The "Smokin' Up A Storm in Downtown Lancaster, PA" Story

Original Demuth Tobacco Shop

 It was an ordinary day.  Just downloaded quite a few photos that I will use for stories for my blog.  A few of them are of the Demuth Tobacco Shop which is located at 25 East King Street in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  This shop claims to be the oldest tobacco shop in the United States when it was founded by Christopher Demuth in 1770 and operated by him until 1814.  But, wait a minute!  As I go through information that I found in the window of the shop that was hand lettered on a cardboard panel, some of the information just isn't up to snuff!  Seems that Christopher (originally Christoph), who was born in 1738 in Germantown, PA, took over the shop from his father-in-law, Robert Hartaffel, who founded the business in 1771.  After Hartaffel's death, Demuth bought the property and expanded the shop which specialized in selling cigars, tobacco and snuff which he manufactured.  Christopher's parents were from Moravia and therefore the family were Moravians.  The family traveled all over the world, living in numerous Moravian settlements until eventually by May 1767, Christopher found his way to the Lancaster Moravian congregation and moved permanently to Lancaster City.  Hartaffel was originally an organ builder and repairman, but the Lancaster tax records of 1763 show him as a tobacconist rather than an organ maker while in the same records Christopher is also listed as a tobacconist.  In October 1771 Hartaffel purchased a two-story brick town house on a half-lot on East King Street.  Meanwhile Christopher and his wife were living in a rental property in Lancaster.  They had ten children between the years 1768 and 1784.  In 1776, while the colonies were fighting Great Britian, Christopher and his brother-in-law Frederick joined the military even though the pacifist Moravians frowned upon this practice.  Christopher became a member of the Lancaster militia while Frederick joined the Continental Army.  In 1782 both Robert and Frederick Hartaffel died and Charles took over the tobacco business.  In 1786 Christopher and his family moved in with the widowed Sophia Hartaffel above the store and three years later purchased the property from Sophia.  This building served as the Demuth family home and tobacco shop for the next two hundred years.  Demuth's tobacco shop was in a great location in downtown Lancaster.  Situated on a main thoroughfare with the market house, courthouse and town square only a block away as well as many taverns which doubled as stage-coach stops.  James Buchanan was a regular Demuth customer.  Tobacco was extremely popular with both men and women at the time and there was little concern at the time about health risks.  Snuff was actually praised for its beneficial qualities, whatever they might have been.  To attract attention to his shop, Demuth had his son make a wooden figure which he placed outside his shop.  The man, dressed in colonial garb and holding a snuff box in one hand and a sheaf of tobacco in the other, was called the "Tobacco Seller."  Eventually stores that specialized in selling cigars had Indian figures carved and standing outside the shop.  His business thrived and he was able to make a loan to the Movavian congregation in Lititz, PA. to begin their church.  He also invested in real estate and his real estate properties were the eleventh highest assessed properties in Lancaster.  In 1814, with failing health, he turned the business over to his son Jacob.  Charles died in 1818 with a notice in the newspaper in both German and English that he was "an old and respectable citizen."  Demuth left behind a memoir that included dates of births, baptisms, first Communions, and marriages in the family.  He was a devoted family and church man.  Demuth Tobacco Shop changed hands many times throughout the years with Jacob running the business until 1842 when his son Emanuel took over the business for a year and then another of Jacob's sons, Lawrence, took over.  Eventually Emanuel resumed running the business in 1864 until Jacob's son Henry took over in 1906.  Henry's sons Ferdinand and Henry Jr. took over in 1911 and then just Henry until 1937.  It was in the 1920s that renowned Lancaster architect, C. Emlen Urban redesigned the shop as it appears today. Descendants of Demuth have run the business at the same location until 1986.  The shop eventually closed in 2010 and is now part of the Demuth Foundation with hopes of restoring the building as a museum.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.   PS - A special note about the Demuths - Christopher' great-great grandson, Charles, became an acclaimed modernist artist and it is unclear whether his studio was in the tobacco building or next door. 

Christopher Demuth: Sept. 19, 1738-Sept 7, 1818

Recent interior shot of the Demuth Tobacco Shop

Exterior shot of the shop.