Argosy Book Store

116 East 59th Street | East Midtown | built 1945

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1967

    Patti Smith holds a brief job at the Argosy in 1967

    Patti Smith worked at the Argosy for a short time in 1967. The shop has drawn well-known names ever since: Stephen Sondheim, Princess Grace, Michael Jackson, Sally Field, Donatella Versace and Oriana Fallaci are all listed among its customers. President Bill Clinton became a regular after the owners restored his flood-damaged books in Chappaqua, New York.

    “Patti Smith was briefly an employee in 1967.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1991

    January 4

    Louis Cohen, the bookseller behind the Argosy, dies at 87

    Louis Cohen died at 87 on January 4, 1991. Jewish Currents says he supplied the White House libraries of Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, gave thousands of Hebrew books to Bar-Ilan University and set up libraries for the universities of Texas and Kansas. Items that passed through his hands included an architectural plan for Washington, D.C. signed by Thomas Jefferson and the personal library of Paul Robeson.

    Source: jewishcurrents.org

  3. 2012

    Hurricane Sandy sends bricks through the Argosy's roof and floods its upper floors

    During Hurricane Sandy, bricks from high on a neighboring skyscraper fell onto the Argosy and opened a hole in the ceiling, and water poured in. Because the crane collapse nearby had cut off access to the store, its owners did not learn of the damage for several days. Among the damaged items were original acts of Congress bearing Thomas Jefferson's signature from his time as secretary of state.

    Source: shelf-awareness.com

  4. 2018

    The Argosy appears in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the Lee Israel film

    The 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me? features the Argosy prominently. Lee Israel, the real-life forger the film follows, tried to sell her forgeries at the Argosy as well as at other New York bookstores. Other productions shot there include Woody Allen's The Front and episodes of Law and Order and Person of Interest, and the 2019 film The Goldfinch also used it.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2019

    The documentary The Booksellers takes the Argosy as one of its subjects

    The 2019 documentary The Booksellers counts the Argosy and its history among its subjects. Janet Malcolm also wrote about the store for The New Yorker. Its old-world interior has made it a favorite backdrop for fashion shoots and television interviews.

    “The store and its history are one of the subjects of the 2019 documentary The Booksellers.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2025

    At its hundredth year, the Argosy's three sisters keep turning down offers for the building

    Louis Cohen's daughters Judith Lowry, Naomi Hample and Adina Cohen still run the Argosy as it marks its centennial. Cohen had bought the six-story building in the 1950s, and the sisters say they turn down offers to buy it almost daily; real estate experts quoted put its value well above $10 million. Selling, Lowry has said, would mean going out of business.

    Source: coinbooks.org

Further reading

Nearby

All 43 buildings with stories in East Midtown