Toronto’s oldest independent bookstore is to close after 47 years citing a crushing rent increase.

The Book Mark, on Bloor St. W. in Etobicoke’s Kingsway neighbourhood, announced the news to customers Tuesday with signs in the window and a 20-per-cent-off sale.

“A customer whose mother has shopped here from the beginning came in this morning,” said owner Sue Houghting. “He said he doesn’t know how to tell her.”

Houghting remembers shopping in the store as a 3-year-old with her mother.

The original Book Mark, under owner Nan Chapin, opened on the south side of Bloor St., and moved after a couple of years to nearby Jackson Ave., just north of Bloor.

That’s the store Houghting knew as a toddler, in a 1920s apartment building.

“It was magical — I fell in love with it,” she said. “The cook books were in the kitchen. The office was in the bathroom. The back room was all kids’ books.”

Her favourites were those by British children’s author Enid Blyton, who published hundreds of books and is credited with writing more than 7,500 short stories, poems and plays. They had a special section of their own in the backroom closet.

“There was also this wonderful horse that you could sit on,” Houghting recalled of a miniature carousel horse that continues today as a featured attraction.

“It’s stationary but kids try to put quarters in it to make it move,” she said.

Houghting, now 47, took a job at the store in 1988 and bought it in 1995 with her late business partner David Eustace. The following year, they moved around the corner to the store’s current location at 2964 Bloor St. W.

As the book business changed, Houghting focused on customer service. This Christmas season ended “a few points up” from last year, she said

“You get to know your customers, what they like to read — you just spoil people,” she said. “We’ve got customers who have a favourite bookseller on staff. They read mysteries and the bookseller reads mysteries, so they will deal only with that person.”

Last summer, Houghting started thinking of selling.

Assistant manager Sarah Pietrosky was interested but the store’s landlord was asking $6,000 a month for a new lease, a jump of more than 26 per cent. Reached by phone Tuesday, landlord Anthony Scolaro declined comment.

“Like any shopping district, if you move too far east or west you lose your customer base,” Houghting said.

Options proved scarce and a decision was made to close at the end of the month — sooner if sales go quickly.

Houghting plans to move to Ottawa to be closer to family members and perhaps work part-time, but not in a big-box store.

“I can’t work at a chain, I’m too loyal to independents,” she said.

A staff member has asked for the carousel horse, promising to provide a good home.

In good company

The Book Mark joins a distinguished company of recent independent bookstore closings.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

2011 — The Flying Dragon, children’s bookstore, Leaside.

2010 — This Ain’t the Rosedale Library.

2009 — Pages Books, Queen St. W.; David Mirvish Books, Markham St.; McNally Robinson Booksellers, Don Mills.