It was an ordinary day. Just finished taking a few photographs of the interior of the new Hamilton Watch building in downtown Lancaster which is located at 147 N. Duke Street (at the corner of N. Duke and W. Chestnut Streets). For many years, the building was known as Ezra F. Bowman Technical School. My father, Paul, after graduating from high school, went to Bowman School to learn how to repair watches. At the time, the school was on the second floor of Bowman Technical School at 147 N. Duke St. He graduated sometime around 1940 and took a job at Meiskey's Jewelry Store which was located about 2 blocks from Bowman School, on West Chestnut Street. He did watch and clock repair as well as wait on customers who had come in to buy jewelry. If I remember correctly, the store was both for a retail as well as a wholesale business. Eventually Meiskey's was forced to move from Chestnut Street and ended up on West King Street, about 3 blocks from the square in Lancaster City. My dad eventually got married and a few years later I was born. Loved going to Meiskey's in the evenings and over the weekend with my dad so he could catch up on all the work that was brought to the store. Dad often talked about his time at Bowman's, learning the jewelry trade and how to repair clocks, watches and jewelry that was brought to the store. Many an evening he brought work home to try and keep up with the repairs that kept coming in all the time. He was well known for his knowledge of both watch and clock repairs. Well, as time goes by, so did the Hamilton Watch Company that was located along Columbia Ave., to the west of the city of Lancaster. I was recently passing the old Bowman School and saw a brand new name above the front door which is located on N. Duke Street. It read..."Hamilton Watch!" They were back in business, but only as a retail store, I assume. Stopped in and brought back memories from the late 1940s when I would stop in with my dad from time to time to pick up parts for the watches he was repairing at the time. Store is all retail now and is beautiful inside. A few cabinets lined each side of the store and a gentleman was busy working on watch repairs at the rear of the store. I naturally had to go back to watch the gentleman, whose name was James.
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| James at work on a few watches |
James was working on a few watches and I spent a few minutes watching and bringing back memories from when I would do the same thing when my dad was doing the repair work at Meiskey's. We talked and he pointed to a cabinet that had a few momentos in it from times-gone-by. Old watches, jewelry and even an LP with Elvis on the cover! Naturally, I had to ask him about the Elvis Record Cover and he pointed to the bottom right of the cover and said, "Take a look at what's on his wrist!" It was a Hamilton wrist-watch! Elvis kept time on a Hamilton Watch! You learn something new every day...I thought. Well...I snapped a few photos of the surroundings inside the new Hamilton store and thanked them for allowing me to take photographs. Hope they have a chance to read this story and realize how much fun it was for me to visit some one my favorite places when I was a child. I wish the new store the best and hope to get back soon to see what else I might be able to photograph for another story for you to read. And...if you get a chance, stop in 147 N. Duke Street (at the corner of N. Duke and E. Chestnut) and ask for Armoni or James and tell them the guy who was taking photographs of the place recommended they make a stop to see all the jewelry and watches. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  |
| Armoni |
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