This is sad to see—Gertie the Bookmobile is finally retiring and for sale. I shot and wrote her up back in 2011, and saw her on the street somewhere just last year. But here is the CL ad, and it appears it’s days as a bookmobile is over.
Its owner had a passion for books, and would appear here and there, offering free books. Hundreds of free books come with the truck, but the ad says the owner is willing to sell it without them too. I guess there’s not much demand even for free books anymore, or its owner just needs to move on.
This would make an awesome camper, especially with its clerestory windows. Asking price: $29,000.
The view from the front. The clerestory lights give a gentle daylighting to the little library on wheels.
And the view from the rear.
Gertie has all of 50,500 miles on here, and the 345 cubic inch International is still in very good health. Its carburetor was recently rebuilt.
The body was built by Gertenslager, hence her name.
Need a new hobby? Love books? Or just needing a perfect pace to store your library of vintage car books? Gertie is looking for a loving home.
Curbside Classic: 1968 IH Loadstar Bookmobile (And Trucks) – Is There A Book On IH History Aboard?
Wish I could take off and take over the “enterprise” seems worthwhile.
AAAWWW! Nice to see. We were in Portland, Maine on September Third where we road in a 1972 International Lodestar that was formerly a Fire Service truck for the Town of Middleton, Massachusetts. Because of its service origins, it is equipped with the largest displacement IH gas engine available in this model, the V-392 plus air brakes. We had an excellent tour of Portland for sights and history. The first make of trucks that I sold were IH.
Here is the attachment
I’ve seen two retired bookmobiles that were being used as used auto book sales at swap meets .
The price seems a little high .
-Nate
This is in great shape. With 28 windows this beauty can rival the VW 23 window Samba, has 4x the room and is has equal cool factor. Plus is far more rare. This could make an awesome camper if done right, albeit a thirsty one. I love old Loadstars, and Internationals in general and I’d love to have this one.
A small Loadstar would probably be around 20,000 pounds (9,100kg) Gross Vehicle Weight. A larger dump truck weighs maybe 10,000 lbs. (4,500kg) empty, lets say Gertie has a heavy body, 12,000 lbs. empty? That’s still 8,000 lbs. (3,600kg) of books, magazines, and brochures. Four tons of fascinating and near-useless information on obsolete and largely non-existent vehicles? Who doesn’t dream of that every night? Wouldn’t Heaven just have one more axle?
You cannot imagine the number of times over the years that I have lusted after a retired bookmobile. I mean, really, the fact that many of them were built on bus bodies…that alone is enough reason to want one. Combine that with libraries and furniture (the shelves in those…) and I have a hard time coming up with a more perfect vehicle for me. Even if they don’t run, just parking one to use as an office or writer’s room (like my other fantasy, which is to obtain a used Maine Tourist Cabin for much the same reasons) would be perfect.
I used to see these for sale pretty frequently as nearly every town of average size (and even more likely, very small towns where sometimes the bookmobile was essentially the whole library) had one. Not any longer; and most of the good bookmobiles have been snapped up.
The bookmobile was initially invented in Western Maryland in 1905 as a horse-drawn wagon. After that was destroyed at a railroad crossing (ouch) in 1910, the first motorized bookmobile was launched in 1912.
This link – http://www.whilbr.org/bookmobile/index.aspx – tells that story, and also links to archive collections of old bookmobile vehicles used in that part of MD.
This photo starts to get into what I more remember bookmobiles looking like 🙂
Wow – I had now idea. Thanks for the link too – I love this description of painting the book wagon… too serious of a color scheme, and it’s confused with the “dead wagon”:
“When directions were given as to painting, we had the fear of looking too much like the laundry wagon before our eyes, and the man was strictly enjoined, not to put any gilt or scroll work on it but to make even the lettering, ‘Washington County Free Library,’ plain and dignified, directions carried out only too well, for in the early days of our wagoning, as our man approached one farm house, he heard a voice charged with nervous trepidation, call out ‘Yer needn’t stop here. We ain’t got no use for the dead wagon here.’ Suffice it to say, that we promptly painted the wheels red, and picked off the panels of the doors with the same cheerful color.
The $29,000 dollar asking price must surely be driven by Van life demand even though that took a hit during the last gas price spike. On the surface Gertie appears to be quite the creampuff. I bet she’ll collect a pretty nice price.
I remember back in the 70s riding to school on Loadstar buses. I can still hear that engine clearly now as Mrs Kingsley ran it through the gears.
I can still hear the robust roar of International V8s. Loadstars – Wayne school bus coaches were favored by the locals where I grew up. Yikes! Almost the same comment as AndyinMA
Is this book mobile still for sale and books?????
WOW! is she still for sale?
Is this still for sale?
Is this bookmobile still available?
Is this still available?