Barnes & Noble opened its doors Wednesday, July 1, at 1144 Lake St., filling a roughly 19,000-square-foot space that sat empty since Borders closed in 2011.

The two-story store, housed in the historic Marshall Field & Company building at Lake and Harlem, features a cafe with an atrium. Author Mia P. Manansala hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m.

CEO James Daunt called the location "extraordinary," comparing it to the chain's architecturally notable Wicker Park store in a former bank on Milwaukee Avenue. "We have one of the most beautiful bookstores in the United States in Wicker Park and now challenge it for sheer drama with this extraordinary bookstore in Oak Park," Daunt said.

Oak Park is the third of four new Chicagoland Barnes & Noble locations opening in 2026, according to a company press release issued June 24.

One block east, The Book Loft co-owner Sophie Schauer Eldred is watching closely. She and business partner Heather Nelson opened their 3,000-square-foot shop at 1047 Lake St. in August 2025.

Eldred acknowledged the competitive pressure directly: "We know it's going to impact business. They have a lot of money to do what they do best, which is sell in volume, and we don't have that."

She said The Book Loft would lean into its strengths as a community-driven shop run by two Oak Park residents of 20 years, noting the store maintains displays of local school summer reading lists.

Janine Flanigan, Barnes & Noble's vice president of store design, said the two Lake Street bookstores can coexist. She said store managers are encouraged to connect with the community to make each location specific to its area.

The building at 1144 Lake St. has cycled through retailers for decades. It operated as a Marshall Field's department store before becoming a discount shoe store, then a Borders in May 2000. When Borders went bankrupt in 2011, Pat Zubak, then head of the Downtown Oak Park business association, called the prospect of a vacant building "devastating" for the downtown corridor.

Oak Park now has at least three bookstores operating simultaneously, including Dandelion Bookshop at 139 S. Oak Park Ave., which opened in January 2025.