Who Are Motte & Bailey?
Motte & Bailey is actually a what, not a who. It is a type of medieval Norman castle, a wooden palisade rising on a mound of earth, found in many places in England, Wales, and Scotland. At Motte & Bailey Booksellers, we specialize in books concerning all the various aspects of history, so we chose a name that reflects our interest. The History of the Bookshop Motte & Bailey, Booksellers began in 1996 here in Ann Arbor, selling exclusively on the web. By 2000, we had an opportunity to expand into a storefront. We found a lovely building, an 1870’s Italian style with three floors and a basement. The building had previously housed a bar, a telecommunications office, a bindery, a pharmacy for holistic medicine , and, if local opinions are correct, a brothel on the upper floor, though not all at once. The rent for the first floor and basement fit the budget. We started moving things in around the first of August 2000. On October 15, 2000, after building our own shelves and moving in over 25
