Gamble House Bookstore

Yes, this is the garage where Doc Brown invented the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future. But in actuality it’s a great bookstore with tons of fantastic books about the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20^th century — the architectural design of the Gamble House and many of Pasadena’s jewels. The workers here are friendly and they can answer just about any question you give them regarding the movement.
Also, big plus that there’s a public restroom inside!

The bookstore on site used to be the garage of the Gamble House. Like any other bookstore, they sell books (quite a few by architects Greene & Greene), trinkets and of course souvenirs. There is a clean unisex restroom in the bookstore (worth mentioning because the only other restrooms available are the portapotties on the street, but I am not sure if the portapotties were available because of the MOTA day that I attended or if that is normally what is available for you for your restroom needs).
This bookstore is part of the Back To The Future movies, but I didn’t actually recognize it from the movie when I went inside and it’s kind of funny that no one even bothered to mention it as such.
Anyways, the bookstore is kind of small, but the employees working there seem nice.
Not sure if the bookstore is worth an overall rating of 4.5 stars (at the time of this review) though.

One of the fine treats to visiting the Gamble House is the bookstore. It has jewlery, books, tiles, and the like. Buy the sheet at the check out that has dozens of craftmen homes in the area you can also visit. Most you can’t go into, but they are amazing from the outside. You also join a tour from the bookstore as well. If you love architecture, then you’ll enjoy this special place. Enjoy!

A surprisingly great bookstore for a house museum. Really, though, it’d be a very good architecture and design bookstore at any location. The old garage in which it is located is worth a visit in any case, so if you go to the Gable House, you owe it to yourself to visit the bookstore. After all, it was Doc Browns’ lab/​house in the Back To The Future movies!

This is a lovely little shop that does an excellent job with Greene & Greeene and related architectural books. I also liked the charming selection of knick-​knacks. The only way this place could be better would be a selection of used books. But used books are a different game and I don’t really expect them.

The bookstore of the Gamble House, tucked away in the garage, is heavy on the Greene and Greene books (the architects who designed the house) but has a good selection of nice pricey tomes for your favorite architect. Worth checking out, just for the pretty pictures.