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.