The firm first occupied a very old, two-storied wooden building, known
as "the old dye-house" on Washington Street, opposite the Old South
"Church."[A]

[Footnote A: On the site now occupied by the "Old South Clothing
House."]

Of course the store soon began to show its incapacity for the growing
business, just as the "old corner" had done in the case of Ticknor and
Fields, and as almost every ancient book-shop has done in the last
quarter of a century. The proprietors of the establishment were not only
their own employers, but their own employees as well. They attended to
their own book-keeping, did their own selling and buying, tied up their
bundles and packed all the cases. Early and late they shouldered their
task, and started ahead. After three years thus spent the firm moved
into the new store at 149 Washington Street, which still remains, and
which the firm continued to occupy until 1873.

At this point it is convenient to go back a number of years and recount
the principal events in the life of the junior partner of the house:
Charles A.B. Shepard.

If the boy could have had his own way, when he started in life, the
chances are that to-day he would be an American admiral. As it happened,
his early passion and proclivities were not fostered; he became a
bookseller whom all the world now knows as "Charley Shepard."

He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, October 18th, 1829, and received
his education at the public school. He was one of the brightest scholars