Readers offer lots of suggestions over identity of department store
Our photo of an old-time department store brought back many memories to our readers, but not all of them were remembering the same place.
Four people called or emailed the newspaper to let us know they recognized Horovitz’s Department Store in Slovan.
Several others said the photo reminded them very much of Dunn’s Dry Goods on North Main Street in Washington. Others guessed the picture was of McCrory’s in Waynesburg, Woolworth’s 5&10 in Canonsburg, G.C. Murphy’s in Brownsville and Montgomery Ward’s on Chestnut Street in Washington.
Alas, they were wrong.
The majority of our readers identified the location as the lower level of G.C. Murphy’s 5¢ to $1 store on North Main Street in Washington, and they were right.
We found proof at the top center of the photo. Under magnification, the word “Murphy’s” appears to be printed on the sign suspended from the ceiling.
“My mother used to bring my sister and me there, and I can remember running amongst those bins,” said John Williams, who lives in Clover Hill. “I recall getting hollered at a lot.”
Karen Crawford of Claysville remembers shopping at Murphy’s with her mother in the 1950s.
“One time my mother was taking a long time looking for socks, just like those in the picture, and a saleswoman asked her what she was looking for. ‘Oh, I’m just shoplifting,’ she told her, just kidding.” When the manager confronted the supposed thief, Crawford said her mother laughed and told him, “I tease these girls all the time.”
Murphy’s opened at the North Main Street location in the 1920s and expanded some time in the early 1940s. There was a lunch counter on the south side of the main level, and steps leading downstairs were at the front of the store near the main doors.
“My grandpap would drive us up once a month for lunch,” recalled Diana Bruno, who has lived in Canonsburg all her life. “It was a treat for our family on Thursdays, which were paydays. We’d sit at the counter and have a cherry Coke and a hamburger or a hot dog and look at the people going by the window.
“We’d get to choose some Brach’s candies … It was such a simple time of life,” Bruno said.
The Washington Murphy’s closed in 1981. Through the years, the building became, among other things, a Ben Franklin store and Slagle’s business furnishings. In recent years, it was home to Watermark Galleries and is now, like so many other properties on North Main, vacant.
Look for another Mystery Photo in next Monday’s Observer-Reporter.