Powell's City of Books, in front of you, may be the most beloved bookstore in America. Powell's City of Books occupies an entire city block on West Burnside Street and contains an estimated one million new, used, and rare books spread across nine color-coded rooms on multiple floors. Michael Powell opened a small shop in Chicago in 1970, moved to Portland the following year, and his father Walter joined him in 1979.
The store you see today grew organically through decades of expansion, absorbing adjacent buildings until the rooms interconnected in a labyrinth that requires its own map — and the store actually provides one. Powell's is not just a bookstore; it is a cultural institution that defines Portland's identity as a city that takes reading seriously. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the store was forced to close, Portlanders raised more than a million dollars in online purchases and donations within weeks to help it survive.
The rare book room on the second floor holds first editions worth thousands of dollars alongside affordable reading copies from the 1920s. You will not get out of here quickly. You were not supposed to.