Harold C. Holmes at his desk in the Oakland store

Holmes Books History

Our ancestor Robert C. Holmes started Holmes Books on the docks of San Francisco in April of 1894. Robert would go down to the docks to meet the ships and sell books to the sailors. The sailors had been out to sea for months and one form of their entertainment on long voyages is to read books. After making the book business a success and Robert C. Holmes’ four sons were grown, he decided to give each son a book business. The last remaining bookstore of these is in Oakland, Ca. and its doors closed in June of 1995 after being open for over 100 years.

Late in 1995, after the bookstore closed, Robert’s great granddaughter and his great-great-granddaughter started Lawthorne Press. Our first publication being, "San Francisco’s International Exposition: A Bibliography" by Marvin Nathan. In addition, and at that same time as the publication came out on the market the granddaughters were reorganizing the bookstore to go online.

Now that we are open, again we hope to bring you a vast supply of books and other services, and to give back to the community. Therefore, we would appreciate your comments, your stories of your experiences with Holmes Books from the past. We will publish the stories online in our news letter and hope you will enjoy them.

There is a book called "Some Random Reminiscences"; written by Harold C. Holmes this limited edition contains history and pictures of the bookstore, and some of Harold C. Holmes’ thoughts. When HCH was alive, he handed out the book to family and friends. Therefore, if you received a copy and still have it let us know, we would enjoy hearing from you. Harold collected quotes and had a good sense of humor. Much of his sense of humor came from the things he read and the people he met.

Harold collected quotes and had a good sense of humor. Much of his sense of humor came from the things he read and the people he met.

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