Closing the book on 85 years of evangelization

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

In its 85 years of continuous operation, The Catholic Book Store has survived fire, flood and the colossal power and quick-twitch convenience of Amazon.

But now, the oldest bookstore in New Orleans, launched before WWII in 1939 by Florence Henderson, an independent laywoman who saw a need to make Catholic reading material more easily available, will close on April 30, the victim of an unrelenting financial balance sheet.

“Frankly, the profit and loss statement was probably the biggest thing,” said Margaret Kelly, the widow of former Tulane University president Eamon Kelly, who has served as a volunteer and a member of the bookstore’s board of directors since the early 1990s. “We could see that we weren’t making enough money to pay our expenses. And, that becomes a worry because you feel obligated.

“The other thing is we realized we couldn’t pay a living wage. We found out that young people, even high school kids, aren’t willing to work for $7.50 an hour anymore. There are too many other opportunities to get more elsewhere, and they’re saving for college, and their families have expenses. So, it just became sort of untenable.”

Revenue couldn’t keep up

The bookstore has only one full-time employee – longtime manager Anne Komly – and for many years it has operated rent-free on the second floor of a building, owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, at Fig Street and South Carrollton Avenue, directly across from Notre Dame Seminary.

Financial challenges began to mount in recent years. Kelly, the 90-year-old who taught herself QuickBooks to keep the store’s financial records, said one example is the falloff in total sales. A year ago, sales during the Christmas season amounted to approximately $15,000.

“This year, it might have been half of that,” Kelly said. “The difference was significant. And this has been going on for a while. It wasn’t just one year. We were limping by, relying on people who could contribute.”

Major street reconstruction in the area virtually cut off access to the store for months during the summer of 2023.

“That was the most recent disaster,” said volunteer board member Jack Belsom, 90, with a rueful smile.

“They tore up our driveway,” Komly recalled. “There was a back way that people could come in, but people would call and say, ‘I came by, but I couldn’t get in, so I just went on.’”

Had it not been for many generous donors providing either cash or books or gifts, the bookstore probably would not have been able to make it this long, Kelly said.

Strong woman founder

In 1939, Henderson opened The Catholic Book Store at 710 Common St. in the St. Charles Hotel, next door to “Mr. Chehardy’s tailor shop,” and announced her venture through small ads in the Catholic Action, the predecessor of the Clarion Herald.

Her idea was to offer a wide variety of Christian reading material instead of concentrating on liturgical works and religious articles such as plaster statuary, religious prints, medals and rosaries.

“There were other stores which stocked those things in abundance,” Henderson told the Clarion Herald in 1984, the 50th anniversary of the store’s opening.

The store survived the tail end of the Depression and WWII. When the St. Charles Hotel revamped its ground floor to accommodate airline travel business, the store moved to the 300 block of Baronne Street.

A place of welcome

One of the classic tales in bookstore history came, unwittingly, in the 1950s when it was featured in a book written by John Howard Griffin, “Black Like Me.” Griffin darkened his skin to give himself the appearance of being Black and traveled throughout the South to see how he would be treated.

In New Orleans, Griffin’s many attempts to cash a $20 traveler’s check were rebuffed until he walked into The Catholic Book Store on Baronne Street and found “a kind, white woman” who helped him. Undoubtedly, the woman who cashed his check was Henderson.

“He was so amazed at the fact that he was welcomed with open arms, because at the time, everybody thought he was Black,” Belsom said. “That was the kind of place that people could wander into and be welcomed, understood and appreciated. Florence was an absolutely wonderful person. She had a real belief in what she was doing. She thought that people ought to be able to get their hands on books related to the church and to religion.”

In 1969, fire accompanied by water damage prompted the move to the basement of a two-story home on Fig Street, next to the seminary. The bookstore later was able to become the de facto book exchange for Notre Dame Seminary.

Katrina swamped its pages

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina sent 4 1/2  feet of water into the store, swamping the entire collection. The store reopened in 2006 across the street in a trailer on the seminary lawn, and, in 2009, it moved back across the street to the second floor of the Fig Street home.

With the closure of The Catholic Book Store, Catholic books and Catholic gifts  can be purchased at Pauline Books and Media, Mule’s Religious & Office Supply, Church Supply House in Metairie, and at Westbank Religious Supply in Marrero.

“I’m very sad,” Komly said. “It’s been a big part of my life. And, the customers – we’re all good friends.”

“It’s like a death in the family – exactly like that,” Kelly said. “This is a place where you can encounter books and look around and see which ones you want. We had a school child who used to come in here and wait for her mother to pick her up because she couldn’t stay at school anymore. She’d sit in the book room and do her homework.”

Board member Michael M. Davis is concerned about the shuttering of another Catholic opportunity to evangelize.

“It’s beyond our control – we have no choice – but that really concerns me,” Davis said. “We’re all aware of the Catholic bookstores closing. We’re aware of the diocesan newspapers closing around the country. This is just another evangelization opportunity that is being closed.”

“It’s the end of an era,” Kelly said.

The Catholic Book Store can be reached at (504) 861-7504 or www.cbstorenola.com. Komly said now through the store’s closing on April 30, all books, gifts and other merchandise will be sold at 50% off. Even furniture within the store will be sold.

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