Something About the Hornbook

Letters may be read, and books signed, through the horn.

A few years ago, book collector and Bellairs fan Russ Bernard shared a copy of an advertisement he found inside a second printing of a Dell paperback copy of The House with a Clock in Its Walls. The ad promotes a book autographing event held at The Hornbook on Saturday, Sept. 11, 1976. The store was located at 156 W. Michigan Avenue, and Bernard explains the name:

A hornbook was an early form of children's reader that was made to look somewhat like a wide short paddle. A paper with the alphabet and some rhymes or religious text was attached to the paddle and covered with a very thin clear coating (made of horn originally).

For some reason, we wound up with a photograph of the store in our archives. I'm displaying it above, and I'd be interested to hear of anyone's memories of the place. When did it open? How long was it in business? The sign on the other half of the building reads The Children's Shoppe. Were these stores connected or just conveniently located beside each other?

The building is at the northeast corner of Eagle Street and Michigan Avenue and, like many buildings in town, has stood for decades.  From 1869 to 1873 it housed the office of city attorney James A. Miner (1842-1903).  Today the building boasts one of the many Michigan historical markers in Marshall, this one celebrating Miner.