The "Old Hill Store," demolished circa 1890-1895, was so-called because it was located on Andover Hill. The original part of the building was Mark Newman's general store, purportedly built by Newman himself circa 1810. Andover Center for History and Culture. At the seminary's founding in 1807, Eliphalet Pearson instituted a loyalty oath, making it impossible for those associated with the seminary to depart from the doctrines of Calvinism. Seminarians and professors alike had to sign the oath every five years. The so-called Board of Visitors oversaw what became known as the Andover Creed. Perhaps it seemed the right thing to do at the time, but almost exactly one hundred years after it was initiated, it would be the seminary’s undoing. Ironically, there was speculation that Pearson himself wasn't as committed to Calvinism as he professed to be. Among others, John Lewis Ewell, author of a history of Pearson's hometown, surmised that Pearson's “defeat at Harvard” had “temporarily accentuated [his] Calvinism.” [1]
Pearson was ordained on the day of the seminary's dedication on September 28, 1808. He was also made the seminary's professor of sacred literature. He lasted one year. Reverend Leonard Woods was said to have been dissatisfied with him, and perhaps the feeling was mutual. He didn't leave Andover, however. He owned land on both sides of what is now Pearson Street [2], which he farmed, and lived at a house at 9 Salem Street, owned by P.A. From there he continued to push the idea of bringing people into the orthodox fold via the missionary work of disseminating tracts.
P.A., meanwhile, was having its difficulties. Mark Newman's headmastership was undistinguished; in fact it was worse than that. By the winter of 1809, the student body numbered only eighteen. “This decided falling-off was caused partly by the increased attention which the Trustees gave to the new seminary," Claude M. Fuess states in his history of P.A., "but far more by the fact that [Mark] Newman was not the man to command the confidence of parents.” [3] Count on Reverend Bentley to have his say: “The Jesuits’ College at Andover has changed the Character of Phillips Academy which Mr. Newman has lately left since the revolution which Mr. Pearson has made in that quarter.” [4] Either of his own volition or that of others, Newman resigned on August 22, 1809, and shortly opened a store right on campus.
A sign on the Andover Bookstore today says "Est. 1809." The store traces its history back to Mark Newman's business, and on the basis of that, claims itself the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the United States. In fact, however, in 1745, the Moravian Book Shop was founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Nor is the sign quite correct, since Newman may not have begun his business until 1810. Nor was he selling books at the very beginning. Rather, his wares were textiles, ready-made clothing, groceries, and hardware.
The business did not boom, not even when Newman did start offering a few books with the rest of his merchandise, in a building he is said to have constructed himself. In notes archived at P.A., he is described as being “of a lethargic nature, and nothing suited him better than to get a quid of tobacco into his mouth and [with] his legs resting on another chair, [he would] tell his customers to help themselves, pointing to where the book might be found. He was lazy as the ox." [5] Nor was he all that good at following up with students who took items on credit. "A great many did not pay," the notes claim. [6] But where the store once stood is hallowed ground nonetheless, because it figures into Andover's early printing history, and printing is a crucial element in the story of the American missionary movement both at home and abroad, and Andover's crucial role it.
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1. John Lewis Ewell, The Story of Byfield, a New England Parish (Boston: George E. Littlefield, 1904), 143-144.
2. Kenna Therrien email to author, March 4, 2021. See https://preservation.mhl.org/9-salem-st. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
3. Fuess, An Old New England School, 131.
4. Bentley, December 31, 1809.
5. PAA, Warren Fales Draper vertical file, correspondence, retyped, not original ms., J. D. Flagg in a November 14, 1903, letter to Warren F. Draper.
6. Ibid.
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