As of 2006:

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

During restoration in 2009:

(Photo by Virginia Lawrence-Hope)

“Old” Odd Fellows Hall / Masonic Hall (44 South Third St. (at Ferry Street),1 recently Lipkins Furniture)

This stands on the western portion of Original Town Lot No.102 as surveyed by William Parsons when Easton was established in 1752.2 Henry Bush (Busch) built a house and lived here from 1757 until 1790. He was listed in tax records as a laborer (in 1772) and as a butcher (in 1774 and 1776); he obtained a liquor license in 1777.3 In 1789, he formally purchased this Lot from the Penn Family4 and sold it in the following year to shoemaker Jacob Sigman.5 This house was removed in 1847, and replaced by the

© 2007 by Richard F. Hope

current building.6 Its architectural style was “Renaissance Revival”7 -- despite the modern white-and-brown-concrete façade in which it was encased until recently, and which is now (in 2011) is largely removed. The cornerstone for this building was laid on 13 June 1847, after a procession of various Odd Fellows lodges including Easton’s Peace and Prosperity, No. 69.8 The building was dedicated the following year, on 18 May 1848, with another Odd Fellows’s procession around downtown Easton, starting at “Drinkhouse’s corner” (now 1 Centre Square – the “Jakie” Mayer Building9) and ending here, at the new hall.10 The Odd Fellows’ procession was “accompanied by the Easton and Bethlehem brass bands, and martial music”, followed by a lengthy oration on the “cardinal features of Odd Fellowship”.11

Among other things, the Odd Fellows raised money by leasing commercial space in their building to a grocery store and a clothing (dry goods) store, both increasingly focused on advertising their cheap prices.12 It also licensed space to traveling theater troupes for performances,13 apparently in at least occasional competition with the Military Hall (armory) space on Northampton Street.14 However, as a result of “troubles which followed the erection of [the building,],”15 Easton’s Odd Fellows Hall was sold at a Sheriff’s sale. The newspaper notice of the sale gave an extensive description of the building, as follows:

“A LARGE FOUR STORY Stone and Brick Building, with basement, known as the ‘Odd Fellows Hall.’ – The lower story red Free stone and the three upper stories of Brick, rough cast.

“The BASEMENT is composed of one large SALOON and Kitchen, and three apartments, used as cellars.

“THE FIRST STORY contains two large STORE rooms the one fronting on Pomfret street, the other on Pomfret and Ferry streets – also two large Store Rooms fronting on Ferry street, all having passages leading into the back yard, in which is a large two-story brick building.

“The main entrance to the Building, is by a 10 foot wide Hall, from Ferry street.

“THE SECOND STORY contains ONE LARGE ROOM, measuring thirty three feet by seventy, intended for public Exhibitions and Assemblies, Balls, &c. A fine music gallery extends over the whole width of the room. There is also a refreshment or store room.

“THE THIRD STORY contains one large Room measuring thirty three feet by sixty, in which different kinds of societies hold their meetings, and two smaller dressing rooms. Also a small room suitable for any kind of an OFFICE.

“THE FOURTH STORY is occupied by the order of Odd Fellows and contains one large ROOM, measuring thirty three feet by fifty five, together with three antechambers, each measuring about 12 feet by 16.

“The building throughout is well finished, substantially erected, and is covered with an excellent tin roof. . . .

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“The basement room is used as a Restaurant or Eating saloon, and has a large vault attached.”16

The buyers – three prominent Easton citizens including Theodore R. Sitgreaves (see below) – expressed their intention to return the hall as soon as the Odd Fellows could “make arrangements to redeem it.”17 It was not to be. The Odd Fellows “Peace and Prosperity” Lodge was dissolved in 1849 or 1850, and not reinstated until some twenty years later, in 1869.18 The Lodge had a checkered history throughout the remainder of the century, although other Lodges did succeed in the Easton area.19

Fortunately, the Odd Fellows had shared certain financial arrangements with Easton’s Masonic Lodge since their earlier days sharing space on the second floor of the

1 Listed in tax records as two properties, No.42 and No.56 South Third Street. www.ncpub.org.

2 Compare A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937) with Northampton County Tax Records map, www.ncpub.org.

3 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35, 157 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.47).

4 Deed, John Penn the Younger and John Penn the Elder to Henry Bush, G1 232 (12 Nov. 1789); see William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984)(purchased in “about 1785”).

