Commentary: How about a Barnes & Noble for the vacant Century 21 in Morristown?

The Book Shop, Morristown's last indie book store. Photo courtesy of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown & Township Library
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Editor’s note: The closure of Century 21 in 2020 has generated many reader suggestions for the space. Here is another of those visions.

By Richard Schwartz

 

A quiz: Name a well-known national chain that began as a small, independently owned bookstore in Manhattan the year the USA entered World War I. (That’s 1917.)

Hint: Although maligned for years by small independent bookstores nationwide, the nationally known chain lately has become an ally of theirs in their shared fight against Amazon’s strategy of engulf and devour.

Additional hint: They once had a small store in downtown Morristown, on the Green, next to the building most recently occupied by Century 21.

The answer isBarnes and Noble Booksellers.

I believe it’s time for Morristown to begin romancing B & N to return. It would be an excellent anchor along a stretch of the Green that resembles a ghost town. And we have needed a bookstore for decades.

As late as the 1990s we had two. Barnes and Noble was actually the less beloved. The Book Shop of Morristown, located in an 18th century building, sat quietly between the Morristown and Morris Township Public Library and the Presbyterian Church Parish House.

It was a booklover’s dream. Cozy and friendly, staffed by people who loved reading, the store was a treat. Many of us who loved it have never quite stopped mourning its closing.

B & N is a little big for my own tastes. But Elizabeth Harris and Ezra Klein, writing in the New York Times, have reported that the bookseller has forged encouraging alliances with independent bookstores against Amazon.

Century 21, Black Friday 2020. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Klein points out that for him and for many in his generation, Barnes and Noble conjures up warm memories. Parents in their 30s may have attended midnight Harry Potter parties at these stores. And the pandemic reminded many Americans of the enjoyment of turning the pages of an actual book.

As Harris and Klein point out, going to a bookstore in person often leads to delightful, unexpected discoveries in a way that clicking along a website does not.

The lack of a place to buy books in a town as interesting as ours has long felt somehow kind of odd. Opportunities are being missed to enhance the quality of life in Morristown—and for interested parties to earn profits. The town, Morris Township and the outlying communities are full of well-educated people who probably would support a good bookstore; but that can only happen if one exists.

When the the Morristown Festival of Books happens, a good bookstore could do office business on a nice weekend in October partnering with the festival. In the weeks that follow, as the holiday season gets underway, a gifted bookseller would see much return traffic.

It’s not hard to see the potential of a good bookstore in this town, with all of its restaurants and coffee spots, and with its cultural district. People looking to make a day of it could enjoy coffee, strolling the streets, book browsing, and a meal. (Not so much at a B &N located at a mall or a highway strip mall, correct?)

And with the Valley National Bank headquarters coming in sometime in the future, a Barnes and Noble just around the corner would be a natural fit. A Barnes and Noble on the west side of the Green could connect to a wide array of residents, especially if responsible local ownership made serving a multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual community a priority.

I’m no economist, but it’s reasonably safe to predict that the handsome but vacant Century 21/Macy’s/Bamberger’s building will never again house a department store. But a major bookstore? It could work. Still, there’s probably more space there than Barnes and Noble would profitably fill.

So get creative. Use one floor for the bookstore, another for a restaurant. Another for office space. And living space. If the many downtown coffee shops would fear B & N horning in on their market share, make a deal with Barnes and Noble that, in Morristown alone, keeps them out of the coffee business. (Something related to easier parking perhaps?)

And extend the town’s Cultural District to include the booksellers. Create synergistic partnerships within that District to make productive use of commercial and not-for-profit spaces, including theaters, restaurants and churches as authors on book tours come to town.

And here’s one final thought. Some of us like to think of Morristown as the lower Manhattan of Morris County. Barnes and Noble’s flagship New York City store sits on a square, Union Square. Should B & N come to Morristown, we have a similar space, a town green:

Morristown Green.

Civic leaders, it’s a great opportunity. Pursue it!

