Christmas in Conshy – A Hundred Years Ago by Jack Coll

Christmas In Conshy
A Hundred Years Ago
By Jack Coll
12-23-16

Christmas-time in any community for the most part is a wonderful time of year, but many years ago Christmas in Conshohocken was really something special. Conshohocken, along with Norristown and Pottstown were the shopping capitals of Montgomery County, and thousands of shoppers would flock to their main streets for shopping, it was a wonderful time.
In 1916 you could expect to buy a house in Conshohocken for $4,000, Moore Chevrolet had just opened a car dealership at 12th Avenue and Fayette Street while Michael Moore continued to sell his Dodge Brothers cars at First Avenue and Harry Street starting at $350. for the new Ford Roadster while the new 1917 Dodge Touring and Roadster cars sold for $785. Gas was going for twelve cents a gallon and while the average income was $2,160. Per year workers at the local mills had just received a raise just before Christmas giving them more money and less hours.
The laborers at the rolling mills of the Schuylkill Iron Works of the Alan Wood Iron and Steel Company were given an increase in wages which took effect just before Christmas included all outside labor employees who were now making $2.25 per day and inside labors were raised to $2.50 per day and the work week was shortened to 58 ½ hours per week.
Seemed like everyone was giving out money in 1916, West Conshohocken’s lone police officer James McShane was also given a raise by West Conshohocken Council when he went from $65.00 per month for about 70 hours of work per week to $75.00 per week for the same amount of time.
Fifteen cents would get you a ticket at the Conshohocken Opera House once located at First Avenue and Fayette Street, later the site of F. W. Woolworths and more recently Light Parker Furniture. On Monday, December 25, Christmas Day, Jesse Laskey presented Victor Moore in “Chimmie Fadden Out West” along with “The Yellow Menace.” Good Stuff!
But the real action at Christmas-time in Conshohocken could be found on lower Fayette Street a week or two before Christmas. Thousands of residents and visitors who would travel to the borough’s shopping mecca by trolley would jam the sidewalks shopping the more than 200 retail outlets on Lower Fayette Street, Elm and Hector Streets.
Conshohocken’s Burgess, (Mayor) Francis J. Bloomhall provided a lot of gifts from his jewelry store once located at 105 Fayette Street. A few doors away was F. C. Maag Jewelry Shop at 111 Fayette Street and like Bloomhall’s store he sold everything from Diamonds to watches, razor sets, novelties, toilet sets and Kodaks. Just off the bridge at 27 Fayette Street was Righter’s Old Reliable Jewelry Store selling all the same goods as Bloomhall and Maag plus silverware, manicure sets and military sets.
Residents would shop late into the evening and typically the trolley service that ran on Fayette and Hector Streets would extend their hours to accommodate the late night shoppers. One of the major stops on the shopping route was Stephens Music Store once located at 36 Fayette Street and although many of our residents couldn’t afford the Victrolas many of them would stop in anyway just to check out the latest records along with the band and orchestra instruments. Rakosky’s Department Store at 73 Fayette Street also sold record players called “Grafonola’s” and advertised that for one dollar you could take one home by paying the balance in small weekly payments.
Darrar’s Boot Shop at 41 Fayette Street was a long time staple and one of the borough’s main outlets for shoes at the time. Minnie Harrison sold hats and trimmings at 13 First Avenue for years and would typically run a holiday sale. You could always count of Kehoe’s Hardware at 109 Fayette Street to have a great selection of toys and gifts at Christmas-time.
When it came to men’s clothing Jacobson’s Department store at 68 Fayette Street was the only place to shop for clothing, gloves, a silk necktie would cost you 25 cents to $1.50, a silk shirt was anywhere from $2.50-$5.00, boxed initial handkerchiefs 25 cents-$2.00, and a good pair of suspenders from 25 cents -$1.00. Ladies could shop at McCall and Donnelly’s store at 245 Hector Street offering ladies underwear, hosiery, fancy neckwear, house dresses, linens and infant wear.
William Katz ran The Guarantee Shop at 53 Fayette Street considered a men’s and young men’s shop selling suites, overcoats, fur caps and hats along with fancy box suspenders.
John Kehoe had a great little department store at 217 Hector Street selling books, stationery, and toys. You could pick up a great pair of shoes from one dollar and up at Nagle’s Shoe Store once located at 25 Fayette Street or pick up your Christmas delights at Berry’s Store at 15 East First Avenue like breads, pies and cakes.
Klein’s Service Store was perhaps Conshohocken’s first store to house an in-store Santa Clause during the holidays. Klein’s was located at 55 Fayette Street and was a major supplier of games, toys, book’s, Christmas tree decorations, fine china and cut-glass.
Perhaps the oldest continuous retail store in Conshohocken in 1916 was H. C. Messinger’s & Son’s Hardware Store once located at the northeast corner on Fayette and Elm Streets. Messinger’s Hardware was founded in 1850 and by 1916 was celebrating 66 years in business and always ran Christmas specials.
When it came time to purchase your Christmas dinner Pat Leary’s Grocery Store located at 37 Fayette Street was the place to start. Leary always had the biggest selection of turkey’s, geese, chicken’s and ducks. You could stop by anytime during Christmas week, pick out your dinner, animals would be tagged and the rest of your order recorded and Leary’s would deliver the meal to your door on Christmas Eve.
Tole’s had two great stores one at the corner of Hector and Cherry Street and a second location at Eighth Avenue and Hallowell Street for all your Christmas dinner needs. Other food outlets in the borough worthy of a Christmas feast included George Wolf’s Grocery Store located at 401 Fayette Street, John Hushen’s Meats and Fruits at 62 Fayette Street, and Fogarty’s at 51 Fayette Street who’s motto was, “The Man Who Gives All His Customers A Square Deal 365 Days In The Year.”
If you were hungry while shopping residents would always stop at the J. L. Long Oyster House for a quick bite once located at 48 Fayette Street and if you needed sweets Pedrick’s located at 521 Fayette Street was the place to shop for candy, hard candy and the best ice cream in Conshohocken.
That’s how it was a hundred years ago in the busy shopping district on lower Fayette Street in Conshohocken. Like I stated earlier, thousands of shoppers would jam the sidewalks, neighbors and relatives would greet you with a smile and a big “Merry Christmas,” it certainly was the most wonderful time of year. I think of the joy these early Conshohocken residents had in their hearts while mostly the one income families got by on making $2.50 per day, hard to find a gallon of gas for that now-a-days. A gallon of milk back in 1916 was about 50 cents, today, it’s about a day and a half’s wages from back then.

