A 150-year-old Massachusetts book store has fallen victim to rising rents and will soon be closing its doors.
At Schoenhof's Foreign Bookstore in Cambridge's Harvard Square, you can find 32,000 titles in 160 languages.
In a month, the books will be gone and the doors will be locked.
After being open for decades and making it through 32 presidents, the store is calling it quits.
"I didn't even know these stores were aroundm and that fact that there are so many different languages in one place, it's a great learning opportunity," said Anna Copple from Dorchester.
Schoenhof's is credited with having the largest collection of foreign books in North America.
While the shelves are full, their aisles have been empty.
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The store hasn't been bringing in enough money to pay for rent in their prime location on Mt. Auburn Street.
"It's a great bookstore," said Madeleine Flanagan, executive director of Schoenhof's Foreign Books. "It's a fantastic bookstore with so many languages and so many cultures."
The store closes on March 25, but you will still be able to buy their books online. Flanagan says society is gravitating toward the Internet, so that's where they're going.
"If we think that we are in a globalization society, this is even more important to know that these are all different people," said Flanagan.
Even with the little shop in a basement closing, there's still the possibility for a new edition.
"If things change, we will be very happy to come back," said Flanagan.
If you still want that person-to-person contact when picking out a book, store owners say you can always give them a call.
