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Knight's seen many changes in downtown
business district
By
Johnathan C. Ryan - Reporter The
Lancaster News October 2, 2006
Longtime Main Street merchant Hazel Knight said when the banks left Main
Street in downtown Lancaster, most of the businesses and people did as well,
leaving something to be desired.
An employee of J.C. Penney's for many years, Knight opened his business,
The Shoe Peddler, more than 30 years ago. He's weathered the years'
changes by selling his shoes at prices the competition can't beat, like
Easy Spirits at $28 instead of $69.
"I've survived by discounting my shoes," he said. "I've
just stayed where I want to be."
He likes the old building his business occupies on South Main Street,
and the memories that come with it, more than following bigger money.
In the distant past, local people spent many a weekend afternoon
wandering the street, window-gazing and enjoying the many eateries
and soda shops along the street.
But in the 1970s, when the banks left, so did department stores
like Belk, B.C. Moore and Sons, Collins and Dunn and Peebles. The
direction didn't look good.
"All those things didn't help," Knight said.
And as tenants left, buildings fell into disrepair, some even
renovated in ways that depleted their old glory.
Knight remembers most the quirkiness of the street's former
architecture, like The Lancaster Cafe, a patio-based
restaurant on top of modern-day USHA clothing, and a
tin-facade building. He regrets that many unique buildings
were torn down, and thinks they would've factored large in
any resurgence Main Street might see.
"If we still had those buildings, it would really be
nice," Knight said.
With KMG America occupying considerable space and vacant
buildings, Knight isn't optimistic the street can regain
its old aura.
"There's no way Main Street can ever be the way
it was in the 1950s," he said. "Back then,
we could get so many people on the street at Christmas
time you could barely move."
Knight said a new downtown could, perhaps, have some
semblances of its past.
Knight touted getting more women's clothing
stores, and said high-quality stores like Olde
English Interiors, which is moving away from Main
Street, are important for the street.
"But it (the street) could come back a
great deal," he said.
Former Lancaster City Councilwoman Nancy
Howell, founder of the city's Main Street
Program, can appreciate that outlook.
"I remember the 1950s, which is when we
had a thriving Main Street. It was all we
had in Lancaster," she said.
Howell, like Knight, remembers the big
department stores like B.C. Moore and
Sons, Woolworth and the fancy Robinson
Cloud, and drug stores like City Drug and
Mackey Drug that she and her friends
frequented as teenagers.
"You could go there and get a Coke,
and do fun things. They were neat
places," she said.
Howell, who opened her own Main Street
business, Howell's Art and Antiques,
in the mid 1970s, thinks the street
can "hop" again like it did
in the 1950s.
She's been heavily involved in See
Lancaster's efforts to implement the
city's charrette, or strategic plan
for downtown, which, among other
things, calls for more clothing
stores, restaurants and gathering
places.
"In the charrette, we have
identified some places we would
like to see come," she said,
about the plan, which calls for a
clothing shop, shoe shop, coffee
shop, bookstore and ice cream shop
- most of which Main Street
already has.
But Howell said Main Street
still needs that
"catalyst" to bring
throngs of people, something
like the Parr Theater of the
1950s that she remembers so
well.
As the 1970s flew by, Howell
remembers the rapidly changing
face of a bygone era, with
more and more stores leaving
for the S.C. 9 Bypass.
One highlight during the
sprawl included the
Lancaster County Council of
the Arts, which Howell
founded, getting a federal
government grant to
commission the"Spirit
of Lancaster" mural
that now towers above
Sculpture Park along Arch
Street. The mural embracing
the city's unity through
diversity, was the largest
in the country at the time.
It was indeed a high point
in a lonely decade.
"It was pretty bad.
There wasn't much on the
street in 1974,"
Howell said.
In 1980, Howell started
the Main Street Program,
which evolved into
what's now See
Lancaster.
"The personality
of the street was
neat, and that's what
we're trying to bring
back," she said.
Contact
Johnathan Ryan at
416-8416 or jryan@thelancasternews.com
Article
© The
Lancaster News,
reprinted with
permission.
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