Molly’s Books and Records: Knowing Where It Is Now by Where It Was Then

Centuries before Molly’s Books and Records would reside in its little townhouse with white, vinyl siding, the neighborhood of South Philadelphia belonged to a much more nuanced past and group of people.

Historically, South Philadelphia has been a haven for Italian immigration since the late 18th century, according to Stefano Luconi in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia’s article “Italians and Italy.” Though Italian immigrants initially sought to benefit from the major trading port that was Philadelphia in the 1700s, the city saw a major boom in Italians seeking refuge after the failures of the Italian Unification in the late 18th century. Many of these immigrants–though in the past they tended to be more artistically and intellectually inclined–became laborers in their settled areas of Philadelphia. Specifically, Italian immigrants settled in “a neighborhood bounded by Christain, Seventh, Carpenter, and Ninth Streets in a South Philadelphia district where the price of real estate was lower than in other areas” (Luconi). 

This neighborhood that Luconi describes constitutes a small–but certainly significant–portion of today’s Little Italy, Philadelphia. 

The influence of Italian immigration in this area of South Philadelphia is not lost today, even after centuries since the peak of immigration and as other ethnic groups settled in the neighborhood. According to Pamela Forsythe in the Broad Street Review’s “The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas” article, Little Italy was the core for Italian-immigrant life, and it was here that they attempted to preserve Italian identity in a Western culture. For example, when Italian immigrants settled in the neighborhood they were able to adapt their housing to supply Italian goods and services for Italian households; specifically, Forsythe explains “‘the first-floor front was easily adapted to commerce, with a second door and a shop window.’” Most notably, they sought to preserve the core of their culture–authentic Italian cuisine–by refusing to shop American fare and instead shop locally at Italian-owned food markets, now officially known as the Italian Market of Little Italy (Forsythe). These efforts to preserve the core of Italian culture are still evident today, as Italian-cuisine businesses stretch for about ten blocks down South 9th Street, selling everything from fresh produce, meats, gelato, and even kitchenware. So it is a curious wonder to see an indie bookstore–where cookbooks are sold alongside records and DVDs–living among this renowned myriad of Italian-cuisine businesses.

How did Molly Russakoff, owner of this books and records shop, manage to fit this seemingly outlier-of-a-business into this gastronomic environment? 

Well, Russakoff’s history with the community of Little Italy is almost as extensive and complex as the history of South Philadelphia. This history dates back to the 1980s, well over a decade before the opening of Molly’s Books and Records. Between 1982 and 1986, Russakoff’s father, Jerome Russakoff, opened his own indie bookstore–Russakoff’s Books and Records–on 259 South 10th Street. Similar to Molly’s Books and Records, Russakoff’s Books and Records sold a variety of products aside from used books. In fact, as the Buzzfile report states, the shop’s inventory included: used books, rare books, CDs, tapes, and records. Eventually, in 1997 Jerome handed down ownership of the shop to Molly Russakoff’s brother, Joe Russakoff. Since then, Russakoff’s Books and Records has officially been known as Mostly Books and has relocated to 529 Bainbridge Street in the early 2000s. Considering this familial history of bookselling, it should not have come to any surprise that Molly Russakoff would continue the tradition and open up her own bookshop.

Still, the journey to opening Molly’s Books and Records was anything but unidirectional. Although Russakoff grew up approximately thirty-minutes outside Little Italy in Elkins Park, she sought to create a connection with the community of Little Italy in a variety of ways. According to A.D. Amorosi in The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s “Reading and More at Molly’s Bookstore” article, one of Russakoff’s earliest ventures into the neighborhood was through 9th Street Books & Records, in which she owned and operated the shop for ten years after its opening in 1987. Nevertheless, three years after she closed the doors to 9th Street Books & Records, she opened Molly’s Café on 910-912 Christian Street, which is just about two blocks away from today’s Molly’s Books and Records. At Molly’s Café, Russakoff nurtured her passion for literature and cuisine, and sought to utilize these passions to connect with South Philadelphia’s literary and gastronomic community. When Molly’s Café closed down in the early 2000s, Russakoff was devastated and contemplated leaving South Philadelphia for good (Amorosi). Yet, “[Russakoff’s] connection to literature–writing, teaching, selling–runs as deep as her adoration of her neighborhood” (Amorosi), so she decided to give South Philadelphia another chance. Thus in 2002, not long after the closure of Molly’s Café, she purchased a little townhouse with white, vinyl siding, in the heart of Little Italy. Today, this townhouse is recognized as Molly’s Books and Records, but that was not always the case in the early 2000s.

