The Mercantile

The Mercantile. . , By the early 1870s, the company store at the Bird Mansion outgrew its allotted space. To solve the problem, the Brooke interest, which had taken over the local iron business, authorized the construction of a larger facility on the southwest corner of Mill and Main Streets. The new structure, known as the Mercantile, was ready for occupancy in 1876. The original building consisted of two stories. Disaster struck on opening day, as fire swept through the first floor., Upon rebuilding, the Brookes decided to add a third floor to the structure, relocated the company business to a site near the canal locks on Main Street, and lease the rebuilt first floor retail area to George W. Hain, a Civil War veteran. Hain maintained a profitable general store and grocery on location. The new proprietor was politically active and financially involved in the development of properties on the south side of East Main Street, near the Hay Creek Bridge. In 1873, Hain was the first elected burgess of the community. In 1888, the First National Bank of Birdsboro opened an office in the southern half of the Mercantile. A new bank building was built adjacent to it on 1901. It remained there until 1967, when it moved back to the Mercantile. Through a series of mergers, the bank became M&T Bank in 2001., At the turn of the century, the retail business that Hain had established was sold to the Miller brothers. It later became affiliated with the American Stores, Inc. That enterprise closed in 1958. Over the years, the Mercantile housed many other businesses, included the Conestoga Telephone Exchange, circa 1904, and a meeting hall for the Birdsboro Masonic Lodge (est. 1870). In the early 1960s, Mirawall, a division of Birdsboro Steel, occupied the building., American Stores, Inc. , In 1915, the local branch of the American Stores, Inc., forerunner of Acme Markets, took over the large grocery of the Miller brothers. The business operated under a new concept in the retail food marketing industry. Each store was supervised by a corporate center, offering competitive prices through bulk purchases, combined with extensive advertising and distribution. Clerks did not handle final payment of grocery orders. Instead an adding machine tape of the total was presented to customers who, in turn, handed it to a cashier sitting in a little booth at the store's exit for final transaction. The stores were easily identified by the traditional black and yellow façade.