“Now 5 For Fashion”: Snellenburg’s Lawrence Park Department Store

Posted On September 11, 2020

By Sam Pickard

In 1960, Snellenburg’s, a major Philadelphia department store, opened a branch store in Lawrence Park Shopping Center. In an attempt to court a clientele increasingly fleeing to the suburbs, Snellenburg’s gave Marple Township a major department store, though after less than 20 years the store would close and be subdivided into smaller retail spaces.

Department Stores Move to the Suburbs

Department stores had anchored the shopping districts of downtowns across the United States since the close of the 19^th century, but in the years following World War II they faced a challenge to their dominance. The rise in downtown traffic congestion as more Americans abandoned public transit for cars and the increasing use of those cars to commute to and from increasingly distant suburbs made downtown shopping less appealing. These pressures, as well as the expansion of chain stores such as Sears and J. C. Penney’s, led to a growth of branch stores in outlying towns and suburban areas.¹

Initially, there were widely varying opinions on the optimal size, character, and location of suburban branches of department stores. While some early stores contained roughly 40,000 to 60,000 square feet, it soon became apparent that 100,000 square feet or more was needed for most. These stores were often windowless, took advantage of grade changes to allow for entrances on multiple levels, and featured the now familiar circulation around a central escalator bank. Branch stores were meant to serve as efficient and less formal shopping option for busy suburbanites.²

Architectural historian Richard Longstreth noted that “The new department store was not to evoke its downtown forebears, but rather to manifest the relaxed, spacious, leafy world of the postwar suburb.”³ While many suburban stores built before the mid-1950s were free-standing or located in existing business districts, during the second half of the decade and into the early 1960s, shopping centers became popular locations for stores.⁴

Early 20th century postcard showing Snellenburg’s downtown Philadelphia department store (Author’s Collection).

Philadelphia’s main department stores on what is now known as Market East—Wanamaker’s, Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbel Brothers, Lit Brothers, and N. Snellenburg & Co.—faced the same issues as stores across the nation. While Strawbridge’s experimented with branch locations in the 1930s, all five of the big stores expanded into the suburbs during the decade following the end of the war in 1945.⁵

Snellenburg’s: “The Thrifty Store for Thrifty People”

Snellenburg’s, the last of the above mentioned emporiums, had been founded on South Street in 1873 as a dry goods store. In 1901 it moved to a location at 11^th and Market Streets and marketed itself to budget-conscious customers as “The Thrifty Store for Thrifty People.”⁶ Snellenburg’s had opened its first suburban branch at Willow Grove in 1953 and during the remainder of the 1950s it opened branches at 23^rd Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia and at Atlantic City.⁷

A sketch of the planned Snellenburg’s Lawrence Park store published in the November 3, 1959 Philadelphia Inquirer (Courtesy of Newspapers.com).

On November 2, 1959, Snellenburg’s announced that it would be opening its fifth store at the Food Fair Properties’ Lawrence Park Shopping Center in Marple Township. The store would contain 100,000 square feet over two floors, as well as an additional 50,000 square feet of space for up to nine additional tenants. The building, designed by architectural firm Thalheimer & Weitz, would have parking for 2500 cars and entrances on both levels. With an optimistic mind toward the future, the store was designed so that another 50,000 square foot third level could be added if demand necessitated it.⁸ As part of the permitting, the department store was to widen Lawrence Road along the frontage of the property to allow for a turning lane.⁹

While the Lawrence Park store was larger than Snellenburg’s Willow Grove location and roughly the same size as the Oregon Avenue store, it was still smaller than those of competitors, with Lit Brothers’ and Gimbel Brothers’ Upper Darby Stores both containing more floor space.¹⁰

As 1960 began and the construction firm McCullough-Howard & Co. worked to complete the store by the coming fall,¹² Marple Board of Supervisors president William J. Davies opined optimistically in the Delaware County Daily Times that “…Snellenburgs’ [sic] entrance into Marple may eventually encourage other large department stores of that caliber and therefore still further raise the revenue base at no cost to the taxpayers.”¹³

As summer 1960 wore on, Snellenburg’s placed ads in newspapers to drum up interest for their store’s grand opening on August 31^st. Prospective customers were urged to open charge accounts by mail ahead of opening day and prizes attendees at the grand opening could win were highlighted. In addition to a washing machine, television, and freezer, lucky winners could find themselves the owners of a new Rambler station wagon or passengers on a TWA flight to Paris.¹⁴

Like the groundbreaking, the store’s opening featured a performance by the Marple-Newtown High School band and speeches by business leaders, clergy, and government officials, including Pennsylvania’s Lt. Governor, John Morgan Davis. A special feature at the opening was a temporary exhibit set up in the store’s “community room” by the Marple Newtown Historical Society.¹⁵

