By Jessica Bram and Dave Matlow
WestportNow Community Correspondents
Westport has lost another independent bookstore Hannslik & Wegner International Bookstore on Railroad Place. 
Johanna Straczek has closed her popular Hanneslik & Wegner bookstore on Railroad Place after 17 years. (CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“It just got too much,” said Johanna (ne֩ Hannslik) Straczek, who has run the store with her late husband, John, at the site opposite the Westport railroad station since 1987. She closed it last week.
For almost two decades, it has been a reliable and unique source for Westports many inquisitive global travelers, as well as mail order customers around the world.
Its surprisingly tranquil storefront facing the busy station was prized by customers for its exhaustive inventory.
If you needed a topographical map of the Makalu base camp in the Himalayas, the gorgeously illustrated Eyewitness Guide to Warsaw,Ӕ an easy-carry laminated street map of Paris, an Urdu Bible, or the entire world atlas on CD-ROM, Hannslik & Wegner was the place to go.
The wood-paneled shelves and cabinets contained international and topographical maps (but a few old Connecticut maps as well), travel guides, language-learning materials, multi-language dictionaries (available in 80 languages), and books and periodicals printed in foreign languages.
There were also rare and antique books and the store offered rare book appraisals and book repair.
If you were stuck for a miniature Swedish flag to place on the dinner table to welcome an international guest, you could find it there, too.
Hannslik & Wegner is a victim of ever rising overhead, more restricted international travel, Internet competition, and the growth of national bookstore chains.
Fewer travelers are exploring Asia, Africa, Australia and other far away destinations,” said the Austrian-born Straczek, a resident of Weston.
“At the same time overhead costs have risen including heat, rent, advertising and the high cost of the Euro.”
In a town where the local mega-bookstore has now managed to put five of Westport’s small, community bookstores out of business in recent years, it was truly miraculous that Hannslik & Wegner managed to survive so long in its unique niche.
Asked if she were sad over the store closing, Strazek responded with a quick “no.”
“I’m not giving up the business, just the store,” she said. “We will be continuing business on the Internet.”
But for many Westporters, the loss of the unique bookstore will still be felt deeply.
Until the Web site is up and running, Straczek can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
With the closing of Hannslik & Wegner, the Pymander Book Shop at 215 Post Road West remains as Westport’s sole indpendent bookstore.
But books nowadays make up only a small part of its inventory of music CDs, tapes, novelties, incense, and other items.
The loss of another small independent store is another loss for Westport overall.
The character of the town will continue to deteriorate as more and more chain stores take over and people drive to the malls.
Main street has vacancies and has lost restaurants which shows a lack of foot traffic. If the Y moves out, it will only add to this affect. The Y needs to stay downtown to keep people there to shop and sip coffee.
We need to make our downtown areas vibrant; Railroad, Saugatuck, and Main street. We need mixed use ideas, no chains. And we can’t have the Y add to sprawl and have people who should be downtown driving off to the far reaches of Westport.
If it’s books you’re interested in, Westport still has a small but important independent book store. It’s at the Westport Library, where new, slightly used, and really used books are always for sale.
At prices generally less than 25% of retail value, the Friends of the Westport Library always has 600-800 books for sale on both the Riverwalk and main levels. Children’s books, fiction, and nonfiction, arts, gardening, cooking; current and topical; classical and still interesting, Library patrons wil find books at bargain prices, lower than even Internet prices.
And if you have books to donate, bring them to them to the Library, where you may be able to buy them back at if you really missed them. Even if you don’t have books to donate, consider volunteering to help sort, price and sell books at the Library. Just contact this comments author at bankside@juno.com.
what was the name of the independent Westport bookstore that was housed in a distinctive pink building? must have closed 15-20 years ago
thx for any help
The book store you refer to was called The Remarkable Book Shop, Main Street landmark for many years now occupied by Talbots.