It was an ordinary day. That was until last Thursday evening when a hugh fire broke out in the small town of nearby Columbia, Pennsylvania. The fire engulfed the historic Tollbooth Antique Warehouse in Columbia. Smoke was visible from our home at Woodcrest Villas, miles and miles away. We knew something big was on fire when we first saw the clouds of smoke off to the West of our villa. Wasn't long before reports came over the TV and radio that the historic Tollbooth Antiques Warehouse in Columbia, Pennsylvania was engulfed in flames with dozens of emergency units called to the scene and nearby Route 462 was closed while firefighters fought the blaze.
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Lancaster Newspaper photograph
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The closer you got to the warehouse, all you saw were flames and black smoke. When the fire was finally contained many hours later, there wasn't much left of the interior of the antique warehouse. What a shame it was....history was lost forever. My wife and I made many trips to the antique warehouse to look for purchases for our home as well as gifts for friends and relatives. If you couldn't find it at Tollbooth, it probably was never made. We loved walking the block-long building, searching for unique antiques for ourselves as well as for gifts for our friends and relatives. As I sit in my living room at Woodcrest, I can see quite a few antiques covering the shelves on either side of our fireplace. Some of the neatest antiques that we had purchased over our years of marriage reminded us of the antique warehouse in nearby Columbia. But, long before the structure was an antique Mecca, it was a silk mill. The building itself was built in the early 1900s and for a time housed a silk mill. Kahn-Lucas was founded in 1889 as the Triumph Shirt Co., operating out of two row houses in Columbia. In 1907, the company moved to a new location on Walnut Street. In 1916, the original two buildings were demolished and replaced with a proper factory. The Kahn-Lucas name first appeared in local newspapers in 1960. As the company grew from the 1940s to the 1960s, eventually becoming a national supplier of children's clothing, additional properties were purchased throughout Columbia to serve as offices, warehouses and distribution centers. It was during this time that the former silk mill on Chestnut Street was added to the operation. By 1974, Kahn-Lucas employed 400 people in Columbia an had annual sales of more than $10 million. Eventually, by the end of the 1990s, Kahn-Lucas shuttered their Columbia manufacturing operations. The site was than thought to be a location for an upscale hotel and spa, but those plans never went through. by 2011 the building was converted into Tollbooth Antiques. Kahn-Lucas still exists today, with manufacturing in overseas locations and offices in New York. There wasn't many times that I made visits to Tollbooth Antiques that the parking lot wasn't filled with cars. It was one of Lancaster counties favorite places to shop for antiques. Carol and I drove past the antique building a few days ago and were heartbroken by what we saw.  |
| The remains of the Tollbooth Antique building |
The brick building still stands, but with quite a few broken widows and a HUGH empty space inside. Where have all the antiques gone? It is so sad to think that all those historical pieces of furniture, clothing, hardware, etc. are no longer there. I can't imagine how much was lost in the huge fire. It's amazing that the brick building wasn't leveled by the heat of the fire. I parked the car a block away and walked toward the building to take a few photos. How heartbreaking it was to stand next to the building and look through all the broken windows at the empty space that was at one time a building filled with memories of the past. Will the building ever be replenished with more antiques? And....where will all those treasured items come from? Most...if not all have been destroyed and will forever be gone. I feel so bad for all the vendors who had stands in the huge silk mill building. They have lost many generations of historical items that can never be replaced again. I snapped a few photographs, but became disheartened while looking through my viewfinder, and walked back to my car. My wife asked me what I saw inside the vacant structure. I had no answer for her!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. Photos show the destruction of the antique building.
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