Fifty years later in 1966 the shopping district had all but disappeared, sure, there was still some retail in the lower end but no longer the crowded sidewalks. Shopping malls with free parking and indoor shopping and food courts left Main Street merchants to fend for themselves.
By 1966 residents could expect to pay $10,000-$12.000 for a home along the avenues, Moore’s Chevrolet was selling new cars for just over $6,000. Movie tickets jumped to $1.25, gas was 32 cents per gallon and a gallon of milk set you back just over a dollar.
In January of 1966 Ben Hannum had just taken over as Mayor, the Montgomery County Community College was dedicated in Conshohocken in the fall of 1966 and Governor William W. Scranton was in the borough for the ribbon cutting ceremony held at the old Conshohocken High school. The community college had accepted more students than they had originally expected, 440 full time students and 150 part time students would attend the school with 27 teachers for both the day and night classes.
A year earlier a new theatre opened in Plymouth Township at the Plymouth Square Shopping Center with free parking. The 810 seat theatre effectively put Fayette Streets Riant Theatre out of business. In 1966 the state of Pennsylvania stated that a new highway, “The Blue Route” would open in 1969, and the state also promised a new Matsonford Bridge in the near future.
(State politicians making all these headlines back in 1966 is how they got re-elected)
Downtown Fayette Street at Christmas-time was but a shell of what it was fifty years earlier. Gone were the trolley’s that once transported thousands of residents to the shopping district. Taking the place and the space in some of the iconic well known Conshohocken stores were merchants holding onto the hope of business getting better, when in fact by 1966 it was only getting worse. Rafferty’s Pharmacy had made a name for themselves at 57 Fayette Street, while George Rafferty was well known in the community his pharmacy wasn’t exactly a Christmas shopping hotspot. Nor was the Fayette Street Pharmacy once located at 902 Fayette Street and the same with Dougherty’s Pharmacy once located at Fourth Avenue and Fayette Street.
There was Flocco’s Cancellation Shoes at 119—121 Fayette Street, Flocco’s had been in business for 40 years by the Christmas of 1966 and was smart enough to make Christmas work for them bringing in clothing and other gift items for the holiday. Anthony’s Men’s Shop at 117 Fayette Street boasted famous brand formal wear for all occasions.
Felix Jemionek was holding onto his cleaning and tailoring business at 17 West Elm Street in 1966 but could sense a change coming, and it did a few years later when the words “Urban Redevelopment” became part of the Conshohocken language. Town Valet Cleaners were operating at Fifth Avenue and Fayette Street but cleaning businesses didn’t have a lot to offer at Christmas-time.
D’Annunzio Brothers continued to run their jewelry store at 40 Fayette Street up until the early 1970’s, Dominic’s Shoes was located at 60 Fayette Street and of course we had Baldwin’s Flowers and Walt’s Flower Shop on lower Fayette Street. Charlie Hicks Music store once located at 70 Fayette Street was a long time Christmas shopping hot spot.
Light Parker and Phillips Furniture were both long time staples in the borough but not enough retail stores were available on Fayette Street in 1966 to make it a destination shopping hotspot.
With the Plymouth Meeting Mall making headlines and the King of Prussia Plaza nearby, Fayette Street with some boarded up windows and parking meters and limited restricted parking areas in the lower end made business tough for the surviving merchants.
There we have the two tales of Christmas in Conshohocken, a hundred years ago you couldn’t find room on the sidewalk, along with shopping at the more than 200 retail stores in the lower end it was a great social outing, a dining experience, parents would send their children into Little’s Opera House to see a silent film so they could shop for a couple of hours.
Fifty years later in 1966 most of the retail was gone, parking was a chore, battling the weather was sometimes nasty, and finding a parking ticket on your car when you finished made going to the malls a real Christmas treat.
Let’s lift our glass to the surviving merchants in the borough, they work hard to please their customers, they sometime offer better deals then you can find at the malls, they certainly care about the customer and their families, the always friendly merchant welcomes you each and every time you enter their store, and you are providing for their family, just like they did a hundred years ago.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, wherever you shop!