5 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984); see Deed, Henry (Eve) Bush to Jacob Sickman, G1 233 (15 Apr. 1790)(£180 for a Frame Tenement and Lot No.102 measuring 50’ X 240’); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35, 257 (Vol. III of the Publications of The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.47; Bush referred to there as a yeoman).

6 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984). See also City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982)(built 1847).

7 City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982).

8 Article, “Odd Fellows Procession”, DEMOCRAT AND ARGUS (weekly), Thursday, 10 June 1847, p.3; Article, “The Corner Stone to the new Odd Fellow’s Hall”, DEMOCRAT AND ARGUS (weekly), Thursday, 17 June 1847, p.3; Ethan Allen Weaver, Local Historical and Biographical Notes 195 (Germantown Penna 1906)(in personal library of Ron Wynkoop, Phillipsburg NJ); see William J. Heller, Historic Easton From the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (1911, reprinted 1984 by Genealogical Researchers).

The Hall replaced a house built by Henry Bush in 1785, which a year later was sold to Jacob Sigman, a shoemaker. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 68.

9 Samuel Drinkhouse, the owner of the hat store at this location, was Easton’s oldest citizen at age 99 when he died in 1904. See Article, “A Long Life’s Peaceful End, Samuel Drinkhouse Had Nearly Reached the Century Mark”, EASTON DAILY ARGUS, Monday, 25 Jan. 1904, p.1. See also Madeleine B. Mathias, “Square Is Challenge to Drivers, Planners”, THE EXPRESS, Saturday, 28 Feb. 1970, p.28 (picture caption identifies “Drinkhouse Building” at the corner); Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1964-65 (Press of Wynkoop &

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old Courthouse in Centre Square.20 After the Odd Fellows chapter was forced to vacate its new building, the Masons moved into it in 1850, and it became known as “Masonic Hall”.21 It does appear, however, that T.R. Sitgreaves continued to have a substantial (perhaps sole) ownership position in the building.22 The Masons continued to rent commercial space in the building to cover their financial interest, and continued its venue as a theater, making it the “show place of Easton before the Abel Opera House was built”23 in 1872-73.24 In 1855, “Palmer’s Athenaeum” (managed by D.S. Palmer) presented performances with an admission price of 25 cents (50 cents for reserved seats) that had “the theatre nightly crowded”25 – so much so that the newspaper complained of the large audience for the popular play “Still Water Runs Deep” made the show “uncomfortably full on Monday night”, and called for a larger hall to be built.26 In 1858, the director of a travelling company performing at “The Hall” abused his actors so loudly

Hallenbeck 1864)(alphabetical listing for Drinkhouse & Youndt, hats, caps & furs, 76 Centre Sq.). 10 Article, “Dedication of the Odd Fellows’ Hall”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS (weekly),

Thursday, 11 May 1848, p.2; see Announcement, “Dedication of the Odd Fellows’ Hall Thursday, May 18, 1848”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 11 May 1848, p.2, col.2; see also Ethan Allen Weaver, Local Historical and Biographical Notes 201-02 (Germantown Penna 1906)(in personal library of Ron Wynkoop, Phillipsburg NJ).

11 Article, “Dedication of the Odd Fellow’s Hall”, DEMOCRAT AND ARGUS (weekly), Thursday, 25 May 1848, p.2.

12 See Advertisement, “Haul Out the Big Gun and Proclaim the Great Sale of Dry Goods at the odd Fellows’ Hall”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 11 May 1848, p.3, col.2 (J.A. Mandeville & Co.); Advertisement, “New Store and New Goods J.A. Mandeville”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 23 Mar. 1848, p.1, cols.1-2 (“opened the large and commodious Store under the New Odd Fellows’ Hall” with an entire new stock of goods that saved 15% on costs); Advertisement, “New Grocery Store”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 17 May 1849, p.3, col.3 (“just opened under the Odd Fellows Hall” advertising cheap prices); Advertisement, “The Gold is Coming in and the Groceries Going off Rapidly AT THE Cheap New York Grocery Store, Odd Fellows’ Hall”, Easton DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 22 Nov. 1849, p.3, col.5; Advertisement, “Clothing Cheaper Than Ever! AT THE Odd Fellows Hall”, Easton DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 22 Nov. 1849, p.3, col.4 (ad placed 8 November 1849).