Over the ensuing months, Snellenburg’s promoted its fifth store though its “Now 5 For Fashion” ad campaign and hosted fashion shows and luncheons in its 125-seat community room. It was even a stop during the 1960 presidential campaign. In April 1961, the retailer opened their drive-in Lawrence Park Tire Center in a building to the rear of the main department store (occupied by Popeye’s Louisiana Chicken and Saladworks in 2020). By all appearances, Snellenburg’s had successfully launched its newest suburban store and was looking forward to a profitable future. Appearances, however, were deceiving.¹⁶

Lit Brothers’ Takes Over, 1962-1977

Exactly one year and five months after the Lawrence Park store opened, it was announced that rival department store, Lit Brothers’ was buying all four of Snellenburg’s branch stores. With the acquisitions, Lit’s, which had five branch stores (including one on 69^th Street in Upper Darby), would become one of the largest department stores in the nation by sales volume. In retrospect, it appears that declining sales at Snellenburg’s was the cause for Lit’s purchase of the stores. Bankers Securities Corp., which owned Snellenburg’s, was the majority shareholder of City Stores Co., which owned and operated Lit’s.¹⁷ A little more than a year after the sale of its branch stores, Snellenburg’s remaining downtown store was unceremoniously and unexpectedly closed at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, with customers rushing to complete their purchases before they were ushered out of the store.¹⁸

The Lawrence Park store continued to operate as a Lit’s for the next 15 years. The company didn’t idly hold the lease either, but embarked on a massive renovation of the suburban store in the early 1970s. Lit’s added a 50,000-square-foot, two-level addition to the northeast side of the store designed by Thalheimer & Weitz, the architects of the original portion of the store. The addition allowed Lits’ to advertise the location (inaccurately) as the “Twice-As-Big Lawrence Park store.”¹⁹

By early 1977 however, the Lit’s brand was in financial distress. At the beginning of April 1977, City Stores announced that they were closing all 11 Lit’s stores in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the stores had “acquired the image of a store that had higher prices than the newer discount stores while offering lower-quality merchandise than other standard department stores.”²⁰

Many employees were blindsided and did not realize that the stores were performing so poorly. Janet Tarsia, an employee of the Lawrence Park store for 11 years, had heard about the closings on the radio. She told the Delaware County Daily Times, “I feel very sad,” and that many employees were widows who were ineligible for Social Security benefits.²¹

An unexpected speedbump to the closing came in the form of a lawsuit filed in late April by Lawrence Park Shopping Center’s owners, Amterre Development. The suit claimed that Lit’s had signed a lease in which it promised to continue operations until 1991. Additionally, Amterre claimed that Lit’s was the single anchor of the shopping center and reasoned that other stores were likely to not renew their leases if Lit’s closed.²² An injunction on closing was filed by a Delaware County Common Pleas judge and reaffirmed when appealed to the state supreme court. In early May, the store was allowed to close after City Stores and Amterre came to an agreement that the latter would have a say in who the City Stores lease was assigned to.²³

A New Life, 1979 to the present

No single tenant filled the former Snellenburg’s/Lit’s store. Instead, it was divided into at least three separate stores—a policy pursued by the shopping center’s new owner, Federal Realty Investment Trust. In November 1979, Best Products, a catalog showroom store, opened in the upper level of the former department store.²⁴ In October 1981, Rickel Home Center, a home improvement and hardware retailer opened in the lower rear of the building.²⁵ After both Best Products and Rickel’s went out of business during the mid-1990s, they were replaced by medical offices and a CHI Institute for-profit career center respectively.²⁶ By the 21^st century, the only portion of the former department store’s core still used for retail was the lower floor of the 1970s addition, which is currently occupied by a Dollar Tree store.

The Snellenburg’s store in Lawrence Park is an artifact of a sea-change, as the downtown department stores struggled to adapt to the middle class flight to suburban locations. It also reflects a time of optimism and experimentation with what the suburban shopping experience would be before the rise of indoor malls. While only 17 of the building’s 60 years were spent as a department store, the “Thrifty Store for Thrifty People” made a lasting contribution to the township’s built environment.

