Category:Hess Brothers Department Store

Object location	40° 36′ 05″ N, 75° 28′ 31″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.601389; -75.475278

Hess's 

defunct American department store chain
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Instance of	business department store chain
Industry	department store
Location	United States of America
Headquarters location	Allentown
Inception	1897
Dissolved, abolished or demolished date	1996
40° 36′ 05″ N, 75° 28′ 31.01″ W
Authority file  Q16995296 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

Hess's, or Hess Brothers department store was the largest and most famous Department Store in Allentown, and it was nationally known. The store was founded by Max and Charles Hess in 1897, the store consisted of five floors and over 400,000 square feet of retail space. By 1915, the store had expanded to nearly a city block and dominated the northeast corner of Ninth and Hamilton. In 1922 Max Sr. died at the age of 58 and for the next several years the store was run by his brother Charles. In 1927, an eight-story annex was added to the store that containing new departments that also added a shipping and delivery area. The Art-Moderne facade that covered the building, and additional retail shopping space for the 4th and 5th floors was installed from July-November 1936. This change gave the store a unified, art-deco look instead of the cobbled-together buildings which the public saw during it's early years.

Charles Hess died in 1929, and in 1932, Max Hess Jr. left Muhlenberg College on his 21st birthday to join the family business as part of their management team, eventually becoming its president. It was under his leadership that Hess Brothers Department Store became a shopping mecca known around the world for its quality merchandise

Over the decades, Hess Brothers became a landmark department store with magnificent crystal chandeliers gracing the main hall. It was well known for its fashion apparel as a result of introducing the latest trends from Europe. Extravagant window displays along exterior of main floor. Children delighted at the giant toy soldiers Hess’s used as Christmas decorations in addition to "Pip the Mouse" in a puppet show. Shoppers were treated to the annual May flower show, fashion shows, and celebrity appearances. Hess's Patio restaurant was well known for its strawberry pie and other delicacies. In October 1958, a separate Pet Shop was opened on North Ninth Street, and in February 1964, Hess's Auto Center also opened next to the Pet Shop at 25 North Ninth Street. In 1970, the Auto Center moved to a new location at 9th and Turner Streets to accommodate the seven-story Hess's Parking Deck.

Like the main central shopping district of Hamiton Street, Hess Brothers has a long decline, starting I suppose when Max Hess, Jr., retired in 1968. Phil Berman took over the store, and although he was a good owner, it really wasn't the same; especially after the Hamilton Mall was built and Hess Brothers expanded around the east and southeast United States into many shopping malls during the 1970s. The demise of Hess's began in 1979 when Frank Pasquerilla purchaced the then chain of stores for $32 million. The last year that Hess's earned a profit was 1990, and pressured by creditors, he began trying to sell the chain beginning in 1992. After failing to find a single buyer, Pasquerilla began negotiations to sell off the chain by blocks. It's Auto Center closed in January 1992, and the Allentown North store closed in March 1993 along with most of its other satellite stores.

In August 1994, two buyers were found, The Bon-Ton stores of York and the May Department Store Company of St. Louis divided the 30-store Hess's chain with 20 going to Bon-Ton and the rest to May. The stores in the Lehigh Valley area going to Bon-Ton. In October 1994, newspaper advertisements began to use the name "Hess's - The Bon-Ton". May's closed or re-branded the remaining Hess satellite stores. With the sale to Bon-Ton, the Allentown Pet Shop was closed, leaving just the main building on 9th and Hamilton for retail shopping. Then in November 1995, Bon-Ton announced the closing of the 9th and Hamilton Street Hess's store. The main store in Allentown was closed on January 15th, 1996, which ended the business after 99 years.

After the store was closed, City of Allentown building inspectors discovered what many already knew, but was not really publicized. The store was a hodgepodge of mostly 19th-century buildings, including the old Grand Central Hotel. These buildings had been modified to create retail shopping space, business offices, with some new construction added to the outside along with additional retail space built on top of the former separate structures. City Inspectors, for one reason or another that can be debated, stated that the entire structure could not be certified for re-use and would need to be torn down. The store was eventually purchased by the City of Allentown in October 1998.

In January 2000, after being vacant for several years, and after some controversy, and plans for re-use that never materialized, the former Hess Brothers Department Store was torn down. It took over a month for demolition crews to tear down the store, as Hess had used a lot of concrete and steel in his renovations over the years. By the end of February 2000, the site was a fenced gravel lot. The 1927 annex was not torn down in 2000, as it was envisioned as a support facility for a proposed hockey arena/auditorium to be built on the former Hess site

The planned hockey team for Allentown fell through later in 2000, and the Hess site was sold to PPL for a large office complex to consolidate many spread-out offices in the city. With the sale to PPL, the Hess Brothers Annex building and Pet Shop was torn down in 2001. The Hess Parking Deck now is the only component of the former Hess Brothers department store still remaining and in use by the Allentown Parking Authority. The former Hess Auto Center, at 9th and Turner Streets is used for another business unrelated to Hess's or Bon-Ton.

