Although I doubt that there will ever be a show at the Historical Society, or brochures at the Visitors Bureau, perhaps nothing encapsulates the history of Allentown more than the corner grocery stores. Allentown proper, is mostly comprised of rowhouses built between 1870 and 1920, long before the era of automobiles and suburban supermarkets. Most of the corner markets were built as stores, and over the years many were converted into apartments. Up until the late 1940's, there may have been well over a hundred operating in Allentown. Some specialized in ethnic food. The bodega at 9th and Liberty was formally an Italian market. Live and fresh killed chickens were sold at 8th and Linden, currently H & R Block Tax Service. A kosher meat market is now a hair salon on 19th Street. The original era for these markets died with the advent of the supermarket. In the early 50's some corner stores attempted to "brand" themselves as a "chain", as shown in the Economy Store sign above. That market is at 4th and Turner, and has been continually operating since the turn of the last century. Ironically, as the social-economic level of center city has decreased, the corner stores have seen a revival. Most of these new merchants, many Hispanic and some Asian, know little of the former history of their stores, but like their predecessors, work long, hard hours.
above reprinted from March 2012
ADDENDUM: The enamel Economy Stores sign has been removed. I hope that the owner sold it, because it was valuable. As for the A-Treat sign, the era of painted signs on brick buildings is long over, although some ghost images still remain in Allentown.
We lived very near West Park. When was 7 - 10 years old (circa 1956), in the summer, I had a wooden wagon with high sides. Every day I'd take my wagon, get my pal Joey, and we would go to West Park and the surrounding area and scavenge for soda bottles: A-Treat or Coke. A soda bottle would bring 2 cents. A quart bottle would bring a nickle. We would wash the bottles in the fountain (cause the 'store lady' would get mad if they were all sticky). Sometimes we would walk by the parking meters - and look for change that people dropped.
ReplyDeleteOn a good day we could net 50 cents. There was a corner store on West St (a little north of Turner) where we took the bottles. Popsicle's were 5 cents, fudge sicles were 7 cents. Life was good :)
In the early days of the 1970's I served many of the last of the old "Mom & Pop" stores in the downtown area just off of Center City. From the back of my old 1940/1950's style "Divco" Wholesale truck, for Freeman's Dairy. Many of those stores were operated out of the lower level of the big old corner "row homes" with the owners and their their families living above. Yost's Market at 19th & Walnut was my last stop on the West Side, till I started serving the new "Yocco's West". Then that became my last stop on West Side.
ReplyDeleteThe "good old days" Micheal! Like Doug B. speaks of in the 11:08 commentary
"The Old Allentown Curmudgeon"
Paul J. Fiske