The "Past Memories...Long Gone...But Not Forgotten!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Exploring a few Lancaster Facebook pages and enjoying all the posts that people are entering that talk about and show some of the memories they have of Lancaster and it's history.  Old black and white photographs of a few former department stores and big box stores in Lancaster have been recently posted and I emailed a copy of one of them to my friend Jere who now lives in State College, Pennsylvania.  At one time, while going through college at Millersville State Teachers College, he worked at a discount store as a security guard in the nearby Manor Shopping Center known as Arlans.  

At the same time I was working at the Acme Supermarket at the opposite end of the shopping center as a stocker and check-out clerk.  Arlans was an American discount store chain that was founded in 1945 by the Palestine brothers in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  The chain peaked in size at 119 stores in 1970, by which time the company began experiencing heavy operating losses.  In 1971 they sold 16 stores to Target and ended up closing the rest.  Another big box store chain was known as Nichols.

They were a Louisiana owned business that opened their first store in 1914 in DeQuincy, Louisiana.  Nichols took pride in offering high quality merchandise at competitive prices with friendly, hometown customer service.  They had items such as sporting goods, housewares, clothing, gifts and home accessories.  In Lancaster, the Nichols store opened on July 31, 1960 on the corner of Manheim Pike and Dillerville Road.  On June 11, 1987 they announced they were going to expand by moving to the nearby Golden Triangle.  Then on July 31, 1987 they opened their store for shopping on Sundays.  Never did move, but declared bankruptcy in April of 1991.   City Line Business Center now occupies the area where Nichols once prospered.  

On November 14, 1966 Two Guys opened in the Lincoln Plaza Shopping Center which was at the intersection of Lincoln Highway and Rohrerstown Road.  It too was a big box store like Arlans and Nichols.  It closed on January 13, 1980.  

Advertisement in the Lancaster Newspaper.

Now, to get away from these big box stores, I offer you one of my all-time favorite stores in downtown Lancaster.  Place was called Steinfeldt's.  At first it was a tobacco shop but eventually became known as "The Store of 1000 Gifts." They had a large selection of souvenir postcards, mostly from the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  

This is the block that was destroyed years ago.  This is
one of the many postcards sold at Steinfeldt's

Today they are a very collectible item.  I loved it most for their novelty items they sold.  I would buy little tins of round silver pieces that look like the silver dragees that are used in cooking.  When you threw them they exploded upon impact!  Boy did they scare you if you didn't know they were being thrown at you.  

Mexican jumping beans.

I would buy them before I went to choir practices on Saturday mornings as a member of the boys choir at St. James Church and throw a few during choir practice.  My little angelic face was never suspected of doing that.  Also loved their Mexican jumping beans which were seed pods that had actual larva of a small moth in them.  It would jump when mildly heated.  Fun to hold in your closed hand to warm them and open your hand to see them jump perhaps a quarter inch in height.  They were non-toxic, but not meant to be eaten.  I'm positive a few of my friends tried to eat them, but I never did!  The store was demolished along with the remainder of two blocks of the downtown area when they began the big mistake of urban renewal.  To this day I believe they wish they had never destroyed the neat stores in the two blocks of North Queen Street.   There are quite a few other stores in Lancaster that are worthy mention, but for today, I have rambled on enough!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.