Hess Sign[edit]

The large "H E S S Brothers" sign, which adorned the Hamilton Street side of the department store was first erected in December 1947 as the biggest "flasher" outside of New York City. It was located at the corner of North 9th and Hamilton Streets.

The sign was 45-feet-tall and weighed 8 tons. Shaped like a triangle to make it visible to both east and west-bound traffic on Hamilton Street, the sign had eight totally different lighting cycles to spell out Hess's name. It required 378 electrical circits hooked up to 2,250 varicolored light bulbs and many yards of neon colored tubing to light the sign. Each letter was seven foot high.

The sign was taken down in July 1972 to accomodate the sign regulations of the then under-construction Hamilton Mall. It was not saved nor preserved. When it was removed, each letter was cut up and the sign was dismantled in pieces before being unceremoniously hauled away to Sussman's Scrapyard.

Hess-Lehigh Farms[edit]

In 1924 Max Hess purchased a 100 acre tract of land along south Cedar Crest Boulevard (PA 229), southwest of Allentown as a recreational grove for Hess Brothers employees. The tract had a small farm on it, which Hess also used to supply fresh poultry and dairy products to the store's restaurant. By the 1930s, Hess-Lehigh Farms, as the grove was called, was supplying the store with a wide variety of dairy and other products. Max Hess Jr., who ran the store by that time, purchased a military store at 33 North Ninth Street, just north of Court Street and opened the Hess-Lehigh Farms Milk Bar in June, 1940. The Milk Bar initially was a combination luncheonette and store, carrying ice cream, cottage cheese, and several types of milk. It also served meals of eggs and poultry of various types, including turkey, chicken and duck dinners. This venture was successful, and in 1946 after World War II ended, the Milk Bar became the Hess-Lehigh Farms Restaurant, expanding it's menu and providing meals to Hamilton Street workers as well as the public. Eventually its hours were expanded from 7:30am to Midnight.

Competition with other Hamilton Street restaurants, and Hess's own Patio Restaurant led to its demise in early 1954, and the entire venture, along with the Lehigh Farms operation being sold off. In 1961, 40 acres of the land was redeveloped into a youth camp for boys and girls, aged 6 to 16, being named Camp Olympic. Camp Olympic was sold in 2007 to Lower Macungie Township, and today is a public park, known as Camp Olympic Park. Some of Hess's farm, including a farmhouse and large barn, remain today.

Pip the Mouse[edit]

Pip the Mouse has been a holiday staple of Allentown since 1962.

Pip started as part of a holiday window display at Hess Brothers. Max Hess, Jr. devoted a display window on the Hamilton Street side of the store to a holiday puppet display, The Mouse Before Christmas. The show was created by Dr. George R. Creegan and his wife, along with the Bliss Company of New York. The display had about 20 puppets and Creegan was and still is used as the voice of Pip. It made its world premiere at Hess’s Department Store in Allentown on Saturday, October 27, 1962. The puppet show delighted thousands of people of all ages.

After the holiday season ended, Hess decided to purchase Pipp to add to the toy department in the store. There Pip would entertain children each year while their parents bought them Christmas toys. In the 1970s, Pip was moved to Hess’s fifth floor Community Room and a Winter Wonderland was added, complete with mechanical animals, people, trees and a Swiss chalet. After Bon-Ton purchased Hess’s, it continued the Pip the Mouse tradition, now beloved by two generations of shoppers and residents of the city. However, the store was closed in 1996, so the last production of The Mouse Before Christmas at 9th & Hamilton Streets was in December, 1995.

The Bon-Ton donated the Winter Wonderland, the Mouse Before Christmas stage, and Pip with all his pals to the Allentown Economic and Development Corporation in 1996. The show was presented by the former Allentown Downtown Improvement District Authority from 1996-2001, at several different venues, including the Allentown Public Library. Volunteers from Civic Theater of Allentown restored the puppet show stage in 2001-2002, and then when ADIDA was deactivated in 2003, Pip, the stage and props all were given to the Liberty Bell Museum, with the understanding that the Allentown Public Library also would be a partner in the Pip the Mouse program.

The museum restored and digitized the original audio soundtrack and has presented the traditional Mouse Before Christmas puppet show to thousands of visitors during the holiday season each year since 2003. Although the Creegan Company produced stages for 15 department stores across the country in the 1960s, the Liberty Bell Shrine has the only surviving stage and puppet show.