Both of these latter advertisements appears in the same newspaper edition that carried notice of the Sheriff’s sale (see below).

13 See Article, “The Bakers Have Come”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 17 May 1849, p.3, col.1 and Advertisement, id., p.2, col.5 (“vocalists”, ad picture showing 2 women and 4 men in group); Article, “Theatre”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 30 Mar. 1848, p.3, col.1 (rented the “large room” with “the intention of remaining . . . for some time, if they receive the proper encouragement”). Historian Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr. indicates that the latter troupe did in fact remain in Odd Fellows Hall from 30 March until 20 April 1848. Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., The Easton PA Trivia Book 295 (Pinter’s Printers, Inc. 1985).

Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., Easton Centennial Calendar entry for 30 March 1987 (Pinters’ Printers Inc. 1986) asserts that the first professional theatrical performance in Easton took place on 30 March 1848.

14 See Article, “Theater at the Armory Hall”, EASTON WHIG & JOURNAL, Wed., 27 June 1849, p.3, col.4 (hall “fitted up” for a week of “Dramatic Entertainments”); see also separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Military Hall at 353 Northampton Street.

15 Article, “Re-Instatement of an Odd Fellows Lodge”, EASTON SENTINEL, Thursday, 24 June 1869, p.2, col. 6.

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during a performance that he had to be “hustled from behind the curtain and without any ceremony hurried into the street”.27 In the same year, the dramatic readings of William H. Davis at “the Masonic Hall” were so highly praised that he agreed to a return performance, despite poor attendance at the first session.28 In February of 1861, “General” Tom Thumb was booked at Masonic Hall for three nights, to provide “Songs, Dances, Imitations, Statues, &c.” assisted by a baritone, a tenor, and a pianist. He advertised that he would ride to the theater each day “in his Miniature Carriage drawn by Lilliputian Ponies and attended by Elfin Footmen and Coachmen”.29

The building was also the venue for social events. For example, the Daily Easton Express for 2 January 1865 reported that “The Ball of the Phoenix Hose company comes off at Masonic Hall tonight.”30 This is the volunteer fire company that had its fire house at what is now 219 Ferry Street.31

A meeting had been called on Friday, 22 December 1848, “to devise ways and means to liquidate the claims against the Association”. Article, “Odd Fellows Attend”, DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 21 Dec. 1848, p.3, col.2.

16 Sheriff’s Sale Notice, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 15 Nov. 1849, p.4, col.6. 17 Article, “Sheriff’s Sales”, DEMOCRAT AND ARGUS (weekly), Thursday, 22 Nov. 1849,

p.3., col.1. 18 Article, “Re-Instatement of an Odd Fellows Lodge”, EASTON SENTINEL, Thursday, 24

June 1869, p.2, col. 6. Since the purchasers of the Hall were offering to restore it to the chapter in November 1849, it appears the chapter must have dissolved after that, either at the very end of the year or in 1850.

In 1914-15, the Odd Fellows occupied a new hall at 516 Northampton St. (the “I.O.O.F. Bldg.”), which later became home to the VFW and the WEST radio station. Ken Klabunde, “the I.O.O.F. Building . . . where the heck was that?”, in Easton Is Home, Heritage Edition 24 (2006). See also Article, “Odd Fellows’ Home: Fine New Building to be Erected on Site of Old Jacksonian Club”, EASTON EXPRESS, Thursday, 16 Apr. 1914, p.1, col. 7; Article, “Fine New Building: Odd Fellows’ Structure Model in Every Particular – Strand Theatre Opened”, EASTON EXPRESS, Thursday, 8 May 1915, p.5, col. 5.

19 Easton Daily Express, Illustrated Industrial Edition 7 (Jan. 1893, reprint sold by Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society).

20 Interviews with Ray Wilkins, Secretary of Easton Masonic Lodge (29 and 31 Jan. 2007)(based in part upon his review of Lodge minutes and records). See also Easton Daily Express, Illustrated Industrial Edition, supra at 7 (confirming that the Easton Masonic Lodge met in the “Court House in Centre Square” prior to moving to the Odd Fellows’ Hall). The Easton Masonic Lodge was formed in 1817, and its “leading spirit” in much of its early history was James Madison Porter, prominent Easton resident, U.S. Secretary of War, and founder of Lafayette College. Id.

