Sentinel photo by JEFF FISHBEIN
Once home of department and discount stores, downtown Lewistown today offers a new generation of shops and eateries.

LEWISTOWN — Practically barren shelves in each department, stained ceiling tiles overhead and short lines at a makeshift checkout.

Aug. 26, 2018, was truly one of the saddest days in Susan Miller Knepp’s life. It was the day The Bon-Ton in downtown Lewistown was shuttered.

“I shopped at the store since I was a young girl,” Knepp, who lives in Lewistown, posted on social media. Her post included photos of the store’s opening nearly a half century ago.

The Market Street location opened just in time for the Christmas season on Nov. 6, 1969, with throngs of customers waiting anxiously to flood the new store. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was part of the pageantry.

The Sentinel described the store as a “… spacious 45,000 square foot structure (which) features the ultimate in modern shopping conveniences.”

Newspaper photos captured a bustling Bon-Ton.

Knepp’s pictures revealed the final days of one of Lewistown’s retail institutions — perhaps the last remaining one. The Bon-Ton joined fellow retailers Danks & Co., Diana Shoppe, The Hello Shop, McCrory’s and G.C. Murphy’s, all of which have left downtown Lewistown over the years.

Cindi Burnell Kearns also posted memories: “My mom worked at McMeen’s and then The Bon-Ton for almost 40 years.”

Kearns, a Lewistown native, now lives in Greeley, Colo.

For every memory about The Bon-Ton, there are memories about other retailers from yesteryear. News of new tenants filling long vacant storefronts have created reason for optimism.

The Geisinger School of Nursing announced it is opening a new state-of-the-art facility in the 46,660-square-foot free standing space that formerly housed the Bon-Ton for so many years.

“The downtown location has been attractive to us for the school for some time,” said A.J. Hartsock, director of operations for Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital. “We know our community leaders have worked hard to revitalize the downtown and we want to be part of those efforts. We hope the school can be an anchor for the downtown and will help the local businesses prosper and encourage even more to come in.

“We have had tremendous support from the county commissioners, Jim Zubler from DLI, Rhonda Kelley from the chamber and many others,” he added. “We look forward to being part of the downtown scene in the future.”

That news offers encouragement to Zubler, executive director of Downtown Lewistown Inc.

“I’ve never seen the downtown so attractive,” Zubler said. “It might be a different kind of use. It is two different from when the two department stores were here, which fed off one another.

“You don’t have department stores like that in many places,” he added.

The small-town downtowns of past are likely gone, but that doesn’t mean Lewistown has become a ghost town. To the contrary, a new generation of shops and eateries fill the storefronts.

In his book “A Mifflin County Christmas, 1920s-1960s,” detailing holiday buying habits in and around Lewistown over five decades, Forest Fisher of the Mifflin County Historical Society chronicles Lewistown’s past as a shopping “mecca,” the commercial hub of Mifflin County.

In the 1930s, street directories revealed more than 60 neighborhood grocery and general merchandise stores in Lewistown Borough. Dozens of retail stores offered almost unlimited choices.

Fisher recalled traveling with his parents to visit relatives in the Harrisburg area in the early 1960s, then being taken to Christmas shop at new discount department stores, like E.J. Korvette in Camp Hill.

“This was a new experience, the store itself was a destination, before the term was generally known. A wonder to see with large spacious aisles, extensive displays and almost unlimited choices,” he wrote.

The vigorous commercial life of the downtown had its end in sight by the later 1960s. A steady shift in buying habits was taking over, as downtown stores tried to adapt during the redevelopment era of the late 1960s and ’70s.

The Bon-Ton entered downtown Lewistown in 1957 with the purchase of McMeen’s. The Bon-Ton was a popular store destination on the classic radio show “Fibber McGee and Molly,” which aired from 1935-1959, a program that was heard on local radio during the war years and after. The sole surviving department store of the downtown shopping district, The Bon-Ton, closed in 2018, ending a 118-year run for a major retailer on Market Street.

Groundbreaking for the Greater Lewistown Shopping Plaza took place in 1966, Fisher said. Advertising at the time touted 1,000 free parking spaces for shoppers’ convenience at holiday time. Flyers and newspaper inserts for shopping plaza businesses began to appear at holiday time.

In recent times, many specialty shops and businesses have filled a niche locally, responded to a need for personal service and contact with customers. History teaches that times change. How we view that change, for good or ill, is a personal reflection, Fisher said.

“You certainly can’t go back. You just have to continue to forge ahead,” Zubler said. “When I look at the larger properties that we had vacant and how they’re going to be used, it’s an exciting time.”

Zubler says change doesn’t happen overnight. Businesses don’t just close up shop one day and have a new one open up the next day. At times, progress is slow as much happens out of the public’s eye.

“We’re continually getting calls from persons looking for space for their personal or professional services,” Zubler said. “Retailers looking for space. It takes a property owner that has a vision.”

He explained these larger spaces might need to be divided into smaller retail spaces to accommodate need.

Geisinger’s School of Nursing announcement with the “level of investment that they are planning for the former Bon-Ton building is substantial,” Zubler said. “They are creating a long-lasting benefit. Not only for their own system, but you have to look at the impact they will have for the downtown.

“They bring in nursing candidates who will have a significant impact not just on the downtown but for the whole region,” he added.

Rhonda Kelley, executive director of the Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce, is excited to observe the revitalization currently taking place in downtown Lewistown.

“After the closing of the Bon-Ton and the vacating of some other key buildings, it seemed as though our downtown was on a downhill slide,” Kelley said. “It is a joy to see it gradually regain its footing.”

Along with DLI’s Facade Improvement Program, Kelley believes the addition of the bus shelter and the renovation of corner beside the Embassy Theatre a few years ago have contributed to making the downtown more vital and visually appealing.

“The renovations at Fountain Square Park have also added to the positive impression one gets as they travel through our downtown,” Kelley added. “Community Partnerships’ Wild Geese Flock Together Project has added large fiberglass geese sculptures throughout downtown, adding color and interest for both pedestrians and those driving, while supporting our unique local Goose Day holiday.”

The Mifflin County Planning and Development Department’s streetscape project, which started in 2005, was geared toward making downtown more inviting to residents, visitors and investors.

“Their hope was that it would serve as a catalyst to enhance the economic vitality of the downtown area and I believe it has done just that,” Kelley said.

“With the addition of Geisinger’s School of Nursing, as well as the current renovation and occupation of so many other buildings in the downtown, I see nothing but positive economic results on the horizon for our downtown as we see the addition of more businesses joining the various unique ones we currently enjoy,” she added.