Downtown LA's beloved Caravan Book Store to shutter its doors after nearly 64 years

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For more than 63 years, Caravan Book Store has kept its doors open in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, near Sixth St. and Grand Avenue.

Leonard Bernstein took over for his parents, Morris and Lillian, who opened the business as a way to spend more time together after getting married.

"They courted each other by going to old and rare bookstores that were along Sixth Street here," Bernstein said. "They decided to open a bookstore and be together all day long, and that was a grand experiment that worked."

Caravan Book Store opened in 1954. On Feb. 28, just two months shy of its 64th anniversary, the business will shutter its doors.

"It's great, the bookstore itself, but the company's just as great," said Sua Iris Hernandez, who often spends her lunch break in the store. Hernandez teared up after learning it is closing at the end of the month. "Just the history and the smell and this place in our street that is so often changing," Hernandez said about what makes Caravan Book Store special.

Bernstein wants his customers to know he will still be around. He told Eyewitness News that he contemplated the decision for a long time.

"They don't want me to leave, but there comes a time, you know, when all good things come to an end," he said. "And that's what this is -- my decision just to take it easy."