21 Id. See also Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 68; Article, “Re-Instatement of an Odd Fellows Lodge”, supra, EASTON SENTINEL, Thursday, 24 June 1869, p.2, col. 6; Illustration of “Masonic Hall” on an old map hanging in the Marx Room (next to the fire escape), Easton Area Public Library; Georgie Lake Chidsey, “And This I Remember”, in Fortnightly Club, II Papers on Easton History 240, at 261 (paper read 2 Mar. 1951).

22 See Trinity Episcopal Church of Easton, Pennsylvania, Register of Baptisms – Funerals and Marriages (Marx Room designation “T”) 20 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(regarding decision of the vestry to sell the Masonic Hall property in 1894, after another entry in 1893 discussing bequests by Col. T.R. Sitgreaves to the church and a decision to take out a $4,500 mortgage on the Masonic Hall property).

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A principal operation in the building at this time was Theodore Sitgreaves’s popular liquor store. After participating in purchasing the building from the Sheriff in 1849 (as described above), it apparently became clear to Sitgreaves that any hope that the Odd Fellows would redeem the property, would not be realized. By April of 1850 (shortly before the Masons took over the building), space in “the large corner room” on the ground floor was made available for a wine and liquor store “to fill all orders”, operated by Theodore R. Sitgreaves,32 the son of Samuel Sitgreaves33 (Easton’s leading citizen in the early 19th Century34). Sitgreaves had been in the liquor business for some time, beginning at least as early as 1843, from an address on Northampton Street.35 Sitgreaves no doubt capitalized on his family contacts with Easton’s elite. An 1862 photograph of the building shows the legend “WINES & LIQUORS” repeated over the

23 Roscoe (Rambler) Lawrence, “The Rambler”, THE COMMUNITY PRESS, typewritten transcription in Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library, bearing Library accession stamp dated 8 June 1979); accord, Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 68 (“for many years the only public hall in the town” of Easton); see Ethan Allen Weaver, III Historical Notes First Series 82 (copied in Easton Public Library June 1936)(“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” playing at “Masonic Hall”, from an article dated 21 Apr. 1854; states that the managers had “raised the back seats” in order to provide a better view of the stage).

24 Ken Klabunde, “PostCard Corner: Abel Opera House”, THE IRREGULAR, April 1999, p.23. See also Chidsey And This I Remember at 21; see also Industrial Edition Easton Express at 1, col. 4.

25 Advertisement, “Palmer’s Athenaeum”, EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 21 Nov. 1855, p.3, col.2.

26 Article, “Masonic Hall”, EASTON EXPRESS, Wed., 28 Nov. 1855, p.2, col.2. 27 Article, “A Bit of a Row at the Theatre”, EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 2 Aug. 1858, p.2,

col.3. The dispute appears not to have been over the acting itself, but over the actors continuing to perform even though theater management had opened the house after the play had started.

28 “Letter to Messrs. Editors”, EASTON EXPRESS, Fri., 17 Sept. 1858, p.2, col.3. 29 Advertisement, “The Celebrated American Man in Miniature The Original Gen. Tom

Thumb”, EASTON ARGUS, Thurs., 31 Jan. 1861, p.3, col.2. 30 Item, “The Ball of the Phonix Hose Company comes off at Masonic Hall tonight”, DAILY

EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 2 Jan. 1865, p.1, col.5. 31 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Phoenix Fire Station at 219 Ferry

Street. 32 Advertisement, “Removal. T.R. Sitgreaves”, EASTON SENTINEL, Thurs., 2 May 1850, p.3

(dated 11 Apr. 1850); see Advertisement, “Sitgreaves’ Wine and Liquor Store”, EASTON ARGUS, Thursday, 17 Apr. 1851, p.4, col.5 (advertisement dated 3 Apr. 1851). The advertisement was still running in 1855. See EASTON ARGUS, Thurs., 5 July 1955, p.4, col.7.

Throughout its history, various directory listings show the store as a wholesale liquor establishment. However, Sitgreaves’s 1851 advertisement, the listing in the 1874 Atlas, Roscoe (Rambler) Lawrence’s description of the liquor store in the 1890s, and other sources all seem to indicate that consumers could purchase liquor from the store as well. (See below) Even today, under Pennsylvania law, beer “distributors” sell liquor to consumers in “cases” of 24 cans, and are not required to restrict their sales to retail stores.

