Beloved Bookstore Ends Its Story
For Many, Bader's Was A Reader's Oasis Where 'They Know Who You Are'

By Christina Barron
Washington Post staff Writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Astop into Franz Bader Bookstore has never been about browsing discounted bestsellers while picking up a CD or DVD. There is no cappuccino machine and not a single overstuffed chair for lounging. Through its decades-long history, the small store, now at 19th and I streets NW, has been known for its wide and eclectic selection of art, architecture and photography books.

But after 22 years as the current owners of the 54-year-old store, Sabine and Richard Yanul are closing shop this week, a casualty of downtown rents, they say, and the growth of chain bookstores and Web-based retailers.

"The pie is just shrinking for everyone," Sabine Yanul says.

That may be true, many of Bader's customers say, but what has never been in short supply is the Yanuls' vast knowledge of -- and passion for -- books about the arts. And that is a big part of what they will miss.

"Typically, someone would come in to ask Sabine about a really obscure artist," says longtime customer Kris Norden of Foggy Bottom, and she would immediately list several books, some out of print or written in other languages. "She's better than the Internet. That kind of expertise goes back for decades."

For patrons such as Norden, this isn't just another mom-and-pop business disappearing. It's the disappearance of a home -- for art lovers, academics, museum directors and, especially, local architects, who decided last week to honor the Yanuls with this year's Glenn Brown Award, which honors those who support architecture. The award is given by the American Institute of Architects and the Washington Architectural Foundation.

Mary Fitch, executive director of the institute's D.C. chapter, called the bookstore "an informal gathering place for architects to learn and exchange ideas."

"It's the whole idea that you walk into a store and they know who you are," she says. "There's always Amazon, I suppose, but there's nothing that will take the place."

Robert Gurney learned about the store from a fellow architect 15 years ago and has been a regular ever since.

"Literally that's become a part of my life," he says of visits to the shop, where the Yanuls have sponsored numerous book signings and promoted lectures on architecture.

"It's a resource I think the whole architectural community is going to lose," Gurney says.

Architect or not, and whether they have known the store for four decades or just one, some customers have made a habit of turning up on Saturdays for the free-flowing discussions.

"Many people don't go there for the books," Norden says, recalling times she has often overheard customers engaged in "deeply intellectual conversation with Dick."

"I say they run a salon," she says.

That sense of a salon may have its roots with namesake Franz Bader himself. An Austrian Jew who fled the Nazis, he arrived in the United States in 1939 with wife Antonia, $12 and the promise of a job at the Whyte Gallery and Bookshop. He rose through the company ranks and along the way developed a passion for art.

In 1953, he opened his own store, Franz Bader Gallery and Bookshop, at 17th and G streets NW. As his interest in promoting artists increased, the space for books declined and a move to Pennsylvania Avenue found the bookstore occupying a small space in the back of the gallery.

While Bader was busy discovering local artists and hosting shows of their work, he left the running of the bookstore to a series of young people who were versed in art and foreign languages. Customers received guidance about the latest titles the store imported from Europe, and along the way some forged lifelong friendships.

Sabine Breu, a young German immigrant, applied for a job in 1966. Breu had a background in design and was looking for a temporary position after working as an au pair. The job enveloped much more of her life than intended, however. Breu attracted the notice of a customer, art historian Richard Yanul.

"I sold him a hardcover when I knew full well there was a paperback" of the same book, she says with a chuckle. Richard Yanul became a loyal patron and later her husband, and never let her forget that book.

In 1985, when Bader retired, he sold the store to the Yanuls. Private art dealer Wretha Hansen bought the gallery. The two businesses split two years later, with the bookstore moving to its current location, around the corner from the World Bank.

Richard Yanul credits his wife with expanding the selection of books and keeping an eye out for titles she thinks customers will enjoy.

"She has a much better sense [than I do] of what will sell and what will not sell," he says. "Sabine was the one who wanted to go into architecture more" 20 years ago, when publishers sharply increased the number of books available on the subject.

Sabine Yanul believes they could have remained open for a few more years, but once the rent nearly doubled, things seemed to decide themselves.

Property owners Tishman Speyer said in a statement that the bookstore has been a good tenant, adding, "We would have liked it to remain at the property, and we offered the owner a lease renewal at a rent consistent with current market rates."

No thank you, the Yanuls decided.

They're trading six-day workweeks for retirement. Their lease is up at the end of the month.

"It probably hasn't sunk in yet," Sabine Yanul noted recently just before the store began marking down its inventory and the shelves were not as bare as they are now. "When the catalogues come, I say, 'I would like that,' but then I have to say, 'No, I don't have a store anymore.' "