Category:Faust & Landes Jeweler

Faust & Landes was a Jewelry store, located at 728 Hamilton Street from 1914-1955. Edwin J Faust, an optometrist was born in March 1863 and graduated from the McCormick school of Optometry in Chicago in 1883.

In 1888 Dr Faust opened an optometry office at 923 Hamilton Street. What made Dr Faust's office unique was that he ground his own lenses, rather than order them from an outside laboratory which could take up to several weeks at the time. In addition to the optometry office, he also operated a jewelry store on the premises. In April 1891 Faust moved his office to 715 Hamilton Street.

In August 1893, he joined with C A Sterner to form the partnership of Faust & Sterner who jointly operated the store at. This partnership continued until March, 1900 when Faust was bought out by Sterner and the partnership was dissolved. He opened a new office at 723 Hamilton. In 1909 the store again moved to 728 Hamilton, where it would operate for the next 46 years. In July 1914, he joined with Ira Landes, who began in business as the Fahler and Landes jewelers in 1905. They opened the Faust & Landes Jewelry store at 728 Hamilton Street. The first floor was the jewellery store, while Dr Faust conducted the optometry business on the second floor.

In 1936, Faust retired and sold his interest to Landers, who continued the business under its previous name. Faust passed in November 1947, and Landes shortly after in May 1948. The business was sold but remained open, although changing hands several times. The store became franchised, operating eventually in 27 locations in the area. In July 1955 the business and all of its franchise stores closed after 67 years.

Upon its closure, the Hamilton Street store was purchased by Milton M. Cohen, the local manager of the Royal Jewelry chain who opened a store in Allentown. In October 1955, a four-alarm fire destroyed the building at 734 Hamilton Street which contained the Thornton Jewelry Store. Thornton's purchased the Royal store at 728 and relocated their business to it. Thornton's operated for many years, finally closing its doors in April 2004. The H Y Jewlers now operates at 728 Hamilton Street.

Camera location	40° 36′ 06″ N, 75° 28′ 22″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.601667; -75.472778