Bibliophemera

The Holmes Book Company in Oakland, California, founded in 1925, was located at 274 Fourteenth Street in 1931 according to the postmark date on the postal cover below. A reputable book shop for collectors and browsers through much of the 20th century, the Holmes Book Company had another reputation—it was haunted! Before the business closed in 1995, the Oakland building at 274 14 th Street had become widely known for its paranormal activity. Local psychics and employees claimed for years that the store was inhabited by at least two distinct ghosts: The Phantom Book-Thrower, who threw books off shelves and across the room and the Basement Ghost who roamed the collection of California and Oakland historical memorabilia. This spirit appears to have not shared the volatile behavior of its counterpart upstairs. The folklore that developed around these ghostly encounters remained with the store until its closure. Holmes was Harold C. Holmes, who lived from 1877-1965. A brief biography of H...

Does this look like a haunted building? The Holmes Book Company was located here at 274 Fourteenth Street in 1931 according to the postmark date on the postal cover below. And according to some, a ghost roamed the stacks mischievously throwing books and making some of the patrons feel uneasy. An article on haunted Oakland touches on this phenomenon. You can search the Internet, using the keywords Holmes Book Company ghost , and find the same or similar references to the spooky goings on in the old book shop building. Holmes was Harold C. Holmes, who lived from 1877-1965. A brief biography of Holmes is found at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where his papers are archived. He was born in Toronto, Canada, but his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was about five years of age. There, his father started the Holmes Book Company, which had several antiquarian book shops in San Francisco and Oakland and offered the opportunity for Harold Holmes to enter the busine...