A short tale of the Baylor Bookstore’s surprisingly long history

If you’ve ever attended Baylor, you know the Baylor Bookstore. For everything from Baylor gear to textbooks, this is the place you start — and it’s been that way for more than 130 years.

The original Baylor book store was called the “Baylor Book Concern” and was located inside Old Main — then just called “Main Building.” Established not long after Baylor moved to Waco in 1886, the Book Concern was owned and operated by the university and handled all textbook and student supply needs. It was responsible for ordering materials from publishing companies (a far more complicated process a century ago), taking orders from students, and letting professors which books were available for their classes. An advertisement in the 1903 Baylor Round Up touts books such as “How and When to Quote Poetry” (then, 25 cents; today, that would be about $6) and “The Kodak — Its Use and Abuse” ($10 then, the equivalent of $245 today). The store also sold such novelties as jewelry and pennants.

In 1913, the Book Concern moved out of Old Main and into the basement of Carroll Science. By this point, it had gained some serious competitors, the biggest of which was the Von Blon Bookstore, whose owner was well-known for being able to track down whatever rare, obscure book you needed — a valuable skill in a Google-less, Amazon-less era. By mid-century, the Book Concern had moved to the SUB and changed its name to the Baylor Bookstore.

[SEE photos of students purchasing books during at the Bookstore move-in in the 1960s]

In the 1980s, as the university began its partnership with Follett, the bookstore moved again — this time, into the first floor of a newly built parking garage on 5th Street next door to Martin Hall. While the Bookstore still has plenty of Baylor jewelry and pennants, getting your books for the semester is way, way easier today than it was 100 years ago. The bookstore offers both hard copy and digital books, plus majorly discounted computers and electronics, and customers can order everything online — even price matching both new and used books from any store.

Sic ’em, Baylor Bookstore!