1. Richard Longstreth, The American Department Store Transformed: 1920-1960 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010), 138-140.
2. Longstreth, Department Store Transformed, 139, 143-144, 148-149, 155.
3. Longstreth, Department Store Transformed, 158.
4. Longstreth, Department Store Transformed, 172-174.
5. John Henry Hepp IV, The Middle-Class City: Transforming Space and Time in Philadelphia, 1876-1926 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 145; “Gimbels,” The Department Store Museum, last modified June 2011, http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/12/gimbel-brothers-philadelphia.html; “John Wanamaker,” The Department Store Museum, last modified June 2011, http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/06/john-wanamaker-philadelphia.html; “Lit Brothers,” The Department Store Museum, last modified June 2011, http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/11/lit-brothers-philadelphia-pennsylvania.html; “Strawbridge & Clothier,” The Department Store Museum, last modified June 2011, http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/07/strawbridge-clothier-philadelphia.html.
6. Harry Kyriakodis, “200-Plus Years Of Transforming Girard Square,” Hidden City Philadelphia, 16 March 2016, https://hiddencityphila.org/2016/03/200-years-of-transforming-girard-square/.
7. “Ceremony,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 October 1953, 3; “Snellenburgs to Open Store Near Broomall,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 November 1959, 29.
8. “Snellenburgs to Open Store Near Broomall,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 November 1959, 29.
9. “Marple Library Work Set,” Delaware County Daily Times, 3 November 1959, 13.
10. “Gimbels”; “Lit Brothers”.
11. “Snellenburg’s Rites Set for Saturday,” Delaware County Daily Times, 20 November 1959, 5; “Snellenburgs Starts New Broomall Store,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 November 1959, 8; Samuel H. Williamson, “Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1790 to present,” MeasuringWorth, last modified 2020, https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/relativevalue.php.
12. “New Building Firm Formed,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 December 1959, W17.
13. William J. Davies, “Marple Twp. Report: Population Jumped 14,214 in Decade,” Delaware County Daily Times, 8 January 1960, 5.
14. “New G. M.,” Philadelphia Daily News, 2 August 1960, 26; “Opening Soon,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 August 1960, 11; “2 Won’t Forget Store’s Opening,” Philadelphia Daily News, 17 August 1960, 16; “Snellenburgs Shows New Broomall Branch,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 August 1960, 11; “Snellenburgs Lawrence Park,” advertisement, Delaware County Daily Times, 29 August 1960, 5.
15. “Snellenburgs Joins Migration to County,” Delaware County Daily Times, 28 August 1960, 4; “Snellenburgs Lawrence Park,” advertisement, Delaware County Daily Times, 29 August 1960, 5.
16. “Now 5 For Fashion,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 September 1960, 12; “Now 5 For Fashion,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 September 1960, 7; “Now 5 For Fashion,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 September 1960, 15; “Luncheon To Be Thursday,” Delaware County Daily Times, 27 September 1960, 8; “25,000 Stand in Rain To Hear Kennedy Talk At Broomall, Chester,” Delaware County Daily Times, 29 October 1960, 1, 4; “Grand Opening Sale!,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 April 1961, 23.
17. “Lits Acquires 8 Branches of Snellenburgs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 1 February 1962, 1, 4.
18. Harry Kyriakodis, “200-Plus Years Of Transforming Girard Square,” Hidden City Philadelphia, 16 March 2016; “Snellenburgs Shuts Doors; Losses Cited,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 February 1963, 1, 22.
19. “Lits to Expand Store in Lawrence Park Shop Center,” Philadelphia Daily News, 7 November 1969, 31; “Lits to Expand Sproul Rd. Store,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 November 1969, 25; “Lits Twice-As-Big Lawrence Park Store,” Delaware County Daily Times, 19 April 1973, 21; Harry Maitland and Nancy Holt, “Lits may close its Delco stores,” Delaware County Daily Times, 30 March 1977, 1.
20. “Lits to close all stores,” Delaware County Daily Times, 6 April 1977, 1; Andrea Knox, “It’s fnal: Lit’s will close, putting 2,800 out of jobs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 April 1977, 1-A, 4-A.
21. Lynn Keyser, “Judge halts Lits closing in Marple,” Delaware County Daily Times, 22 April 1977, 1.
22. Lynn Keyser, “Judge halts Lits closing in Marple,” Delaware County Daily Times, 22 April 1977, 1; “Mall Sues to Keep Lits,” Philadelphia Daily News, 22 April 1977, 58; Marlene Fazio and Lynn Keyser, “Lits’ future now in hands of high court,” Delaware County Daily Times, 23 April 1977, 4.
23. Martin Halstuk, “Lits ordered to stay open,” Delaware County Daily Times, 26 April 1977, 3; Marlene Fazio, “Lits closes in Marple,” Delaware County Daily Times, 4 May 1977, 3.
24. Martin J. Sikora, “A ‘prospect’ for vacant Lits store in Delco,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 December 1978, 4-B; “Best plans three new showrooms,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 March 1979, 8-C; “Delaware Valley: The Best Days Are Coming!” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 October 1979, 8-C.
25. “Grand Opening Sale,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 October 1981, 8-NW.
26. Jane M. Von Bergen, “Best Products to shut 81 stores, lay off 4,500,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 October 1996, C1, C8; Steve Strunsky, “IN BRIEF; Rickel Home Centers Will Go Out of Business,” New York Times, 12 October 1997, NJ14; Mary Blakinger, “Three health-care providers plan joint branch in Broomall,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 December 1997, B2; “CHI Institute moves to new location,” advertisement, Philadelphia Daily News, 4 January 2000, EG-12.