Category:Sears, Roebuck and Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Sears, Roebuck and Company began advertising in local newspapers in 1899. It was in 1928 that Sears first opened a retail store in the new Erdman Building at 129-133 North Seventh Street. The building was erected in 1926 for the Erdman Brothers, who operated a grocery and meat market in the building at 125-127 North Seventh. The Sears section of the building had a frontage of over 20 feet, was three stories high with a basement. In March 1938, Sears bought out the Erdman Market and expanded its retail stales space to 125-137 North Seventh

By World War II, Sears was outgrowing this space, however wartime restrictions on construction meant expansion had to be postponed until the war's end. In September 1945, the company settled on a new location, outside of the Allentown central business district at the northwest corner of Seventh and Allen Street.

At the beginning of February, 1948 Sears moved into one of the largest retail stores in the United States at its new location, a building several times its previous size. Besides the main building, having three main floors and a basement, the new facility had a separate automotive service area, a large garden and also a large farm store, taking up several parcels along north Seventh Street.

The growth in the company was such that additional space was needed and in 1964, plans were made to expand into a larger facility in suburban Whitehall Township. The new facility would be part of a new concept at the time, an enclosed shopping mall in which Sears would be a major "Anchor" store, with the Zollinger-Harned Company from the downtown business district, being another anchor store. In addition there would be a large supermarket and over 50 smaller stores available inside an indoor shopping area. Sears moved into the new Whitehall Mall in September 1966.

Sears, Roebuck and Company sold merchandise at the Whitehall Mall for over 50 years after helping to open the mall. As a result of years of lagging sales, largely due to the advent of inernet shopping, Sears filed for bankrupsy in 2018, forcing it to close hundreds of stores nationwide. It announced in November, 2019 it would be closing its Whitehall Mall store, and began a going-out-of-buisness sale. In Feburary 2020, the doors were closed for the last time.