Category:Home Restaurant

The Home Restaurant was a Downtown business and shopping area eatery just south of the Allentown Center Square at 17 South Seventh Street. Initially opened by William A. Miller and Gilbert F. Shrink, it opened in January 1931, offering full course meals every day of the week. Miller left the partnership with Shrink in early 1939, opening Miller's Restaurant at 2027 Tilghman Street, which later became the Haviland Inn in 1950. In 1940, the restaurant was fully renovated by Shrink, with a new kitchen, dining area, and a private meeting room for banquets, bushiness luncheons, or other occasions. In November 1949, the restaurant closed when the neighboring Second National Bank obtained the property and expanded into the lot where the restaurant stood.

"The Sandwich Shop", was a lunch counter which opened in November 1939 at 38 North Seventh Street The owner, Milton W. "Scotty" Wood, purchased the Home Restaurant in November 1943 and operated both businesses until the South Seventh Street property closed in 1949. With the closure, The Sandwich Shop was fully renovated and carried on the business at the new location as "The Home Restaurant". The new version of Home Restaurant closed in early 1957. Wood was also the owner of M. W. Wood Catering and provided dinners to the Muhlenburg College basketball team, he later took over Muhlenburg's food service operations. In mid-1957, under his holding company, "The Wood Company", The property was subsequently remodeled and was reopened as "Wood's Restaurant". Wood's Restaurant closed in early 1963, but he expanded his company with food service contracts to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, and later for other schools, hospitals and health care facilities. He retired in 1997 after a long career, eventually passing in June 2003 at age 89.

The property eventually becoming a pet shop and later other businesses. The last business to operate out of the property was "Hi-Fi Pizza Pie", which moved into the building in 1989 when its former location was torn down for a Park & Shop parking lot at 18 North Eighth Street in 1987. Hi-Fi Pizza Pie closed in July 1998 when the property was condemned by the City of Allentown and subsequently torn down. In 2014, the lot was purchased by City Center Allentown and subsequently redeveloped as part of the Marriott Reconnaissance Hotel and PPL Center, opening in 2015.

Camera location	40° 36′ 11″ N, 75° 28′ 21″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.603056; -75.472500