Lititz Record Express

              T h e L it it z R e c o r d - E x p r e s s
Serving The Warwick Area For Nearly A Century
94th Year E s ta b lish e d April, 1877, as T h e Sunbeam
(Con so lidated with T h e Z à tits Record, 1937) Lititz, Lancaster County, Penna., Thursday, November 5, 1970 10 cents a Copy; $4-00 per y e a r by mall
within L a n c a s te r Connty 20 Pages No. 31
Officials Say Downtown Revitalization Succeeding
“People are suddenly inter­ested
in what’s going on down­town.
I think the people de­serve
a good downtown,” said
Robert Buch, president of the
Lititz Chamber of Commerce.
“I don’t think there were ever
more cans of paint used in all
of Lititz than this Summer. This
is taking place all over Lititz,”
added Robert Derek of Mc­Cloud,
Scatchard, Derek & Ed-son,
Lititz landscape architects.
It was the summary of what
has happened in Lititz this
f
Summer by two of the men
most actively involved.
Early this year, several Lit­itz
businessmen and citizens an­nounced
their intentions to re­vitalize
downtown Lititz. Ac­tions
soon followed words. The
result has been far-reaching
changes and improvements in
just one Summer season with
the definite promise of much
more to come.
The progress has been regis­tered
in terms of more attrac­tive
buildings, expanded park­ing
facilities and even new
businesses — all indicators of a
downtown Lititz determined to
make itself more appealing to
area shoppers.
As the work in center-Lititz
got underway, Derek delected
definite trends along the
fringes of the downtown and
throughout Lititz to join in the
sprucing up.
Derek also said, “A lot more
people are walking around
downtown in the past four to
six weeks. When people are in
the town,
town,”
there’s life in the
L
i l l
i l l
Herb’s Steak Shop is on the left and —
believe it or not — the bid theater entrance
is on the right. The marquee was taken
down this Summer, then the front was
extensively renovated; the Lititz Sports
Shop plans to move into this location some­time
after January 1. The exterior of this
large brick building, one of three pur­chased
by Lititz Improvement, Inc. early
this year, was sand blasted and painted.
Major Progress Made in Lititz
Revitalization Effort This Year
Persons familiar over the
years with downtown Lititz say
they can already see a big change
for the better this summer.
But even the old friends of
the downtown may be surprised
by the large numbers of proper­ties
which have undergone im­provement
and are in the early
stages of renovation.
What has actually been done
in downtown Lititz this Sum­mer?
The following is a rundown of
the major changes and improve­ments—
primarily from an ex­terior
appearance standpoint
which have taken place in Lititz
this Summer.
Ford Buildings
The most obvious change has
been riri the Frank Ford build­ings
oh the south side of East
Main Street between the Sutter
Inn and Benner’s Drug Store.
The Ford properties underwent
a complete face lifting (see
separate story).
Thè Ford buildings are among
the ìirst to be completed under
the new plan and give the first
clear indication of how down­town
Lititz will look when the
plan is completed.
The Benner Drug Store also
has been painted.
The Sutter Inn is in the process
of having its exterior painted
and new lights installed.
The Ford buildings include
the Tall Mens Shop, Neff’s Mens
Wear, Mr. George the hair dress­er
and an apartment house.
New Parking Lot
Construction was completed
just last week on a new 69-
space parking lot open to the
public on North Lane behind
Bingeman's Restaurant, the
Park View Hotel and Glass-myer’s.
The lot was constructed
jointly by the Fanners National
Bank of Lititz, Lester Bingeman
ot Bingeman's Restaurant and
Charles Wisner of the Park View
Hotel.
The new parking lot represents
a major addition to downtown
parking.
All of the metered parking
spaces in the first block of East
Main Street, for instance, total
only 44 spaces.
Officials earlier this Summer
indicated threre were only about
150 spaces in all of downtown
Lititz. It was reported that the
number of spaces would be
doubled to about 300 under the
downtown plan.
! Lititz Improvement
Of the three buildings bought
by Lititz Improvement Inc., the
Plertz Building which includes
Warwick Realty offices, is com­pletely
repainted and refurbish­ed
outside. Two new offices, now
available lor rent, have been de­veloped
on the second floor.
Nearby, the theater marquee
was removed this summer and
the theater converted to a store
room. The Lititz Sports Shop
will move there sometime after
January 1.
The theater and Herb’s Sub
Shop building have been sand
blasted. Some painting has been
done .and more is due soon.
Shutters will be installed on the
second and third floors of the
Sturgis building.
Other Progress
The Lititz Post Office was
painted this Summer in colors
complementary to the new down­town
plan.
Buckler's Barber Shop on
Broad Street near the square
was completed, including sign­ing
and lights,
Bingeman’s Restaurant was
extensively remodeled in front
and is partially finished.
