Piles of books fill the Corner-Stone Bookshop

It was another damp, overcast day in Plattsburgh. I shuffled across Margaret Street and kissed the underbelly of the puddles that littered the ground. From a distance it didn’t look like much. Just another store tucked beneath the rust colored skin of the city. The brown letters frame the storefront window. The name read, “The Corner-Stone Bookstore.” I walked cautiously through the doorway as the lights beamed down on me. At first glance books seemed to be stacked in no particular order. The store smelled dusty, but sweet. An old pleasant looking woman stood at the counter. Her worked, milky hands moving swiftly from book to book.

“There’s something more prestigious about older books, they draw your curiosity more.”

Her name was Nancy Duniho. She opened the little store in the downtown belly of Plattsburgh in 1975. Before her and her husband started the business they bought a book mobile. They traveled throughout the region until that ancient beast of a truck finally gave up.

“Old books they seem to have so much more character, she said.
Duniho paused for a moment, gazing deeply into the small valleys formed by the multitudes of bookshelves that lined the store like makeshift graves. I smiled and made my way up the stairs that winded elegantly up to the second floor like the eye of a conch.

Books were stacked to the ceiling, as far as my eyes could reach. I ran my fingers gently across the bindings. There seemed to be a place for everything, as if the world had just exploded into this warm

little building. There’s more than just knowledge in a used bookstore, there’s a haunting sense of history and loss.

One can’t help but wonder where they all came from. Whose fingertips have kicked these old tattered pages in the past? What pushed them to let go?

Every so often it’s not uncommon to find a lock of hair, flower or even a fern gently tucked and pressed between a book's pages. The fresh, dusty scent of roses lingering on the opaque sheets, like the smell of burning leaves on a cool day in mid October.

There is something unsettling about opening a book and finding a lock of hair clinging firmly to the pages.

I make my way to the rear of the second floor. A small room winds to the left, a corridor nearly hidden behind auburn colored boxes. Paperbacks line the walls and extend to a small screen door that’s locked and tattered. An old beaten leather seat rests overlooking the stores doorway and classical music plays as I walk carefully back down the stairs.

A place to rest with a good book

“You know some downtown sections have had to struggle at times.”

Duniho said and smiled up at me as I curled down around the staircase.

“But I like it here. It’s more traditional. The bank, the facilities, they are all so closely knit together. I guess in a sense it forms a city center.”

Before the malls came in, the downtown area of Plattsburgh used to be a thriving business area. The streets that now lay virtually empty were once filled with huge corporations. A long time ago even JC Penny’s and Wards had a home in downtown Plattsburgh.

“But I guess when the malls moved in, it just created a vacuum,” Duniho explained.

The store always draws in its loyal customers; although she has grown used to seeing new faces wander through the doorway on a daily basis.

“We still have some that come in from when we first ran the book mobile,” she said.

books line the basement too.

I slowly walk to the rear of the store and climb down the dark stairs to the cellar. It’s dimly lit and a musty smell saturates the air. The music can be heard faintly in the distance as I wander without direction through the aisles. Although the further I dive in, the deeper silence seems to settle in this vast catacomb.

All a person is left with in a place like this is their thoughts and the infinite amount of knowledge stored in every direction of the room. Old stores like, “The Corner-Stone Bookshop” hangs tightly on a past that once was. It stands not only as a business in the community but rather a respected member of it. It does more than just supply us with books from a world long forgotten; it supplies us with a link to a past that vanished with parts of this city long ago.

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Find Rare Books The Corner-Stone Bookshop offers a wide variety of novels, magazines and encyclopedias. They range from common everyday books like John Grishams, The Summons to the lesser-known titles like Images of Bahrain, by John Lawrence. Some other books that are scarce and valued among collectors are listed below. All of which can be found at The Corner-Stone Bookshop. History of the Revolution and England: 1688 Travels of Anarcharsis the Younger of Greece: 1817 Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon: 1909 The Hollow Tree Snow-in Book: 1910 Mother: A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions: 1927 Tapestries Weaving Knitting: 1948 Trophy Hunter in Asia: 1971