Alabama Photos of the Day: Two Auburn Bookstores in 1950

I recently ran across these first two photos in one of Auburn University Libraries' digital collections and being a retired librarian and bookstore denizen since the days of my youth, they grabbed my attention. Let's investigate. The photos show the interior of two bookstores in Auburn in 1950, Hawkins' and Burton's. The quotes about each store come from the linked source. At some point Mr. Hawkins died and a bookstore entrepreneur from Tuscaloosa named Paul Malone purchased the store and renamed it Malone's. George Johnston had been working there and took over management; he purchased the store in 1953. The Johnston family took full control in 1960 and renamed it Johnston and Malone, which became J&M in 1968. That's how the store was known when I arrived in Auburn in June 1970. You can read more about J&M here, here and here. I've found nothing yet on Mr. Hawkins' background, but that's not the case with with the founder of the other store, Robert Wilton Burton. Although born in Georgia in 1848, he grew up in Lafayette and spent most of his adult life in the Auburn area. After the Civil War he taught school in Lee County and Opelika until he and his brother opened a bookstore in that town. In 1878 faculty members at the college then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama asked him to open a bookstore in Auburn to serve the school and community. Burton's Book Store became a center of literary and intellectual life and operated until 1968. Before his death in 1917 Burton published numerous poems and humorous stories in newspapers and national magazines. With the income he built a one-story house for his family affectionately called the "Four-Story Cottage". Although listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1980, the Queen Anne-style house on East Magnolia Street was demolished in 1993. In May 1957 Paul Malone was one of the incorporators of Malone's Book Store, Inc. in Tuscaloosa. The business was dissolved in 1968. I raided my parents' collection of Auburn University yearbooks from ca. 1947-1950 and other sources for book store ads and photos beyond the two I found initially. I couldn't stop myself and have included them below in order to create a mini-history of bookstores in Auburn. I wonder if my parents are in either of these photographs. They were at Auburn in 1950. If you have any information or memories about these stores, please tell us in the comments section. UPDATE 19 March 2022 One Auburn bookstore I didn't discuss was Anders, which closed recently after 56 years in business. Hawkins Bookstore in 1950 "Hawkin's Bookstore in Auburn in 1950 was called 'The Friendly Bookstore.' George and Paul Malone took over the store years later and named it Johnston and Malone's." Source: C. Harry Knowles Photographs Collection, Auburn University Libraries Burton's Bookstore in 1950 "Auburn's Burton's Bookstore in 1950 packed with students getting their books from the quarter. Robert Wilton Burton opened the first bookstore in Auburn in 1878 for then Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. The slogan for Burton's, on East Magnolia and South College, was "Something New Everyday." It closed its doors in 1968 after 90 years." Source: C. Harry Knowles Photographs Collection, Auburn University Libraries Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1947 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1950 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook In this photograph taken around 1910, we are looking down what is now College Street in Auburn. The building on the right in front of the water tower is Burton's  Book Store. Toomer's Drug Store is the building with the awning.  Source: Auburn University Digital Library  At some point a Wright Brothers Book Store operated in Auburn. "The water tower behind reveals its location on the north side of Magnolia Avenue a few doors east of Toomer's Drug Store. Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes & Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village  Remembered in Period Photographs. New South Books, 2012, p. 129 J & M Bookstore today Source: J & M website