This was not, apparently, Sitgreaves’s first store. He was included in an 1837 list of Easton retailers who sold “Foreign Merchandise”. Henry S. Troxell, Constable of Easton, Retailers of “Foreign Merchandise” in Borough of Easton, Easton Area Public Library, Marx Room Number

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first floor exterior on both the Third and Ferry Street sides.36 Masonic officers were given the duty of ensuring that Masons did not drink to excess during meeting recesses.37 Easton notary William Welch38 became the senior partner in the liquor business in the early 1860s, as the firm became known as “Welch & Co”,39 although Sitgreaves continued as an owner until he retired in the late 1870s.40 Abraham Bercaw also joined the liquor firm in 1861,41 and apparently by the late 1870s became the sole named owner of the business.42 His son, Charles Bercaw, became a clerk in his father’s business.43

o The liquor store was listed as 26 South Third Street prior to Easton’s street renumbering in 1874,44 although it was also referred to simply as being on the corner of Third and Ferry Streets.45

H091 M2946 No.31 Oversize (16 Jan. 1837). 33 Virginia Williams Bentley, Sesquicentennial Story of the First Presbyterian Church of

Easton, Pennsylvania 1811-1861 119 (1961). A brief biography of Samuel Sitgreaves is contained in the separate entry for 109 North Third Street, and in Richard F. Hope, Easton PA: A History 65 (AuthorHouse 2006).

34 Some of the important points in Samuel Sitgreaves’s biography are listed in the separate listing for 109 North Third Street, and in Richard F. Hope, Easton PA: A History 65 (AuthorHouse 2006).

35 See Advertisement, “T.R.Sitgreaves Wholesale Wine and Liquor Store”, DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 16 Feb. 1843, p.4, col.6. This advertisement states a street number of 62 Northampton Street, which would have placed it East of Centre Square, but then goes on to identify the location as “three doors east of the Easton Bank”, which would have placed it just North of the Square. This contradiction is unexplained.

Another advertisement in 1849 placed the Sitgreaves wine and liquor store “three doors east of Hamilton street, and one door above the Post Office”. Advertisement, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, 6 Dec. 1849, p.3, col.5. According to Rev. Condit’s history, the Easton post office was located at what is now 344 Northampton Street (just below 4th Street) until May 1849, but was moved to South 3rd Street at that time with the change of postmasters. Perhaps this move was delayed for a few months (or ignored by the Sitgreaves advertisement), thus approximately locating the Sitgreaves store. See Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 181-82 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

37 Interview with Ray Wilkins (Secretary of Easton Masonic Lodge) (31 Jan. 2007). See also D.G. Beers (surveyor), Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(“Easton Business Notices” listing Welch & Co., “Dealers in Wines, Brandies, Gins, Champagne, Rum, all kinds of Whiskies, Scotch Ale, Porter, Bitters, &c., Masonic Hall, cor. 3d and Ferry Sts.”). Abraham Bercaw was listed as the third partner of the store at this time, but on the map there is a prominent reference to “Bercaw & Sitgreaves” (another liquor store partner) in the middle of the block. See also J.H. Lant & Son, Easton etc. Directory 1881-2 (1881)(A. Bercaw, liquors, 3rd cor. Ferry).

In the mid-1860s, the “Masonic Restaurant” also appears to have occupied space in the building. See Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(alphabetical listing).

38 See William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [etc.] 132 (William H. Boyd 1860)(William Welch listed as a notary public at 26 South 3rd Street).

39 Compare William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [etc.] 130 (William H. Boyd 1860)(T.R. Sitgreaves, liquors, listed at 26 South Third Street) with Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 31 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(Welch & Co., wholesale wines and liquors, 26 South Third Street).

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o When the renumbering scheme was adopted in 1874, the Welch & Co. liquor store was assigned No.46 South Third Street.46

In 1884, the Masons moved down the street to their present “Masonic Temple” location at 22 South Third St. (in the building where Sherwood’s Furniture store is also located).47 The building at the corner nevertheless continued to be called “Masonic Hall” after the Masons left.48 The liquor store continued operations at the corner; after Abraham Bercaw died on 10 October 1885, his son Charles Bercaw took over the business.49 By the 1890s the theatre business lost to the Abel Opera House was replaced by boxing matches. Masonic Hall was “the place Jack Dillon, a wiry box fighter used to meet and defeat all comers”.50 The gallery where the audience apparently stood to view

See also Fitzgerald & Dillon (compilers), Easton Directory for 1870-71 29, 77, 86 (M.J. Riegel 1870)(Welch & Co., wholesale liquors at the corner of South Third and Ferry Streets includes William Welch, T.A. Sitgreaves, and Abraham Bercaw).

