1954 Time Capsule Perched on Bookshop
February 4, 2021 1:15 PM Subscribe
Cleveland's Zubal Books has a pretty snazzy penthouse.
The antiquarian and used book business, founded in 1961, occupies a large building complex (including the old Hostess Twinkie factory*), boasting more than 350,000 square feet and eight acres of shelving, in the Tremont West neighborhood. The four-storey main building, once the book depository for the Cleveland public school system**, dates to 1925; in 1954, a penthouse apartment was added. The Zubal family, a bookselling dynasty, preserves the mid-century modern interior design:
Massive fireplace in living room, surround embedded with stones, pebbles and sea shells
Original GE olive-green kitchen appliances; wall oven clock detail
Snail-themed bath, with hand-painted tile
Additional Gus Chan photos in Cool Spaces: Penthouse atop West Side warehouse is frozen in time (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 2017)
Photos, and fascinating business history in Zubal Books in Cleveland has over 3 million books: Touring the family business with co-owner Michael Zubal (Detroit Book Fest, July 2017). That the Zubals are multigenerational technophiles is one key to their success in the antiquarian book trade: computerizing in 1980 with a TRS-80 machine; outfitting the offices with Apple computers later that decade; by 1998, Zubal Books closed to the public [and for] the past twenty years, they have sold primarily online and by appointment-only; Michael Zubal and Tom Zubal host the Book Brothers Podcast.
[Zubal Books "specializes" in academic, scholarly, obscure, and out-of-print rarities (as befitting John Zubal's historian training), but its inventory is diverse and frankly staggering; in the 2017 Detroit Fest article, holdings include a 1st edition Wizard of Oz in pristine condition, a 1969 Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Salvador Dali (as a massive folio, where each plate is signed by Dali), and a circa 1899 Decameron hand-drawn on sheepskin vellum (binding as well as pages; the book is one of three known copies). Right now, per Zubal's AbeBooks account (Heritage Bookseller - Member Since 1996) listing, this 1776 Common Sense could be yours for $247,450.00 US.]
*In 2007, Anthony Bourdain toured Zubal Books for "No Reservations," and the old bakery building delighted him: Until 1989 this was home to the company that brings us Twinkies, Ho-hos, Fruit Pies and the like. That leg of Bourdain’s tour was the highlight of the day. Many of the pipes in the bakery still contain sugary sauce the color of motor oil, which, when whipped, becomes the famous Twinkie cream filling. Since Hostess abandoned the place, that sauce just sits in the pipes. Our endurance tested by the sub-zero temperature, we made it to one of the pipes, cracked the valve and Bourdain, with a slight reticence, swiped his finger through the vertical brown stream. He stuck the gooey sauce in his mouth and proclaimed “there’s that Twinkie freshness!” (Bourdain loved the apartment. Full Cleveland episode featuring Harvey Pekar.)
**These built-in bookshelves in the former depository drew founders John and Margaret Zubal (affectionately depicted here, in family friend Harvey Pekar's Cleveland [illustrated by David Remnant]) when expanding their original home-based book business.
The antiquarian and used book business, founded in 1961, occupies a large building complex (including the old Hostess Twinkie factory*), boasting more than 350,000 square feet and eight acres of shelving, in the Tremont West neighborhood. The four-storey main building, once the book depository for the Cleveland public school system**, dates to 1925; in 1954, a penthouse apartment was added. The Zubal family, a bookselling dynasty, preserves the mid-century modern interior design:
Massive fireplace in living room, surround embedded with stones, pebbles and sea shells
Original GE olive-green kitchen appliances; wall oven clock detail
Snail-themed bath, with hand-painted tile
Additional Gus Chan photos in Cool Spaces: Penthouse atop West Side warehouse is frozen in time (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 2017)
Photos, and fascinating business history in Zubal Books in Cleveland has over 3 million books: Touring the family business with co-owner Michael Zubal (Detroit Book Fest, July 2017). That the Zubals are multigenerational technophiles is one key to their success in the antiquarian book trade: computerizing in 1980 with a TRS-80 machine; outfitting the offices with Apple computers later that decade; by 1998, Zubal Books closed to the public [and for] the past twenty years, they have sold primarily online and by appointment-only; Michael Zubal and Tom Zubal host the Book Brothers Podcast.
[Zubal Books "specializes" in academic, scholarly, obscure, and out-of-print rarities (as befitting John Zubal's historian training), but its inventory is diverse and frankly staggering; in the 2017 Detroit Fest article, holdings include a 1st edition Wizard of Oz in pristine condition, a 1969 Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Salvador Dali (as a massive folio, where each plate is signed by Dali), and a circa 1899 Decameron hand-drawn on sheepskin vellum (binding as well as pages; the book is one of three known copies). Right now, per Zubal's AbeBooks account (Heritage Bookseller - Member Since 1996) listing, this 1776 Common Sense could be yours for $247,450.00 US.]
