Published: March 15, 2008 12:35 am            

Downtown bookstore closes after more than 40 years

Just one year after celebrating its 40th anniversary, two “Closed” signs now hang in the display windows of Lange’s News & Books. Effingham’s corner bookstore closed its doors Wednesday.

Paul Semple, who has owned the store for more than six years, said he closed the store due to a continued drop in sales.

“It’s a sad time to be honest. I believe the Effingham community will miss having the traditional bookstore,” said Semple. “We had a lot of customers who were in the store on a regular basis, and we had a very dedicated staff. Pat Rickelman managed the store when we first bought it and had been there over 23 years, and Andrea Volk managed it at the end.”

Semple said he tried to sell the business at first and even had a few serious offers, but the parties could not agree on terms.

Semple announced on the bookstore’s Web site, www.langesbooks.com, the store would be closing, and he would be selling many of the books. The Web site will shut down at the end of March.

They had more than 4,600 individual book titles when they began selling them. Semple said they had sold all but 400 books when they closed, and those books will be returned to a supplier in Chicago.

“I hate to see it go,” said former owner Paul Lange. “It’s a shame. It was the only place in town where you could buy a newspaper, but that’s the way it went.”

Paul Lange and George Rickelman opened the R & L Newsstand in the late1960s in the Heart Theatre building on Jefferson Avenue. Lange said that he was a plumber at the time and opened the bookstore on the side.

The store moved to its current location next to the Heart Theatre at 129 E. Jefferson Ave. in the early 1970s. After nearly seven years, Lange bought out Rickelman and changed the name of the bookstore to Lange’s News & Books.

Paul and Dorothy Lange and their three daughters worked very hard to keep the store open seven days a week, and the business soon gained a reputation for special orders and service. The only day the store closed was Christmas Day.

After the Langes’ children grew up, the couple sold the business to Kelly Tucker in 1982. Paul and Janice Semple bought it in 2002.

A few people were packing and carting books away from the store Thursday morning. The Semples will give up possession of the leased building March 31.

The building is now for rent. Semple said they had originally planned on relocating the business to a bigger building in the downtown area, but the change in customer needs has curtailed that thought.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@

effinghamdailynews.com.