40 Compare 1870 Census, Series M593, Roll 1382, p.25 (hand numbered p.50) (Wholesale Liquor Merchant, age 63) and D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania, Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(Easton Business Notice for Welch & Co., liquor dealers in Masonic Hall, showing T.R. Sitgreaves as the second partner) with 1880 Census, Series T9, Roll 1161, p.380C (“T.R. Sitgraves”, retired merchant, age 73, at 217 Spring Garden St.). See also Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 129 (1873)(alphabetical listing for Welch & Co., liquors).

41 The American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 15 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics) states that A. Bercaw established the liquor store business in 1861. This may have been an overstatement, since according to the sources listed above it appears that T.R. Sitgreaves established the liquor store ten years earlier, and both men were clearly partners in Welch & Co. by the 1870s. However, it is possible that Bercaw established a firm in 1861 that Sitgreaves and Welch later joined, even though he is listed as the third partner in 1874.

The Easton Directories and Atlas list Abraham (or Abram) Bercaw was listed as a “carter” or “teamster” in 1855 and 1860, and as a partner in the liquor firm by 1870 and thereafter. Compare:

o C[harles] Kitchen, A General Directory of the Borough of Easton PA 18 (Cole & Eichman’s Office, 1855)(Abraham Bercaw, teamster, 37 N. Sitgreaves); William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [etc.] 130 (William H. Boyd 1860)(Abraham Bercaw, carter, 37 N. Sitgreaves)

with

o Fitzgerald & Pillon (compilers), Easton Directory for 1870-71 29 (M.J. Riegel 1870)(Abraham Bercaw, Welch & Co., home at 37 Sitgreaves St.); D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(“Easton Business Notices” listing for Welch & Co., showing “Abm. Bercaw” as the third partner); J.H. Lant & Son, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1877 (M.J. Riegel 1877)(alphabetical listing for Abram Bercaw showing him a partner in Welch & Co.).

42 See American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 15 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics); J.H. Lant & Son, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1881-82 17 (1881)(A. Bercaw, Liquors &c; home at 118 N. 2nd).

43 Obituary, “Chas. Bercaw Dead At 80”, EASTON EXPRESS, Wed., 8 Jan. 1930 , p.1, col.4 (clerked for his father); see 1880 Census, Series T623, Roll 1447, p.71B (Charles Bercaw, Liquor Dealer, age 51 and family residence at 343 Bushkill Street). J.H. Lant & Son, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1881-82 17 (1881)(A. Bercaw, Liquors &c; home at 118 N. 2nd).

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the boxing matches below is still visible on the second floor.51 On the first floor, Bercaw’s Liquor Store was “filled with barrels, kegs, demijohns, bottles, flasks and good fellowship,” under the direction of Charlie Bercaw, “a joke-loving fellow”. Bercaw’s store (and the street corner where it was located) became the hangout for “sports, dog lovers and fishermen . . . . Many shooting matches were re-shot and trout re-landed in Bercaws!”52

It appears that Col. T.R. Sitgreaves left his ownership interest in the Masonic Hall property to Trinity Episcopal Church. When it was received in 1893, the Church vestry decided to take out a $4,500 mortgage on the property. The following year (1894), the vestry agreed to sell the building to H.A. Sage for 25,000. An entry after the note of that

See also American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 4 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s 2nd 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics), which claims that Charles succeeded to his father’s business in 1879. This date is contradicted by the 1881 City Directory, which showed that the business was still his father’s, and by Charles’s obituary, which indicated that he did not succeed to ownership until his father’s death in 1885 (see below). It could, however, represent the beginning of Charles’s clerkship.

36 Ronald W. Wynkoop, Sr., It Seems Like Yesterday 234 (self-published 1989). 44 William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [etc.] 130 (William H. Boyd

1860)(T.R. Sitgreaves, liquors, listed at 26 South Third Street); Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 31 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(Welch & Co., wholesale wines and liquors, 26 South Third Street).

45 See, e.g., D.G. Beers (surveyor), Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(“Easton Business Notices” listing Welch & Co., “Dealers in Wines, Brandies, Gins, Champagne, Rum, all kinds of Whiskies, Scotch Ale, Porter, Bitters, &c., Masonic Hall, cor. 3d and Ferry Sts.”).

