John K. King – The Man Behind The Books

Rockin' Road Trips headed to Detroit to check out a unique piece of history: John K King Used and Rare Books. How did this man get his start? He's been interviewed and featured by so many publications including CBS. According to the CBS interview with John, he first sold books out of his trunk in 1965.

The website for the book store mentions John's high school councilor as a strong presence in John following books as his passion. In 1971, John K. King opened his first book store in Dearborn. Eventually he moved to the Michigan Theater Building. The Michigan Theater building was a concert venue for several years before being gutted and turned into a parking garage. The history of the Michigan Theater is tied to the Rock 'n Roll Farm in Wayne.

After 13 years at the Michigan Theater building, John K. King moved to an abandoned Glove Factory and open his new store in 1984. We found out A LOT about the history of the building while we visited John K. King Books. You can check out the history of the building HERE.

Joel and I went into the building with not a lot of knowledge, but we got smarter the longer we stayed.

Here's a look inside John. K . King Used and Rare Books... the store and the elevator.

The building is over 100 years old and houses more than one million books.

Eventually, John K. King needed MORE space and he bought the Otis Elevator building behind 901 Lafayette building and turned that into his office and rare book store.

Today, John K King Used and Rare Books is known world-wide. It has had many famous visitors including Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones and David Byrne of Talking Heads.