are in an area, the more book lovers will visit all of them,” Steve Kirshenbaum, owner of The Looking Glass, a used bookstore in the downtown district celebrating its 12th anniversary this year, told Pioneer Press in January.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt called the opening bookstores exciting, especially “when in wonderful physical spaces.”
“We have one of the most beautiful bookstores in the United States in Wicker Park and now challenge it for sheer drama with this extraordinary bookstore in Oak Park,” he said in a statement. “Better still, we make it a hat-trick of sensational spaces when we open on State Street later this summer. We could not be prouder as Chicago reclaims its bookselling heritage in style.”
chardy@chicagotribune.com
