Bookstore Geek: Hammond's Books

Hammond's Books is one of those amazing discoveries you may make only when wandering the streets. I found this fantastic little bookstore while antiquing in St. Louis's Cherokee neighborhood.

Part of the Cherokee-Lemp Historic District, Hammond's Books is brimming with books and antiques — with a wonderful collection of used, rare, collectible, and out-of-print books — and it has the same fabulous stepped-int0-the-past feel as the rest of the neighborhood.

Hammond's offers three floors of book browsing, and there's espresso and cappuccino available if you need a little caffeine after winding your way through all the narrow aisles and chandelier-lit nooks.

And after shopping at Hammond's, as long as you're on Cherokee, save some time for browsing the other eclectic antique stores, where you'll find plenty of wonderful, dusty old books. And, if you're into beer (as my companion happened to be), check out the Lemp brewery — a stunning building that fortunately was preserved after Prohibition put the brewery itself out of business.