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Monday, January 29, 2018

The "The Oldest Department Store In America!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking the streets of downtown Lancaster looking for a few interesting photos.  Memories of my childhood flood into my memory; visits to downtown Lancaster at Christmas to see Santa arrive by fire engine, buying peanuts in center square and taking them home to share with the family, taking my choir allowance given to all members of the St. James boy's choir and heading to Steinfeld's to buy exploding BBs as well as Mexican jumping beans,  going to Farmer's Supply to see the train yard during the Christmas holiday and heading to Hager's Department Store to stick my feet in the Xray unit to see the bones in my feet.  Hager's Department Store was one of a few big name stores in downtown Lancaster with Watt & Shand, M.T. Garvin & Co. and J.C. Penney being the others that come to mind.  Watt & Shand was perhaps the largest and most notable of all the stores, but Hager's, also known as Hager Brothers Department Store, was known as "the birthplace of the oldest department store in America."  Now that may or may not be true, but it sure makes for a great story.  
Hager's 1st Department Store in downtown Lancaster dated 1821. 
It was in 1821 that Christopher Hager opened his general store in the first block of West King Street.  When it eventually closed its doors in 1977 it was described as "the oldest department store in America operating continuously under the same family name, management and ownership."  So now you have your choice as to whether it is the oldest operating continuously under the same family OR being the birthplace of the oldest department store in America.  
This old poster shows many of the workers of Hager & Bros.
Across the top of the poster reads: The oldest department store
in the United States under the same family name and ownership.
Does it really matter?  I can remember shopping with my mom is all the department stores in downtown Lancaster during my childhood.  Hagers was designed by C. Emlen Urban whom I have written about several other times.  The building was built from 1910-1911 and replaced the original general store that was also in the first block of West King.  Urban's building was a five-story, three bay by five bay, steel frame structure covered in terra cotta in a French Renaissance Revival style.  It measured 63 feet by 101 feet.  A central warehouse section was built between 1860 and 1890 and a brick northern extension was built in 1923.  
C. Emlen Urban's Hager's Department Store
which was built 1910-11.  This is how the
building looks today with stores below and
condominiums on the upper four floors.
These three sections, known as the Hager Brothers Department Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  Today the building is the site of The Shops at Hager on the lower floor and The Condominiums at Hager above that.  To the west of the store is a parking lot while to the east is Market Alley that runs alongside of Lancaster's historic Central Market.  Hager's was acquired in 1968 by the Watt & Shand Department Store and eventually closed in 1977 when it was transformed into shops and condos.  Watt & Shand eventually closed in 1992 and is now the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square, but still maintains the original facade of the original Watt & Shand building.  Lancaster, Pennsylvania is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States, thus the historic buildings that still line the streets of downtown Lancaster.  And, I have been a proud citizen of the city for many of those years.  Great place to take photos...for sure!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Closeup of some of he the detail on the Hager building.

4 comments:

  1. I remember my mother taking my brother and I to town by bus and we would go to Hagers, Garvins and Watt and Shands. Many times it was only to window shop and it reminded my mother of her childhood home in New York City. I was very young but I remember Nat and Helen (Hager) walking around and greeting us, making us feel special and showing mom bargains(she was thrifty).The old Garvins elevator frightened me but I liked riding it. Watt and Shands was so large and full of "modern" stuff. I disliked their dressing rooms. I remember the "death" of downtown after the opening of Park City. I miss the intimacy of the old stores and clerks that would assist us. Gone are the days of Woolworth hot dogs while waiting for the bus. Those truly were the good ole days for me.

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  2. While I am only 59 at this time,I miss downtown as it was when I was a child. I no longer feel the "comfort" that I felt when my Mom would take us shopping. My Mom is from Cabbage Hill right down from Steinbacher's. I remember my grandfather being tired of the ruckus during the holidays saying to my grandmother "Mother I'm going up to the corner". Peter Watt was a close relative of my Godmother so Watt and Shand was a favored store of my mothers. My how things have become so cold compared to those days. I truly miss the good ole days and my mother most certainly would tell you the same.

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  3. Thanks for this comment. I haven't lived in Lancaster since 1963 when I graduated from MTHS, but I remember many of the same things you do.
    I still have some 8 mm color movies my dad took of Santa arriving by fire engine and climbing the ladder to the 4th floor window of Watt & Shand. I loved to get fresh Utz's potato chips at the Central Market. If my parents didn't want me to run off while they shopped, they'd leave me at Farmer's Supply to see watch the model trains at Christmastime which I could do for hours. I believe Farmer's Supply also had live chicken "peeps" and ducks in various dyed colors around Easter. I remember the department stores: W&S, Hager's and Garvin's as the big three. I too remember sticking my feet in an Xray unit to see the bones in my feet, but in my case it was at Schaub's shoe store in the first block of N. Queen St.

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  4. God Bless those of us who remember. Amen. the pony girl

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