The OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE is a small eighteenth-century structure located at the corner of School and Washington Streets. Built shortly after the fire of 1712 as a home and apothecary shop, the structure became an internationally known literary mecca by the mid-nineteenth century.

Between 1845 and 1865, publishers William D. Ticknor and James T. Fields occupied the Old Corner and revolutionized the world of American book publishing by adopting the then novel practice of paying royalties. Among the dozens of prestigious authors who worked for Ticknor & Fields-and who passed through the store's portals with startling regularity-were Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry David Thoreau, as well as Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, and Dickens. The Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, still based in Boston, is a direct descendant of Ticknor & Field's old firm.

After Ticknor & Fields moved out, the building housed a number of different booksellers. By the mid-twentieth century, it had become a pizza parlor in a prime location for a new parking garage. With encouragement from the city and financial assistance from the Boston Globe Newspaper Company, civic leaders established Historic Boston Incorporated in 1960, which raised private contributions to purchase and restore the Old Corner.

Today, Historic Boston conducts its citywide preservation efforts in the upstairs office space, as does The Freedom Trail Foundation. On the ground floor, the Boston Globe Store provides a retail store and on-site computers for visitors to access the Boston Globe's web site at Boston.com.