The Lantern Bookshop

Customer Experience

The Lantern sits in a converted row house on P Street, half a block off Wisconsin Avenue, marked only by a small hanging sign reading Used & Rare Books. Step inside and the Georgetown bustle drops away — regulars describe it as a sanctuary from the busy shops that surround it. Books climb the walls of the two-story space: general stock and bargains on the main floor, fiction up the stairs, foreign-language titles along the back wall, and the rare volumes kept on their own dedicated shelves.

It is, almost uniquely for Georgetown, a shop with a cause rather than a margin. The Lantern has been volunteer-run since 1977, staffed largely by local Bryn Mawr College alumnae, and every dollar of profit goes back to the college to fund scholarships and student summer internships. Founded by a Bryn Mawr graduate and moved to its current P Street home in 1996 — a building the shop now owns outright — it has raised more than $730,000 for the college over the decades.

That mission shapes the whole feel of the place. The volunteers know the stock and tend to greet browsers with a bit of personalized guidance through the layout. Because there’s no commercial pressure behind the register, the atmosphere is unhurried and a little old-fashioned in the best way — the kind of shop where you lose an afternoon and walk out with three books you didn’t know you wanted.

Claim to Fame

Everything on the shelves is donated — the Lantern doesn’t buy stock — which makes it a genuine treasure hunt rather than a curated boutique. Alongside used and rare books across just about every subject, you’ll find LPs, CDs, DVDs, books on tape, graphics, and both framed and unframed prints. Inventory turns over constantly as new donations arrive, so no two visits look the same.

The prices are the other revelation. Because the goods are donated and the labor is volunteer, most of the stock runs just a few dollars — one visitor walked out with a mid-century architectural design book for three dollars. The rare shelves are where it gets serious: standout finds can climb into the hundreds, and the shop’s most famous donation, an anonymously given William Blake work, went on to sell at auction for roughly $75,000 — all of it funneled straight to Bryn Mawr.

So you come for the browse and the bargain, but also because buying here means something. It’s one of D.C.’s last true volunteer-run used bookstores, a small Georgetown institution that’s quietly turned other people’s old books into a future for college students for nearly fifty years.

Preparing for Your Visit

The hours are narrow, so plan around them. The Lantern is open Thursday through Saturday, 11am–5pm, and Sunday 12–5pm, and closed Monday through Wednesday. The four-day window is the single most important thing to know before making the trip.

Bring a way to pay and a little patience. The shop takes cash, credit and debit cards, checks, and Apple Pay. This is a browsing store, not a search-the-database store — the joy is in digging, so give yourself time rather than hunting for one specific title.

Have books to donate? They’re welcomed and tax-deductible, with a limit of about three boxes or bags per donor; it’s worth calling ahead during business hours to coordinate. Note that the Lantern accepts donations but does not buy books. As with the rest of this stretch of Georgetown, street parking on P and Wisconsin is tight — a garage in the Wisconsin Avenue or M Street corridor is the safer bet if you’re driving.