Eula Wolcott’s Baker Hotel Book Shop & Rental Library, 1926-1942
by Paula Bosse
Eula Wolcott: bookseller, librarian (Publishers Weekly, 1934)
by Paula Bosse
Today is the birthday of my late father, Dick Bosse, owner of the Aldredge Book Store. I always try to post something bookstore-related on his birthday. This year: Miss Eula Wolcott’s Baker Hotel Book Shop & Rental Library, located inside the Baker Hotel.
Eula Wolcott (1881-1962) was born in Waxahachie and had moved to Dallas by 1910. She appears to have had theatrical ambitions and studied voice and expression (she was billed as an “Experienced Concert Reader and Story Teller”). She opened a little book store and library in the early 1920s — the Booklovers Shop and Library was first on West Jefferson and later on Swiss Avenue. In 1926, she opened a similar shop inside the glamorous Baker Hotel, an enterprise she ran successfully until at least 1942 when another owner took over (she also apparently had a book shop inside the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells). In 1931 she opened the rather confusingly-named “Baker Hotel Book Shop and Rental Library” in Highland Park — in the new “Spanish Village” (the original name for Highland Park Village). Below is a very enthusiastic profile from Publishers Weekly (click to see a larger image).
Publishers Weekly, March 24, 1934
I wish the photo at the top had been better, because I’d love to get a good look at the decor. And Eula. I managed to find a photo of her.
Eula Wolcott, via Ancestry.com
Here are a few ads:
1924
Two shops, one owner — 1926
1927
1937
1940
She was active as a bookseller for many years and was also a familiar voice to radio listeners who tuned in to hear her book reviews on WFAA.
One interesting piece of trivia about Eula’s hotel bookshop, shared with me by a former bookstore client of mine: the Baker Hotel Book Shop was the very first American bookstore that British author H. G. Wells ever visited. A lecture tour brought him to Dallas in 1940 — like many of the celebs of the day, he stayed at the Baker. I’m sure Eula was very happy to have Mr. Wells, a literary powerhouse, in her shop. Let’s hope he exhibited proper bookstore etiquette and purchased something!
Baker Hotel, circa 1940
***
Sources & Notes
Top photo and article from the trade magazine Publishers Weekly, March 24, 1934.
Read more Flashback Dallas articles on the Dallas bookstore scene here.
*
Copyright © 2022 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
So great! Would have loved to go to her bookstore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This story of Eula Wolcott and her Baker Hotel book enterprise is wonderful. It reminds me that Bosse’s fascination for so many civic treasures unearthed, and the bookly-minded (a Ms. Eula coinage) provides us in the cheap seats with a splendid and edifying chronicle of Dallas. Bravo, Paula!
Bil Sanderson
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Bill!
LikeLike
It reminds me a bit of the “main room” in your Dad’s store on Maple. The decor, that is. The large heavy table in the middle of the room that was always stocked with interesting texts. Of course, I will never forget the time I thought your Dad was going to shoot me! I had wandered into the back room, and there he was pointing a small caliber Colt single action at me – or so I thought. He was cleaning it! discovered that Dick was a firearms fanatic like myself. We’d spend hours talking about the gun shows at Market Hall. The world is a smaller place without your Dad…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Thanks! All that’s missing from Eula’s shop is a cat or two.
LikeLike
Well, you don’t know that there weren’t cats there, just because they aren’t visible in the one photo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m happy to have found this post. Eula Sue Wolcott was a first cousin to my grandfather, Edward Roscoe Wolcott. Eula’s father, Andrew Jackson Wolcott, was a partner with Edward’s father and two other Wolcott brothers in the Wolcott Brothers Cattle Company, which raised livestock on ranches north of Midland, Texas that were then shipped to Dallas to market. Andrew remained in Dallas during that time to manage the marketing and sales side of the business. His large home, where Eula grew up, was on Zang Blvd. in Oak Cliff. I expect that Eula’s recollection of days spent among the cowboys of West Texas came from visiting her cousins near Midland. Another of Eula’s uncles in Dallas, Oliver P. Wolcott, who farmed near Lisbon in south Dallas and was not part of the cattle business, served several terms as a Dallas County Commissioner and was credited with having the first concrete viaduct built over the Trinity River connecting Oak Cliff to Dallas.
Charles Wolcott
Dallas, Texas
LikeLiked by 1 person
How interesting! Thanks for the information. I’m glad you found this post!
LikeLike