46 Article, “The New Numbers”, EASTON DAILY FREE PRESS, Monday, 24 Nov. 1873, p.3. 47 Interviews with Ray Wilkins, Secretary of Easton Masonic Lodge (29 and 31 Jan. 2007).48 See Roscoe (Rambler) Lawrence, “The Rambler”, THE COMMUNITY PRESS, typewritten

transcription in Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library (bearing Library accession stamp dated 8 June 1979).

49 Obituary, “Chas. Bercaw Dead At 80”, EASTON EXPRESS, Wed., 8 Jan. 1930 , p.1, col.4; see, American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 15 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics). The latter article claims that Charles succeeded to his father’s business in 1879, but that date is incorrect; the 1881 City Directory still listed the business as belonging to the father, Abraham Bercaw. J.H. Lant & Son, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1881-82 17 (1881)(A. Bercaw, Liquors &c; home at 118 N. 2nd).

50 Roscoe (Rambler) Lawrence, “The Rambler”, THE COMMUNITY PRESS, typewritten transcription in Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library (bearing Library accession stamp dated 8 June 1979).

51 Interview with Phil Lipkin, owner of Lipkin Furniture (30 Jan. 2007). 52 Roscoe (Rambler) Lawrence, “The Rambler”, THE COMMUNITY PRESS, typewritten

transcription in Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library (bearing Library accession stamp dated 8 June 1979); see also West’s Directory of Easton [Etc.] 39 (George W. West 1892)(Charles Bercaw, Liquors – Wholesale, Third cor. Ferry Streets).

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vestry decision called it “the greatest error of commission the governing body of this parish has ever committed”, but did not elaborate on the reasons for the criticism.53

Henry A. Sage is better known for operating a wholesale liquor store that rented space in Centre Square, in the Jones Building, beginning by 1863.54 Henry A. Sage was a grandson of Adam Lehn,55 who had owned the land surrounding Lehn’s Court.56 After attending the Vanderveer Academy and public schools in Easton, he taught school for a time. He then learned the printing trade by working on THE JERSEYMAN in Morristown, NJ, later returning to Easton to work on the SENTINEL. In 1858, he opened his own liquor business – “Sage’s family liquor store” – located in the Masonic Hall building now numbered 44 South 3rd Street, at the NE corner with Ferry Street.57 Although Henry Sage’s liquor career was interrupted by a brief service in the Union Army during the Civil War,58 by 1863 Sage’s liquor store had moved to the Jones Building in Centre Square.59 As the liquor business prospered, Sage entered other ventures as well. In 1871, he established a horse car trolley line from Centre Square to shops on the South Side of the Lehigh; the Easton Transit Company later took over that line. In 1878 he entered a “harness manufacturing business”60 – apparently succeeding as the owner of Henry Bender’s leather and harness business in Military Hall (now 353-55 Northampton Street).61 The liquor business also moved to 348 Northampton Street at about this time.62 Henry A. Sage was an Easton schools director for 13 years, and at the time of his death at age 80 in 1913 was the oldest living Mason in Easton.63

By the early 20th Century, Charlie Bercaw appears to have moved his liquor store out of the Masonic Hall, and followed the Masons to their newer “Knecht Building”, taking the address 24 South Third Street.64 He also ventured into politics, becoming a Northampton County Commissioner twice (in 1909-11 and again in 1912-14). He discontinued the business in January of 192065 – presumably because of the institution of national alcohol Prohibition at that time.

In 1935, the Masonic Hall building became the home of Lipkins Furniture66 – a family business which had begun at another location in 1898.67 The Lipkins Family applied the modern façade to the building in about 1980.68 In 2007, the Lipkins family closed up their furniture store operation in the building.69 The building is now (2010) being renovated into a restaurant at ground level, with apartments above. The concrete 1960s façade, and the outside of the building is being restored to more of its historical appearance.70

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53 Trinity Episcopal Church of Easton, Pennsylvania, Register of Baptisms – Funerals and Marriages (Marx Room designation “T”) 20 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(entries for vestry meetings of 21 Oct. 1893 and 29 Sept. 1894).