Although not directly -related
to the downtown revitalization
plan, the move by Charlottes into
its new location to occupy' a pre­viously
vacant building;., was a
major improvement in.the. over­all
downtown appearance and
shopping appeal.
In another non-relatedymove,
the Lititz Pel Shop relocated on
North Broad Street. ' ;
New pavement was - installed
this Summer at McElrqy.’s and
the exterior was being painted
last week. McElroy’s was-a fore­runner
several years ago In de­veloping
a colonial appearance
and providing customer park­ing.
While not directly related to
the downtown plan, the Park
View Hotel completed renovation
which conforms with the general
tenor of the colonial effort.
The Lititz Springs Garage and
Warwick Builders are also
among the places extensively
improved this Summer.
Among those in the planning-stage
for interior renovations
are: Harris Variety Center, Bob
Dull Jewelry, Dave Arnold and
Joe Hess. These account for a
large proportion of the buildings
not already completed or started.
Development Plan
Derek and his firm were re­sponsible
for designing this
summer a preliminary develop­ment
plan for the downtown.
The plan has been publicly pre­sented
and discussed.
The Chamber of Commerce
recently took over responsibili­ty
for overall implementation
of the plan and the Chamber
has requested the Lititz Plan­ning
Commission to approve
the plan. If the Commission
agrees, Derek will proceed to
finalize the plans.
Since the plan was well re­ceived
at public meetings,
Derek said he expects little or
no change from the preliminary
plan. But he will touch up the
original plan and make it more
complete.
v The Lititz Downtown De­velopment
plan indicates that
what Lititz already has is very
attractive. But the basic beauty
and appeal of the downtown
needs to be highlighted and
capitalized on, the plan indi­cates.
With this theme of retaining
and enhancing the downtown’s
historic beauty and charm, the
plan primarily calls for spruc­ing
up existing structures with
paint, using attractive color
combinations to bring out the
colonial appearance of the
buildings.
Besides the ney look on the
exteriors of the buildings, the
plan calls for such basis things
as more trees in and around the
downtown area and greatly ex-
Lititz Shops Set
Moonlight Party
8-l i p.m. Friday
Shop in downtown Lititz Friday night!
Come to the Lititz Moonlight Shopping Party!
Get tickets from participating merchants for
free cider and hot dogs from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Most downtown shops will remain open an addi­tional
two hours, until 11 o'clock Friday night.
The cider and hot dog tickets can be redeemed
at a stand at the recently named Zum Anker Alley
on East Main Street between the Sutter Inn and
Lippart's Clothing near the square.
Many shops will also offer special bargains for
shoppers between 8 and 11 p.m. (Check advertise­ments
throughout the RECORD-EXPRESS for more
information on these specials.)
Both Lititz banks, located on East Main Street
near the square, are cooperating in the special sale.
In addition to their regular banking hours Friday, the
Commonwealth National Bank and the Farmers Na­tional
Bank of Lititz will have their drive-up windows
open from 8 to 11 p.m.
The LITITZ RECORD-EXPRESS, which is nor­mally
open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through
Friday, also will open from 8 till 11 p.m. to cooperate
with the sale.
Merchants report they are making a special ef­fort
to attract everyone to see the new look in the
downtown. There have been many improvements and
additions to the downtown shopping area over the
Summer and it's a good opportunity to shop the
downtown and see the progress which has been made.
The following shops are cooperating in the sale;
David Armold Jeweler Kathryn's Gift &
Clyde O. Benner Flower Shop
Pharmacy Kenyon's Pastry Shop
Bingeman's Restaurant Klotz Kleners
Byler's Self Service
Cam Tech of Lititz
New Charlotte's Shoppe
Commonwealth
National Bank
Farmers National Bank
of Lititz
Flanagans
General Sutter Inn
Glassmyers
Hagy's Western Auto
Harris Variety Center
J. B. Hess Men's Wear
Kreider Hardware
Lippart's Clothing
Lititz Book Store
Lititz Record-Express
Lititz Sewing Center
Lititz Sports Center
Long & Bomberger
Home Center Inc.
Me Elroy's Pharmacy
Michael's TV
Henry K. Neff
Spacht's Furniture Store
panded parking space to make
shopping more convenient.
Two New Malls
The plan also calls for de­velopment
of two new shopping
malls adjacent to the first block
of East Main Street, which is
the central shopping area.
One new shopping area on the
north side would be located
along Sturgis Alley, which con­nects
East Main with North
Lane. In conjunction with this
plan is the proposed demolition
of the building now occupied by
the Lititz Sports Shop. The
Sports Shop already has made
plans to relocate nearby early
next year to the former theater
site.
The buildings on both sides
of Sturgis Alley are owned by
Lititz Improvement Inc., a
group of several businessmen.
