Catholic Book Store Archives

The Catholic Book Store opened in New Orleans on October 6, 1939 at 710 Common St. in the St. Charles Hotel. Changes in the hotel forced the bookstore to move to 350 Baronne St., where it remained until 1969 when it suffered serious damage from a fire. It then moved to 8039 Fig St., near Notre Dame Seminary. For most of its history, the Catholic Book Store was closely identified with Florence Henderson. A 1929 graduate of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Henderson founded the bookstore and owned it for over three decades. Faced with the bookstore's growing financial difficulties, in 1974 she transferred ownership to a nonprofit foundation guided by a board of lay and religious people. She continued to manage the bookstore until her retirement in 1989. She died in 1992 at the age of eighty. Since 1939 the bookstore has been an important part of Catholic New Orleans. It was the city's first bookstore devoted to Catholic literature and has always focused on the needs of Catholic readers. In the wake of Vatican II, however, it grew more ecumenical, carrying more literature associated with other religions.

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