page_title: Zollinger-Harned Company Building
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Zollinger-Harned Company Building / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 1905 - W R Lawfer &amp; Co - Trade Card
context_page_description: Zollinger-Harned Company Building, now known as The Sovereign Building, is a historic department store building located at Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: Allentown's third department store, Zollinger-Harned, has its origins in the  dry goods firm of Lawfer & Steckel, founded by William R. Lawfer and W. R. Steckel in 1866 at 626 Hamilton Street (Corner of Church & Hamilton Streets).   The store carried a large stock of  Dry Goods, Notions and Groceries.  The Business was continued by the original partners until 1874, when Mr. Steckel disposed of his interest to George W. Hartzell.  Mr. Hartzell retired in 1876 and the firm was re-constituted as W.R. Lawfer & Company.
  W.R. Lawfer expanded the business and purchased the larger buildings at 611 and 613 Hamilton Street.  He combined the structures into one large building which opened in March, 1882. The firm sold a wide number of women's dresses, and coats.   As the firm grew it expanded with books,  toys, jewellery, kitchen crockery, carpets as well as men's and children's clothing. To accommodate this expansion,  W.R. Lawfer expanded the store by first purchasing two properties at 12 and 16 North Sixth Street.   All of these buildings were merged,  forming an "T" shape, with the Hamilton Street buildings extending north to Court Street,  the Sixth Street buildings merging into the Hamilton Street building on the right side of the property.  The present-day Sovereign Building retains this basic design.   A second expansion added the stores at 607 and 609 Hamilton Street to the store, with Lawfer advertising the store as "Allentown's Big Department Store".
  Lawfer and John Wanamaker of Philadelphia were friends, as Lawfer had worked for Wanamaker in the 1850s and 1860s prior to opening his own store in Allentown.  It was from Wanamaker's Department store that Lawfer began decorating his store, as early as 1904 at Christmas.  Lawfer's was the first local department store to feature a separate toy department that it called “Toyland.” At the center of the toy display that Christmas was a 24-foot-tall, one ton figure it called “Santa Claus’ Father.” It is not known if this was an attempt to combine the English figure known as “Father Christmas” with Nast's character. On December 9, 1905 local newspapers ran the first announcement of Lawfer's live Santa Claus. “Visit Santa Claus at his Cave in Toyland,” it read. “If you haven’t paid Santa a visit in his pretty Toyland, you had better come soon. Santa remembers every little face, you know, and he says there are some chubby little folks on his list he hasn’t seen yet. Bring your letters and put them in the letter box in his cave.”
  W. R. Lawfer passed suddenly on 11 September 1900 and the store was taken over by his sons, J. Harry Lawfer, John N. Lawfer, and Alvin W. Lawfer.    They ran the business for the next several years when in 1903, J. Harry Lawfer retired from the firm, turning his share of the business to John N. Lawfer.   John N Lawfer subsequently sold his share to Alvan Lawfer and he started his own carpet and drapery store at 709 Hamilton Street.  In 1906 due to ill health, Alvin Lawfer sold a major interest in the store to Clarence J. Early, and the name was changed to Lawfer-Early.  However the next year, with his health further failing Lawfer sold his interests to William C. Harned and the ownership was totally reorganized and the name changed to Harned-Early.   In a further reorganization in 1909 William R. Zollinger purchased Early's interests with the store again being renamed the Zollinger-Harned Company.  William Zollinger brought much experience into the partnership as he lived in Sandusky, Ohio and operated the Zollinger Department store the 1880s.   The new owners tore down the amalgamation of separate storefronts and erected a single large three-story building at 607-613 Hamilton that wrapped around to the right with a double storefront at 14-16 North Sixth Street.
  In 1922 William Zollinger died, and his interests were purchased by the Vollmer family.  In 1926, the store expanded again by purchasing 605 Hamilton Street which it incorporated into its existing building.   As part of the expansion, the store was remodeled into a seven bay wide building with Classi
caption: W. R. Lawfer & Company Trade Card, 1905
exif: {}