Category:Zollinger-Harned Department Store
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Location | Pennsylvania | ||||
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Allentown's Zollinger-Harned department store, has its origins in the dry goods firm of Lawfer & Steckel, founded by William R. Lawfer and W. R. Steckel in 1866 at 626 Hamilton Street (Corner of Church & Hamilton Streets). The store carried a large stock of Dry Goods, Notions and Groceries. The Business was continued by the original partners until 1874, when Mr. Steckel disposed of his interest to George W. Hartzell. Mr. Hartzell retired in 1876 and the firm was re-constituted as W.R. Lawfer & Company.
W.R. Lawfer expanded the business and purchased the larger buildings at 611 and 613 Hamilton Street. He combined the structures into one large building which opened in March, 1882. The firm sold a wide number of women's dresses, and coats. As the firm grew it expanded with books, toys, jewellery, kitchen crockery, carpets as well as men's and children's clothing. To accommodate this expansion, W.R. Lawfer expanded the store by first purchasing two properties at 12 and 16 North Sixth Street. All of these buildings were merged, forming an "T" shape, with the Hamilton Street buildings extending north to Court Street, the Sixth Street buildings merging into the Hamilton Street building on the right side of the property. The present-day Sovereign Building retains this basic design. A second expansion added the stores at 607 and 609 Hamilton Street to the store, with Lawfer advertising the store as "Allentown's Big Department Store".
Lawfer and John Wanamaker of Philadelphia were friends, as Lawfer had worked for Wanamaker in the 1850s and 1860s prior to opening his own store in Allentown. It was from Wanamaker's Department store that Lawfer began decorating his store, as early as 1904 at Christmas. Lawfer's was the first local department store to feature a separate toy department that it called “Toyland.” At the center of the toy display that Christmas was a 24-foot-tall, one ton figure it called “Santa Claus’ Father.” It is not known if this was an attempt to combine the English figure known as “Father Christmas” with Nast's character. On December 9, 1905 local newspapers ran the first announcement of Lawfer's live Santa Claus. “Visit Santa Claus at his Cave in Toyland,” it read. “If you haven’t paid Santa a visit in his pretty Toyland, you had better come soon. Santa remembers every little face, you know, and he says there are some chubby little folks on his list he hasn’t seen yet. Bring your letters and put them in the letter box in his cave.”
W. R. Lawfer passed suddenly on 11 September 1900 and the store was taken over by his sons, J. Harry Lawfer, John N. Lawfer, and Alvin W. Lawfer. They ran the business for the next several years when in 1903, J. Harry Lawfer retired from the firm, turning his share of the business to John N. Lawfer. John N Lawfer subsequently sold his share to Alvan Lawfer and he started his own carpet and drapery store at 709 Hamilton Street. In 1906 due to ill health, Alvin Lawfer sold a major interest in the store to Clarence J. Early, and the name was changed to Lawfer-Early. However the next year, with his health further failing Lawfer sold his interests to William C. Harned and the ownership was totally reorganized and the name changed to Harned-Early. In 1906 Nathan Folwell acquired the business from the Lawfers. Nathan also owned Collingwood Mills in Philadelphia. He sent his nephews (W.C. Harned and C.J. Early) to Allentown to establish the business. Around that time, Nathan also acquired 2 other department stores, one owned by W.R. Zollinger. He decided to use the name Zollinger for all 3 stores to establish a chain and the store again being renamed the Zollinger-Harned Company
Ownership of the Allentown store passed to Charles Folwell until 1960 when it was acquired by Allen Vollmer and Robert Harned. Allen Volmer later passed ownership to Donald Volmer. Zollinger-Harned filed for complete Bankruptcy on 30 January 1978, and closed its doors for the last time. Today the former department store building has been renovated into office space, and known as the Sovereign Building.
Media in category "Zollinger-Harned Department Store"
The following 108 files are in this category, out of 108 total.
