Effective June 27, Olsson's Books and Records is closing its Penn Quarter store, in the Lansburgh Building on 7th Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. A store announcement said, "The landlord has other plans for the space." Olsson's has five other stores in northern Virginia and Washington.
Olsson's was a modern pioneer in the Penn Quarter area. Jean Westcott, senior marketing and publicity manager of International Publishers Marketing and a former Olsson's staffer, wrote that when the store first opened 15 years ago, "the Tariff Building was shuttered, two streets above us was an open air 'shooting gallery,' there were adult bookstores 1.5 blocks away, there was no pretty new convention center--but there were a lot of great customers."
Among her memories: "One of the first evenings, we heard a sword fight out back--it turned out to be a rehearsal of Julius Caesar! (Next door was the Shakespeare Theatre.) When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, FBI agents (FBI headquarters was three blocks away) came in and bought Two Seconds Under the World--they thought Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible."