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Best travel journal app 20199/10/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() “There’s an intensification of the trend to visit the place as a sort of tourist attraction,” Henriksen said, “which can be frustrating for somebody who genuinely cares about books. Popularity, partially driven by social media, can be a double-edged sword. ![]() In the last two or three years, he said there’s been a 30% growth rate. “They have long since left town, having passed through like a hurricane but leaving behind their impossible dream made real.”ĭuring his career as manager of Bart’s Books, Henriksen has seen business struggle in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis - and then thrive in the years since. “The corner of Canada and Matilija streets in Ojai is what it is because of the stubborn persistence of one man and his wife,” Bryan wrote in his 1977 article. “Lou Ann Schlicter’s shop, looking like something out of turn-of-the-century Montparnasse, offers flowers, fresh and dried, as well as gift items that are book related.”īut by that point the Bartindale family had been gone for roughly 10 years, having left Ojai in the late 1960s for Bartindale’s Indiana hometown. “Antique shops are in the area, as well as the shop and studio of Hellmut Cordes, German goldsmith and fashioner of old world custom jewelry,” reads the County Star article. “One of Bartindale’s hopes was that the neighborhood surrounding his corner would become a sort of Parisian Left Bank, with a variety of shops for the stroller to explore,” reported Robert Bryan in the Ventura County Star in 1977.īy the late 1970s, this dream had been largely achieved. “They put up a big white sheet, and they would show movies on the weekends.”Ī longing to foster community and provide a space for culture and dialogue was central to Bartindale’s mission. In the summer months, her parents set up an outdoor theater. “ Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were regular visitors at the bookstore,” Allshouse said.ĭuring the shop’s early years, Allshouse remembers her mother would sell jewelry out of an indoor portion of the shop. “I got to play with all the children who came,” she said, including one of Paul Newman’s daughters. It was a happy childhood, Allshouse said, filled with books, art projects and playing with her pet duck, named Duck. “I’d go sit on a little bench around the oak tree and read my comics,” she recalls. The fabled oak tree that once grew inside Bart’s Books, estimated to be around 300 years old, holds a particular significance in Allshouse’s memory. “I would always be with, laying the cement down. A lot of people that grew up in that era just think differently.”Īllshouse was just 5 years old when the bookstore opened its doors. “By the time he was 28 years old, he had been through the Depression and World War II and had a kid. “He did a lot of ‘pioneering,’” Barry Bartindale said. It always stuck in my mind how sure he was.”īartindale’s sense of scrappy determination was perhaps a product of his time. “I remember him telling me that he was going to do it, and that he knew it would work. “He left a good-paying job at Rand to work for peanuts selling used books,” Barry Bartindale said. ![]() This appreciation for books eventually turned into a full-time career. He always had five to six books with bookmarks on the floor by his bed.” “He knew a lot about the books he sold because he read so many of them on all different subjects. “I think what he enjoyed about bookselling was the end result - a house/store full of books by thousands of authors with so much to say,” said Barry Bartindale. in Santa Monica and experimented with bookshops in Santa Monica and North Hollywood. But by 1964, his famous bookshop was born.īefore founding Bart’s Books (once called Bart’s Outdoor Bookstore), Bartindale worked for Rand Corp. It took at least 10 years for Bartindale to go from lieutenant commander in the Navy to outdoor bookseller in Ojai. ![]()
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