Over twenty years ago, Russakoff sought to create a literary space in a community that prides itself for its historic Italian gastronomy. In 2002, this venture began in a little townhouse on 1010 South 9th Street, with the name Molly’s Bookstore. Unlike today’s Molly’s Books and Records, Molly’s Bookstore strictly sold used-books according to The Secondhand Beat’s “Molly’s Books & Records” article. For a while, Molly’s Bookstore thrived in Little Italy–in spite of its limited inventory and its unusual location among Italian-food markets. Nevertheless, this success eventually faded with the rise of digital bookselling. In 2006, indie booksellers were threatened by the growing presence of major online book-retailers, such as Amazon. This threat, as Russakoff explains, makes selling books more difficult, as online bookselling turned customers away from brick-and-mortar shops and altered their shopping behaviors (Amorosi). Nonetheless, Russakoff briefly turned towards digital bookselling on Amazon. This attempt to keep-up with the changing times proved ethically difficult, as Russakoff believed “selling books on the Internet felt like working for Wal-Mart. She felt lonely and dislocated from her community” (Amorosi). There was no easy solution that would have saved Molly’s Bookstore from Amazon and other rising book-retailers–not if Russakoff wanted to compromise her stance on the politics of digital bookselling. Consequently, Molly’s Bookstore closed down in 2007.

Still, Russakoff refused to be chased out of Little Italy. Therefore, in 2008 she opened a natural produce shop–Bella Vista Natural Foods–in the place where Molly’s Bookstore used to operate. According to Phila Place’s “Bella Vista Natural Foods: ‘It Becomes Where We Belong’” article, Bella Vista Natural Foods was received well by the community, since “an organic grocery seem[ed] to be the one genre of food that was missing on the market.” In the brief time Bella Vista Natural Foods operated, the shop had become a space for the community to gather. Yet, something was amiss and Russakoff wanted to return to bookselling, but she wasn’t sure how that was possible.

To reference W.G. Rogers in Wise Men Fish Here, a successful bookseller should only be “concerned with the kind of books that matter to the kind of people that matter” (77), and this was a lesson Russakoff had to embrace in order get back into the bookselling business. By the time she closed down Bella Vista Natural Foods sometime before 2010, Russakoff had already been growing her collection of cookbooks for the interested, culinary community of Little Italy. According to Archibald MacLeish in A Free Man’s Books, “true books are sold by the enthusiasm of those who know them and respect them” (13), and this is especially evident in Russakoff’s success with selling her collection of cookbooks. This cookbook collection has come to be an integral part of Molly’s Books and Records, and as Abigail Weils notes in “There’s No Place in Philly Quite Like Molly’s Books and Records,” Russakoff has taken great care into growing its numbers and variety to authentically represent the diversity of gastronomy and the culinary culture of Little Italy.

Even though there was a market for cookbooks in Little Italy–considering its gastronomic culture–Russakoff recognized she could not return to only selling books, not with the competition of Amazon. So when Russakoff partnered with her now-husband Joe Ankenbrand, they expanded their inventory to include: used books, records, DVDs, and most notably cookbooks (The Secondhand Beats). As a result, the little townhouse on 1010 South 9th Street reopened in 2010 under the new and settled name of Molly’s Books and Records.

Every business venture Molly Russakoff made in South Philadelphia was an attempt to create place, which according to Tim Cresswell is essentially defined as “a space invested with meaning” (12). Time and time again, Russakoff invested meaning into the building on 1010 South 9th Street. For as long as these businesses operated–if not only for a brief moment–they connected with the community and established relationships with the people of Little Italy. Still, overtime, the meaning of this place on 1010 South 9th Street has changed to the shape of the changing times and changing consumer-behavior. For example, expanding and diversifying the inventory of Molly’s Books and Records was a response to the difficulty of selling only books. Additionally, while Russakoff refuses to adapt her bookshop to the digital world of bookselling, she runs an Instagram account for Molly’s Books and Records to connect with a wider audience outside of Little Italy. Hence, the meaning of a place is not fixed in time.

A place like Molly’s Books and Records is continuously shaped and reshaped by the circumstances of its past and the changing times of the present.