ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The signs have come down at the flagship store of the now-defunct Borders book store chain.

Work crews on Monday removed the Borders signage from the site on East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor, where the chain began.

AnnArbor.com says the building's owners are donating the letters to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation for use in raising funds.

Founded in 1971, Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc. pioneered the big-box bookselling concept and grew to 1,249 stores at its peak in 2003.

It went bankrupt in September 2011, a victim of a shift in the industry to e-books and online bookselling.