The "Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum: The Country Store" Story

The Country Store at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum.

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in front of the cash register admiring all the detail on what looks to be a brass American Cash Register Manufacturing Company antique from the early 1900s.  It sits in the Country Store on the grounds of the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum in Lancaster, PA.  The Museum is the largest museum dedicated to telling the history of the Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Dutch.  The land where the museum is located was a site where a hotel was built in 1856 called the Landis Valley House.  A community grew up around the hotel and was a known as Landis Valley.  Brothers George and Henry Landis grew up in the community and began collecting local antiques that told the story of the valley and surrounding area.  

Inside the front door showing the old wooden flooring,
large windows and chairs for visitors to relax.

In 1925 they established a museum using the collection of antiques they had collected for years.  The store that I am visiting today has just about everything and anything you could have possibly wanted in that time period.  It is hard to fathom the immense collection that the brothers must have accumulated during their lifetime and used to open the museum and fill the many structures for visitors to see what life was like in the 18th and 19th centuries .  The store also served as the local U.S. Post Office with a message board and Post Office Boxes at the rear of the store.  

The Landis Valley Post Office is in the rear of the store.

I'm sure it was placed at the rear to force those using it to have to walk past all the goods that were for sale in the store.  The old oak floors from another era in time are shiny, but worn and weathered.  The wooden cabinets that line both sides of the store are well lit and carry everything from tobacco products to knitting needles.  The majority of today's story will be a visual tour of what a store in the late 1800s or early 1900s might have looked like to the patrons of the store.  Enjoy your tour and see if you can find something that might have interested you if you were a visitor to the store over 100 years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The early 1900's brass American Cash Register.

Shoes of the era for sale.

Bolts of fabric fill a few shelves in the store 

I would love to own this old cabinet that holds spools of thread.

These shelves house everything from clocks, bells, player piano reels, and starch to dishes, old 3D photo viewers and miniature metal cars. 

This shelf holds metal horns, cake molds, irons, lanterns and you can even see a few mouse and rat traps ion the bottom shelf. 

Prices for goods in the early 1900s.

Spice bins.

Baking supplies, cans of vegetables and chewing gum line these shelves.

More spices and baking supplies.  Are you getting the idea as to how important this store might have been to Landis Valley and the surrounding communities. 

Glass jars, mugs and dishes fill these shelves.

Vests, collars, neckties and hats make this a true department store. 

This looks to be the medicinal part of the store.

The tobacco part of the general store.

And what store wouldn't be complete without the cigar store Indian.