"Manhattan has always had its neighborhoods of commerce and industry, from the Garment Center to the Pickle District. And like those two vestiges of the late 19th century city, a booksellers’ district also popped up, this one on the warehouse blocks along Fourth Avenue south of Union Square. 'That quarter-mile section of Fourth Avenue which lies between the Bible House [at Astor Place] and the vista of Union Square has been for more than forty years the habitat of many dealers of old books,' noted Publishers’ Weekly in 1917. ... Booksellers’ Row attracted bibliophiles and casual browsers for decades; in the 1950s, more than 40 general and specialty shops lured reader to their mazes of shelves. ..."
Ephemeral New York
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