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1877 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card.jpg 1,178 × 1,395; 477 KB
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1880 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card.jpg 1,687 × 1,346; 420 KB
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1881 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,687 × 1,346; 398 KB
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1881 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 787 × 1,277; 206 KB
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1882 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,400 × 657; 238 KB
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1883 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,547 × 1,278; 630 KB
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1884 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 480 × 700; 100 KB
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1885 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,109 × 803; 179 KB
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1890 - Catalog - W R Lawfer - Allentown PA.jpg 570 × 877; 141 KB
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1891 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 464 × 1,243; 115 KB
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1892 - W R Lawfer & Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 419 × 708; 65 KB
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1893 - W R Lawfer Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 422 × 1,044; 115 KB
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1893 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 420 × 966; 123 KB
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1894 - W R Lawfer & Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 408 × 1,040; 111 KB
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1898 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,443 × 1,061; 554 KB
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1899 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,878 × 1,547; 426 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co - Trade Card 5 - Allentown PA.jpg 943 × 1,387; 399 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co Trade Card 1 - Allentown PA.jpg 1,400 × 2,143; 520 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co Trade Card 2 - Allentown PA.jpg 971 × 1,400; 281 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co Trade Card 3 - Allentown PA.jpg 967 × 1,448; 576 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co Trade Card 4 - Allentown PA.jpg 846 × 1,249; 299 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer & Co Trade Card Allentown PA.jpg 953 × 1,400; 226 KB
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1900 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 421 × 1,131; 148 KB
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1901 - 600 Block Hamilton Street looking west.jpg 769 × 1,150; 179 KB
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1901 - W R Lawfer - 13 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 928 × 2,114; 391 KB
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1903 - W R Lawfer - 12 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,041 × 2,334; 433 KB
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1903 - W R Lawfer Christmas Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,041 × 2,341; 414 KB
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1903 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,037 × 2,309; 387 KB
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1904 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,751 × 1,470; 423 KB
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1904 - W R Lawfer & Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,918 × 2,188; 598 KB
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1904 - W R Lawfer - 10 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 4,305 × 2,308; 1.53 MB
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1905 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card - Allentown PA.jpg 1,465 × 1,850; 599 KB
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1905 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card 2.jpg 1,256 × 1,027; 271 KB
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1905 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card 3.jpg 679 × 1,150; 133 KB
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1905 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card 5.jpg 687 × 1,140; 157 KB
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1905 - W R Lawfer & Company - Trade Card.jpg 1,846 × 1,561; 714 KB
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1905 - W R Lawfer - 2 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,192 × 2,330; 1.05 MB
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1906 - Lawfer-Harned - 4 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,661 × 2,541; 871 KB
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1906 - Lawfer-Harned Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,976 × 2,521; 623 KB
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1906 - W R Lawfer - 2 May MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,081 × 1,560; 281 KB
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1906 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,945 × 2,489; 595 KB
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1906 - W R Lawfer Newspaper Ad2 Allentown PA.jpg 1,937 × 2,597; 731 KB
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1907 - Harned-Early - 14 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,939 × 3,307; 1.91 MB
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1907 - Harned-Early - 17 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,764 × 3,918; 2.2 MB
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1907 - Harned-Early Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,511 × 2,410; 645 KB
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1908 - Harned-Early Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 2,942 × 4,559; 2.21 MB
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1908 - Harned-Early Trade Card Allentown PA.jpg 1,410 × 878; 160 KB
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1908- Harned-Early Building - Allentown PA.jpg 1,494 × 1,900; 698 KB
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1909 - Harned-Early Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,248 × 1,319; 297 KB
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1909 - Harned-Early Zollinger-Harned Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 3,466 × 3,796; 1.97 MB
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1909 - Zollinger-Harned - 1 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,977 × 2,851; 1.08 MB
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1909 - Zollinger-Harned Christmas Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 3,531 × 4,651; 2.87 MB
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1909 - Zollinger-Harned Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,485 × 2,125; 532 KB
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1910 - Zollinger-Harned - 19 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,134 × 3,849; 1.25 MB
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1911 - Zollinger-Harned - 12 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,882 × 4,875; 2.56 MB
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1911 - Zollinger-Harned Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 3,851 × 5,031; 3.16 MB
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1914 - Zollinger-Harned Company Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 1,101 × 815; 174 KB
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1917 - Zollinger - Harned - 24 Jul MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,897 × 3,819; 2.42 MB