*In 2007, Anthony Bourdain toured Zubal Books for "No Reservations," and the old bakery building delighted him: Until 1989 this was home to the company that brings us Twinkies, Ho-hos, Fruit Pies and the like. That leg of Bourdain’s tour was the highlight of the day. Many of the pipes in the bakery still contain sugary sauce the color of motor oil, which, when whipped, becomes the famous Twinkie cream filling. Since Hostess abandoned the place, that sauce just sits in the pipes. Our endurance tested by the sub-zero temperature, we made it to one of the pipes, cracked the valve and Bourdain, with a slight reticence, swiped his finger through the vertical brown stream. He stuck the gooey sauce in his mouth and proclaimed “there’s that Twinkie freshness!” (Bourdain loved the apartment. Full Cleveland episode featuring Harvey Pekar.)
**These built-in bookshelves in the former depository drew founders John and Margaret Zubal (affectionately depicted here, in family friend Harvey Pekar's Cleveland [illustrated by David Remnant]) when expanding their original home-based book business.
I want that snail tile!!!
posted by Jess the Mess at 1:19 PM on February 4, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Jess the Mess at 1:19 PM on February 4, 2021 [5 favorites]
Lots of cool stuff in there, snail tile included
posted by Windopaene at 1:23 PM on February 4, 2021
posted by Windopaene at 1:23 PM on February 4, 2021
The Air BNB that makes a weekend in Cleveland worth it?
posted by Keith Talent at 1:45 PM on February 4, 2021
posted by Keith Talent at 1:45 PM on February 4, 2021
Thanks for posting this! I remember enjoying a few trips there as a teenager in the 80s, when I occasionally had a reason to visit Cleveland. I only have a few fragmentary memories, but my recollection is of a dim(?), cold(?), creaky-but-also-quiet(?) warehouse full of old books like Great Zimbabwe? Just a great place to get lost in. I'd also visit the Old Erie Street Bookstore on the same trips, usually picking up, like, then-recent Arkham House titles.
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:15 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:15 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Air BNB that makes a weekend in Cleveland worth it? - Keith Talent
There's other worthwhile stuff in the Forest City - like the floors beneath the flat! Unfortunately, at the Plain Dealer: Zubal Books occupies the warehouse and the Zubal family occasionally uses the penthouse to entertain, but no one lives in it & at the Detroit Book Fest piece: “Every Friday after Thanksgiving, we play poker up here.” The articles are a few years old, so I *did* poke around on the rental sites, just on the off chance... oh, man, if Zubal's Books has expanded its original wish-fulfillment imperative, someone kindly update the thread?
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:36 PM on February 4, 2021
There's other worthwhile stuff in the Forest City - like the floors beneath the flat! Unfortunately, at the Plain Dealer: Zubal Books occupies the warehouse and the Zubal family occasionally uses the penthouse to entertain, but no one lives in it & at the Detroit Book Fest piece: “Every Friday after Thanksgiving, we play poker up here.” The articles are a few years old, so I *did* poke around on the rental sites, just on the off chance... oh, man, if Zubal's Books has expanded its original wish-fulfillment imperative, someone kindly update the thread?
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:36 PM on February 4, 2021
So as not to abuse the edit -- I had the impression the penthouse was available for film shoots, not stays. Zubal's rents and sells books in bulk/books-by-the-foot for set decoration.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:44 PM on February 4, 2021
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:44 PM on February 4, 2021
I have spent hundreds of dollars purchasing books from them. I'd love just walking through their shelves and looking at what they have, but instead I just browse through Abebooks or their web site.
posted by Xoc at 3:25 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Xoc at 3:25 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm weird. I really like the fireplace.
I'm a native Clevelander, and I've never heard of the place.
posted by kathrynm at 5:12 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm a native Clevelander, and I've never heard of the place.
posted by kathrynm at 5:12 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
Love the penthouse.
Apropos of nothing, maybe they should name a future descendant Jubal Zubal.
(How is the Zubal name pronounced? Zu-BALL or ZU-ball?)
posted by Jubal Kessler at 6:01 PM on February 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
Apropos of nothing, maybe they should name a future descendant Jubal Zubal.
(How is the Zubal name pronounced? Zu-BALL or ZU-ball?)
posted by Jubal Kessler at 6:01 PM on February 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
ZUble. (In Clevelandese.)
posted by soundguy99 at 6:30 PM on February 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by soundguy99 at 6:30 PM on February 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
I've lived three blocks from this place for years now and never knew about the penthouse. Great post!
posted by SystematicAbuse at 5:33 AM on February 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SystematicAbuse at 5:33 AM on February 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by Iris Gambol at 1:16 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]