54 See Advertisement for H.A. Sage’s Wine and Liquor Store, ARGUS, Thurs., 5 Feb. 1863, p.4, col.7; Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 110 (1873)(Henry A. Sage, liquors, at 104 Centre Square). See also Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 28 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(A.A. Sage, wholesale and retail wines and liquors, at 104 Centre Square – this is presumably a typographical error for H.A. Sage). See generally www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Jones Building at 24 Centre Square.

55 See John Eyerman, I The Grave-Yards of Northampton and Adjacent Counties in the State of Pennsylvania 48-49 (Easton: self-published June 1899); Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 78 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

56 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 8 Centre Square, and sources cited therein.

57 Obituary, “Henry A. Sage Has Passed Away”, EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 4 Aug. 1913, p.5, col.2.

58 Although not listed in his obituary (see below), Henry Sage’s grave in Easton Cemetery is marked with a G.A.R. marker, indicating some Union Army service. See Easton Cemetery Find A Grave Memorial # 18945997, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Sage&GSfn=Henry&GSiman=1&GScid=44735&GRid=18945997& (accessed 28 May 2011).

There are three listings for “Henry Sage” in Pennsylvania regiments during the Civil War.

In Company A of the 107th Regiment, Henry Sage was mustered into service on 2 January 1861, and mustered out on a Surgeon’s Certificate on 2 December 1862. Samuel P. Bates, III History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 870 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870).

If this is the correct listing, then Sage became ill while in military service, and started up his liquor store shortly after returning to Easton.

In Company I of the 97th Regiment, Henry Sage was drafted on 26 September 1864, and discharged by General Order on 28 June 1865. Samuel P. Bates, III History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 456 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870).

In Company C of the 119th Regiment, Henry Sage was mustered in on 12 September 1864, but is not listed on the muster-out roll. Samuel P. Bates, IV History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 13 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870).

If either of these latter two entries are Henry A. Sage of Easton, then he would have started his business in Centre Square and continued there in time to receive a listing in the 1864 city directory, but then had his business interrupted by a brief service at the end of the Civil War.

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Photo c. 1862, from Ronald W. Wynkoop, Sr., It Seems Like Yesterday 234 (self-published 1989).

59 See Advertisement for H.A. Sage’s Wine and Liquor Store, ARGUS, Thurs., 5 Feb. 1863, p.4, col.7 (at 104 Centre Square); accord, Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 28 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(A.A. Sage, wholesale and retail wines and liquors, at 104 Centre Square – this is presumably a typographical error for H.A. Sage).

60 Obituary, “Henry A. Sage Has Passed Away”, EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 4 Aug. 1913, p.5, col.2.

61 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Military Hall, 353-55 Northampton Street; J.H. Lant, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1877 80, 124 (M.J. Riegel 1877)(H.A. Sage & Co., apparently as a successor to Henry Bender & Co. of 1875).

62 J.H. Lant, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1883-4 121 (J.H. Lant 1883)(H.A. Sage, wholesale liquors at 348 Northampton Street, house at 9 Lehn’s Court).

63 Obituary, “Henry A. Sage Has Passed Away”, EASTON EXPRESS, Mon., 4 Aug. 1913, p.5, col.2.

64 See George W. West, West’s Directory of City of Easton for the Year 1901 18 (George W. West 1901); American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 15 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics). The 1903 article describes Charles Bercaw as the “only wholesale dealer in wines and liquors in Easton who holds a full rectifier’s license”.

65 Obituary, “Chas. Bercaw Dead At 80”, EASTON EXPRESS, Wed., 8 Jan. 1930 , p.1, col.4. He died at his residence at 343 Bushkill Street. The article mentions that due to ill health, he had discontinued his 80th birthday celebration that had been scheduled for 18 December 1849.

66 See Christina Georgiou, “Lipkin’s will close its doors, Third generation business maintained Third Street location for 72 years”, EASTON NEWS, 15 March 2007 (Vol.2, No.3), p.1, col.5.

67 Lipkins Furniture website, www. lipkinsfurniture.com/Store/Scripts/AboutUs.asp (accessed 16 Feb. 2007).

68 Interview with Phil Lipkin, owner of Lipkin Furniture (30 Jan. 2007). 69 See Christina Georgiou, “Lipkin’s will close its doors, Third generation business

maintained Third Street location for 72 years”, EASTON NEWS, 15 March 2007 (Vol.2, No.3), p.1, col.5.

70 Tony Rhodin, “New life at Lipkin’s”, EASTON EXPRESS, Sun., 18 July 2010, pp. D-4, D-6.

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