History's Echoes
Shopping in Greencastle, Part I
By SHARON BAUMBAUGH

Today, Greencastle offers a variety of shopping ideas with a downtown area that is unequaled in many small towns. Here, we have a department store offering men's, women's and children's clothing, a shoe store that is not to be outdone with service and stock, gift and flower shops and much, much more. These sites in the center of the town are surrounded by places for innovative gift giving in

the township's villages and along numerous roadways. November and December are the months of holiday shopping - something for everyone on our list required before that wonderful day of the year arrives.

Christmas was not always a time of shopping, not the way it is today. It was a date marked by special church services in celebration of the birth

of Christ and remembrances of a much smaller

kind. No, not the holiday as in our more modern times with stress and packages to be picked, wrapped and often, returned. However, Greencastle has always had shops; stores that offered groceries, dress goods, hats, china and other needs or wants.

During the Civil War era, Kunkel's was the place to buy cheap hats, caps, boots and shoes, made to order. J. Hostetter & Co. offered the most delicious oysters and finest fish, brought here to town weekly and offered in the store. M.S. Gordon, in 1864, was located in the borough. He was the wood measurer of the borough of Greencastle, but he was also in his office in the chairmaker's shop on East Baltimore Street. S.H. Prather offered men's and boys' wear as well as items for the ladies at his store on the southwest corner of the Public Square, next door to Hollar's Hotel. George H. Goetz had instrumental music offered for the citizens of Greencastle and vicinity. He would teach any and all comers how to play the Spanish guitar.

This advertising post card was for Brendle's Clothing, located "in the bank building" on the northwest corner of Center Square. At the end of the 19th century it was "Bert & Brendle," by the beginning of the 20th century, it was just Brendle's and located on the southeast corner (now a State Farm office).

A. W. Welsh had opened a new hardware and was providing a place to shop for hardware and cutlery. His inventory also included iron and nails, oils, paints, hinges, locks, enamelware, tubs, buckets, churns and a large assortment of window glass. J. W. Barr sold the Mommoth Stove and tinware in his storeroom a "few doors south of the Diamond, Greencastle, Pa." He had cook, parlor and nine-plate stoves including the Continental, Noble, and others that he would "sell cheap for cash." James A. Haus had just received a new and elegant stock of winter goods for men and boys, including black, French cloth of the best quality. He had, in stock, hats, gloves, suspenders, pocket handkerchiefs, cravats, neck ties, shirts and collars.

Mr. Haus also had a livery establishment and was prepared to hire at all times horses, buggies and wagons. Good drivers were furnished too, when desired. Terms for hire - cash.

John S. Byers was announcing the opening of his new boot and shoe shop on West Baltimore Street during that November, at the residence of Miss Nelly McDowell. He was "prepared, at all times, to manufacture ladies', gentlemen's and boys' boots and shoes at the shortest notice, and upon the most reasonable terms." The ladies were notified that Mrs. Kate Wunderlich had new millinery goods. Her Greencastle establishment had just received from the city a full assortment of the latest styles in bonnets, hats and bonnet trimmings, and all other articles usually kept by milliners. The ladies were requested to call and examine her stock.

Of course, The Pilot office was doing job printing; wall paper could be purchased from several outlets; and remedies of all sorts were available at Carl's Drug Store on Carlisle Street.

Years passed and, by the 1880s, a Victorian influence guided the buying public. In Greencastle too, the styles changed and the inventory of many of the local shops became more "up-to-date." The necessities were still offered, Dr. D.W. Homer was resident dentist in 1884; Dr. S.W. Boyd too, cared for the citizens' teeth; as did Dr. D.A. Stouffer who made teeth of celluloid plate, made from hemp that was tough and strong. T.M. Kennedy, M.D., was physician and surgeon with his office on East Baltimore Street (in a building adjoining John Goetz's store). J. Stouffer Snively & Co. sold grain, coal, salt, plaster, feed and other items, including a large stock of lumber in addition to roof slate. He also ran a planing mill.

Town Hall Grocery offered oysters and staple and fancy groceries including pure cane sugar and syrups, ground spices, canned goods, flour, Queensware, glass, lamp fixtures and Willow Ware. At this time, D.T. Wister was the operator of the grocery. S. Bender sold agricultural implements on South Washington Street, although I don't know if that made for an ideal Christmas gift.

D.B. Keefer, successor to Welsh & Keefer, dealt in hardware also offering lap robes and horse blankets. Granite and silver plated ware, floor oil cloths, buggy whips, Enterprise sausage stuffers and meat cutters and clothes wringers were also offered at his store on Center Square. Greencastle Marble Works, Henry Walter, proprietor, was located on East Baltimore Street, one door west of the Town Hall Building at that time. He did all kinds of work in marble "done in the most tasteful and workmanlike manner with monuments, tombstones and tablets offered at reasonable rates." M.H. Gsell's Drug Store on East Baltimore Street had patent medicines along with the best brands of pure brandies, wines and whiskies, always on hand for medicinal purposes. Fresh soda water was also kept in season. This drug store was located in the H.H. Beeler building, adjoining the saddlery shop. And, still, at the Valley Echo office, you could order letter heads, blank notes and envelopes, printed in the highest style of the art at low prices for your Christmas gift giving needs