Richard Schwartz lived in Morristown from 1990 to 2022, and is now a resident of Morris Township.  Having retired from teaching at Whippany Park High School after 43 years, he now has much more time on his hands for reading.  His newsletter Common Sentences is on Substack.  He is the author of The Prairies on Fire: Lincoln Debates Douglas, 1858.

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17 COMMENTS

  1. The building is 132,000 sq ft. while the average B & N is 26,000 & their most recently opened locations are designed even smaller. Having worked in that building, it would require a great deal of construction work and expense to adapt for any of the usages suggested. And Morristown Green hardly compares to Union Square Park. The 17th St Barnes & Noble in NYC is their HQ & flagship store. The owner (Morristown Green, LLC, to my knowledge) has let it sit empty for 2 1/2 years, and many more between being occupied by Macy’s and Century 21. Are they still paying taxes? They own many prime properties in town, what is their intent for 1 North Park Pl.? Sale? Rent? Condemn? One would think they’d have done something to attract a tenant… Morristown should “romance” Barnes & Noble? To what, rent a building currently unfit for their business model with no parking? Buy it and re-construct it for their use and that of tenants for multiple uses? Explain that to the shareholders…

  2. Agree with big food hall like Eataly! Also – we really need a nice big hibachi restaurant in downtown area, although the building is too big for that alone.

  3. I’m with WokeMotownCitizen. First of all, that building is too big for B&N and parking is limited unless you want to pay. Besides it won’t bring any more people to the town to shop since there’s a B&N on Route 10 in Morris Plains with plenty of free parking. The only draw is restaurants, bars and financial institutions, on the other hand, a market like Ferry Market in New Hope or the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia would be great! It would give people a reason to come to town.

  4. Last I’ve heard, the property has been sold to an Ocean County-based developer. Unknown what his plans are.

  5. Why would I buy a book when there’s an amazing book depot down the block that lends books for free? I’d rather give the money to the Morristown Library than B&N. B&N is just another big box store than lends zero character to the beautiful green. Target- even worse! Build out a gourmet food market that also includes various food sit down food stalls (picture: mini Eately, or Chelsea Market). Something that brings people to town JUST for that reason. Now that’s a novel idea.

  6. I have often wondered how Fortunoff would do in that location. They have a wide variety of merchandise that would complement Morristown. At the end of the day, though, it is the owner of the building who has the final say and he / they have every incentive to find a new user and to help them be successful in that location.

  7. Where would people park I
    love the B&N on Route 10 and I spend lots of money there. I think it’s kinda cozy.
    And the parking is great

  8. Surely the Town leadership has been in discussions with the building’s owner since Cent 21 moved out to fill the vacancy or provide for alternative uses/development. Perhaps we can get an update on those discussions. I would sincerely hope they are unwilling to leave the property vacant for as long as it took to get Cent 21 after Bamburgers closed.

  9. I would love to see a bookstore on the green, but I would like to point out that Morristown/Twp has a book store with 35,000 titles. It is the Old Book Shop, established 1938, on John Street, just over the Morristown line in the Township.

  10. I’m delighted with Richard Schwartz’s article arguing for a bookstore in Morristown in the old Century 21 building or, perhaps, elsewhere on the Green, There is, of course, the Barnes and Noble out on Route 10, but perhaps they could be persuaded that they would sell more books in the center of Morristown. As an author of some 15 book I’ve always been alternately amazed and disgusted that Morristown, a wonderful cultural center, has had no bookstore for years when bookstores persist in towns a fraction of Morristown’s size. Amazon has destroyed bookstores all over the country by saving people a bit of money. Are there not more important community values that bookstores provide and Amazon destroys? I, for one, never buy books from Amazon. Let’s have a bookstore in Morristown and support it.

  11. While that sounds like a really good idea, my guess is the execs at B&N would take a hard look and decide that we already have two locations conveniently nearby – Morris Plains and Livingston Mall – both with plentiful free parking. But keep those ideas coming! We really do need some big retail anchor to get us back shopping on the Green.

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