While no plans have been
formulated on development of
Sturgis Alley, the new corpora­tion
has made major strides in
improving its buildings and
spokesmen for the group have
indicated their support for the
development plan.
When the new shops are
opened, plans call for closing
the alley to vehicles and opening
it for pedestrian use only.
Zum Anker Alley
The second new shopping
area on the south side of Main
Street will be in the rear of
what are widely know as the
Ford buildings. Located be­tween
the Sutter Inn and Ben­ners
Drug Store, the new shop­ping
area would face the Lititz.
liecord-Express building and
borough parking area (see
separate story on Frank Ford
and his property).
This new shopping area
would be named Zum Anker Al­ley
after the historic Zum An-ker
Inn which was opened in
the area in 1762.
Three gas lights will be in­stalled
outside the new shops
this Fall and brick paving out­side
next Spring wilt complete
the colonial appearance in and
around the new Ford shops. The
new shops include The Back-porch
Candle Shop, The Fife
and Drum Music Shop and an
old fashioned candy shop.
A major feature of the Derek
plan is for these two new shop­ping
areas to attract many new
shops to Lititz to help give
shoppers a wider selection and
help the downtown attract more
shoppers.
Besides new shops, however,
is the hope that these two ne*,y
shopping centers will help open
up the rear of East Main Street,
The goal is to provide more
parking at the rear of the exist­ing
shops and stores and to
make them much more acces­sible
from the rear. The shop-
(Continued on Page 4)
Banks Drive Up
Windows Open
Till 11 P.M. Fri
In cooperation with the
Lititz Retailers’ “Moonlight
Shopping Party” the drive up
window of both the Common­wealth
National Bank and the
Far mers National Bank of
Lititz will be open until 11
P.M. Friday (November 6).
The banks are participating
with extra hours as an added)
service to customers and shop­pers.
The Lititz Record Express
will also be open from 8 to 11
P.M. Friday.
F o r d L e a d s N e w L o o k i n D o w n t o w n L i t i t z
Í . , .
Benner’s Drug Store, located adjacent to the Ford
buildings, was among the shops In downtown Lititz to get
a shiny new coat of paint and refurbishing this Summer,
The shopping area of down­town
Lititz will soon take on
some of the aura of Colonial
Williamsburg, and much of it
is the result of efforts by a long­time
Lititz resident, Frank
Ford.
He is now in the final stages
of remodeling the rear of 24 E.
Main St. to form a colonial-style
shopping mall on Zum
Anker Alley.
A candle shop will be operat­ed
by Elizabeth Derek and June
Shelly in the back of the build­ing.
The small shop room is
plastered white and trimmed in
Williamsburg blue woodwork.
There are shelves and a sink for
candlemaking, a lavatory and
closet.
Next door will be a musical
instrument shop which will be
opened by George Garrett.
Harold Ruth’s candy shop,
specializing in penny candy,
will be in the foremost part of
the mall.
These shops are scheduled to
‘it’s Up to All of US’
open this month and, both in
appearance and in merchandise,
will add to the rapidly develop­ing
colonial atmosphere of his-toris
downtown Lititz.
Also in this area will be a
rear entrance to James Lip-part’s
Big Men/Tall Men Cloth­ing
Shop, which opened recent­ly
in what was formerly Char­lotte’s
Dress Shop.
Although remodeling is not
quite complete- at Lippart’s
store, it already is much bright­er
and more cheerful, with ex­cellent
display space and soft
wall-to-wall carpeting. New
acoustical tile ceiling an d
flourescent lighting add to the
brightness.
The front of this building,
and that of Henry Neff’s Cloth­ing'
Store at 30 E. Main St.,
was sand-blasted this summer,
giving the old brick a much
cleaner, brighter appearance.
Then, Ford painted the exterior
woodwork in authentic Wil­liamsburg
colors.
In time, Ford hopes to open
two more shops in the basement
of the same building and, later,
to open more stores at the rear
of 30, 32, 34 and 36 E, Main St.,
which could be entered from
Main Street or from the park­ing
lot in the back. Or, perhaps,
.‘Lititz Is a Good Town’
two smaller shops could occupy
each building, one fronting on
Main Street, the other on the
parking lot.
Plans call for repaving llie
alley in bricks and installation
of old-fashioned gas lamps
along the mall, adding to the
colonial feeling. The candle
shop tenants hope to pave the
tiny rear patio with bricks, too.
Ford did his part by enclos­ing
and painting the stairway
to the second-floor apartments,
hiding the area for trash can
storage. He also plans to fix up
the paving area and, in time, to
build steps to the future lower-level
shops.
Asked how he came to under­take
such a major restoration
program, Ford said. “Mr. Derek
told me what they would like to
do for Lititz — make the town
look like Williamsburg and
make a shopping mall in the
first block of Main Street —
arid it sounded good to me. I
(Continued on Pag-' 4)