Located at 597 Fifth Avenue, between 48^th and 49^th street in the heart of Manhattan, Scribner’s Bookstore is located inside the Charles Scribner’s Sons Building, right near the Rockefeller Center. The building was built in 1913 and designed by a guy name Ernest Flagg in a Beaux Arts-style exterior. Beaux Arts style architecture was a style of architecture that heavily influenced the United States during the turn of the 20^th century. Some characteristics of Beaux Arts Style include flat roof, arched windows, arched and pediment doors, classical details, symmetry, sculptures, murals, etc. In Just Kids, Scribner’s Bookstore is significant because it was the place where Patti Smith got her job after being fired from being cashier because she didn’t charge a Chinese customer tax on an expensive Buddha. The job was referred from Janet Hamill, a friend she met from college. Smith described her job as a “dream job, working in the retail store of the prestigious publisher, home to writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and their editor, the great Maxwell Perkins.” (Smith 55). Smith also felt very lucky to be working at “such a historic bookstore”, with a higher salary and being able to work with Janet (Smith 55). The bookstore announced its closure in 1988, and officially closed in 1989, ending the 76 years of business. Today, it is currently a Sephora cosmetics store, with the name of the building, “Charles Scribner’s Sons”, still written on the building itself.

~Christopher Chong