Barnes & Noble closed their store at 18th Street and Fifth Avenue on Monday, spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating told Gothamist, following up on an answering machine message saying the store was permanently closed. A sign on the door tells visitors, “Thank you for your patronage over the years.” The former “flagship” store — across the street from the company’s headquarters — it was the only BN retail location in business when Len Riggio purchased the company in 1971, though by the company’s account it “had fallen into decline.” A few years thereafter, it was proclaimed “the world’s largest bookstore,” offering over […]