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1918 - Zollinger-Harned Newspaper Ad Allentown PA.jpg 2,121 × 3,541; 1.12 MB
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1920 - Hamilton Street 600 Block looking West.jpg 1,150 × 745; 248 KB
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1920 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 21 May MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,488 × 3,746; 1.71 MB
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1920 - Zollinger-Harned - 17 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,803 × 4,169; 2.21 MB
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1920 - Zollinger-Harned Company - 1 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,168 × 4,039; 1.34 MB
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1925 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 14 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,439 × 3,902; 2.11 MB
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1925 - Zollinger-Harned Building - Allentown PA.jpg 1,523 × 1,900; 507 KB
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1926 - Zollinger-Harned Store Under Construction - 12 Sep MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,900 × 1,387; 380 KB
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1928 - Zollinger - Harned - 19 May MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,047 × 3,026; 700 KB
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1928 - Zollinger-Harned Company - 19 May MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,017 × 3,055; 722 KB
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1930 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 4 Feb MC - Allentown PA.jpg 4,078 × 4,566; 3.48 MB
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1935 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 19 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,811 × 4,800; 2.33 MB
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1937 - Zollinger - Harned - 13 Sep MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,416 × 1,811; 569 KB
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1940 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 6 Feb MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,776 × 4,868; 2.75 MB
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1943 - Zollinger-Harned - 3 Sep MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,326 × 3,860; 1.05 MB
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1945 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 10 Aug MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,815 × 4,878; 2.52 MB
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1945 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 15 Jul MC - Allentown PA.jpg 953 × 1,441; 335 KB
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1945 - Zollinger-Harned Department Store.jpg 1,000 × 726; 175 KB
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1946 - Zollinger-Harned 3 Feb MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,821 × 3,754; 913 KB
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1947 - Zollinger-Harned - 14 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,834 × 2,246; 1.47 MB
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1948 - Zollinger-Harned - 25 Jul MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,717 × 2,257; 990 KB
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1950 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 24 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,561 × 2,195; 1.02 MB
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1953 - 600 Block of Hamilton Street - Allentown PA.jpg 1,400 × 788; 238 KB
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1953 - Zollinger-Harned - 7 Jun MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,469 × 2,461; 1.34 MB
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1955 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 30 Nov MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,966 × 4,263; 2.06 MB
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1960 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 27 Sep MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,908 × 4,244; 1.6 MB
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1963 - Zollinger-Harned - 5 May 1963 - Allentown PA.jpg 2,031 × 1,366; 505 KB
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1965 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 15 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,239 × 4,917; 2.77 MB
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1966 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 11 Aug MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,160 × 4,691; 848 KB
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1966 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 15 Aug MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,317 × 4,790; 1.96 MB
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1966 - Zollinger Harned - Whitehall Mall - 14 Aug MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,255 × 4,967; 4.65 MB
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1966 - Zollinger Harned - Whitehall Mall 2 - 14 Aug MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,355 × 4,436; 2.14 MB
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1966 - Zollinger-Harned - Matchcover - Allentown PA.jpg 909 × 593; 151 KB
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1966 - Zollingers Purchases Dobnoff's - 16 Mar MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,025 × 1,420; 490 KB
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1968 - Zollinger-Harned - 24 Mar MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,311 × 3,018; 1.02 MB
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1969 - Shopping Bag - Zollinger-Harned - Allentown PA.jpg 1,567 × 1,089; 451 KB
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1969 - Zollinger-Harned - 9 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,141 × 4,761; 3.43 MB
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1970 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 15 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 2,585 × 4,868; 1.6 MB
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1970 - Zollinger-Harned - 22 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,853 × 4,878; 1.19 MB
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1971 - Zollinger-Harned - 10 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 1,531 × 4,907; 1.13 MB
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1972 - Zollinger-Harned - 9 Jan MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,287 × 4,790; 2.74 MB
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1973 - Zollinger-Harned - 16 Mar MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,306 × 4,841; 2.19 MB
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1973 - Zollinger-Harned - 9 Feb MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,180 × 4,819; 2.38 MB
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1976 - Zollinger - Harned Department Store - 17 Dec MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,005 × 4,837; 2.41 MB
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1977 - Zollinger-Harned 6 Feb MC - Allentown PA.jpg 3,208 × 1,634; 719 KB
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2011 - Sovereign Building.jpg 2,507 × 1,880; 2.01 MB
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2012 - 605 Hamilton Building - Allentown PA.jpg 1,900 × 1,583; 367 KB
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2018 - Inside Main Doors - Soverign Building - Allentown PA.jpg 4,096 × 2,728; 1.74 MB
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2018 - Main Lobby - Soverign Building - Allentown PA.jpg 4,096 × 2,728; 1.38 MB
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2018 - Soverign Building - Allentown PA.jpg 4,096 × 2,728; 2.08 MB