The "Memories From The Past" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Cleaning my desktop of notes and unfinished stories when I came across a file marked "Remember When."  Opened it and found a bunch of unused photographs from the past which I have been saving for years in case I ever wanted to write about them.  Thought I would pick a few and write a bit about each one.  The three photographs I chose are Lancaster businesses that no longer exist, but at one time were some of the most popular in the city.  I have made an effort to keep the stories brief, so as not to get too boring or waste too much of your time.  Enjoy...

The lock company: Slaymaker, Barry and Company was founded in 1888 by Samuel R. Slaymaker and John F. Barry of Connellsville, Pennsylvania.  Sam was interested in switch and signal locks while working for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a civil engineer.  In 1894 the company was reorganized and renamed the Slaymaker-Barry Company with Sam the principal stock holder.  The company's first locks filled the demand by the United States Government and various railroad companies for inexpensive locks. Slaymaker's original building in Connellsville was destroyed by fire on May 21, 1898, but was covered by insurance.  They rebuilt immediately.  The following year the company began making steam powered automobiles, but eventually Sam sold his share of the company and moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and opened a lock manufacturing business on North Water Street in downtown Lancaster.  In 1907 the company was renamed the Slaymaker Lock Manufacturing Co.  They purchased Dayton Manufacturing from Ohio in 1917.  Then W.E. Frame bought into the company and the company changed the name again to Slaymaker Lock Company.  Wasn't the end of name changing since in 1921 Fraim bought the controlling interest and changed the name to Frame-Slaymaker Hardware Company.  Fraim eliminated the company business they had with the railroad to concentrate on hardware.  I suppose Sam Slaymaker didn't agree and eventually bought back control of the company and changed the name back to The Slaymaker Lock Co.  In 1973 the company was sold to the American Home Products Corporation and made part of the Ekco Housewares division.  Didn't work and in 1986 the company closed it's doors in Lancaster.  My wife's father was in charge of the workforce at Slaymaker in Lancaster when I met her.  He was still with the company when he died.  The photograph I had saved was one of me holding an old Slaymaker Padlock we had found amongst our belongings years ago.  Evidently a gift from her father.

The world's oldest Goodyear tire dealer was a store in downtown Lancaster known as Lebzelter's Tire and Auto.  Lebzelter's was located in downtown Lancaster at 300 N. Queen Street and eventually opened a second location in Manheim Township  at 1543 Oregon Pike.  A second additional location was opened at 237 Manor Ave. in Millersville, PA.  Total car care was founded in 1854 and was eventually sold to Jack Williams Tire Company after 160 years of selling tires and tire related items.  The photo I had saved was of a matchbook cover from when the company was know as Lebzelter's.

The third photograph was of an album cover with the company name of Darmstaetter's listed on it.  This little yellow covered album held about 8 to 10 black and white photographs taken with the old box cameras that were in use in the early 1900s.  Darmstaetter's opened in 1905 when the Rev. Jacob Darmstaetter bought the Lancaster Photographic Supply store at 23 East Orange Street from a close friend of George Eastman.  At the time the developing procedures were done at the Darmstaetter home on Vine Street.  Wasn't long before the store was one of the largest and most modern developing plants in Eastern Pennsylvania.  Then in 1917 the business move downtown to 59 N. Queen Street.  They eventually opened up a greeting card department as well as, of all things, a Johnson outboard motor business as well as a home food freezing equipment and radio receivers departments.  In the mid-1920s, Hugo and A.C. Darmstaetter, the sons of the founder, took over the family business.  It was A.C. who had met the Johnson brothers at a boat show in New York and happened to buy five outboard motors from him.  Darmstaetters became Johnson's leading retailer.  Then in April of 1930 the store moved to 37 N. Queen Street which is where I remember them always being located.  I can remember making visits to the store as a child when I would visit my Grandmother Woods when she worked for the Bushong Coal company that was located about a block away from Darmstaetter's.  Eventually, in 1977, when there were no more family members to run the store, it was closed, but the camera department and custom picture framing operation were moved into what at the time was Lancaster's grandest department store, Watt & Shand.  In 1988 Burger King purchased the Darmstaeeter building.  Today, at the Lancaster Historical Society, a collection of about 150 photographs, taken from more then 4,000 negatives belonging to the late Walter Hallowell, staff photographer for Darmstaetter's, can be viewed.

I hope you have enjoyed a bit more information about my historical home town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I have lived here all my life and have seen it grow as well as watched it change over time.  Sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worse.  I suspect it is the same with just about every city and town all over the world.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.