Content area
Full Text
Manor Shopping Center, opened in 1961, was one of the first suburban shopping centers in Lancaster County.
Locally developed by John Butz, who has since died, and later sold to out-of-state investors, its history reflects many retailing trends of the past few decades.
Nationally, the first shopping center to be built out of the downtown opened in 1922, but the real growth began with the construction of strip centers after World War II, in the 1950s and 1960s, due to the growth in the suburbs, according to The International Council of Shopping Centers' web site.
By 1964, three years
after Manor opened, there
were 7,600 shopping centers in the United States.
By the 1970s, enclosed malls were increasing in popularity, and regional malls were developed.
By 1984, the 250,000-square-foot Manor Shopping Center, located off an east-west road in Lancaster Township, had a mixture of stores probably similar to that found in other centers.
There were the stalwarts, locally owned longtime tenants that had moved in soon after the
shopping center opened. Those were Smitty's Hobby and Craft Shop and Manor Plaza Restaurant.
Weis Markets has had a supermarket and pharmacy at the strip center since the early '70s.
Jim Dormer has been that store's manager from nearly the beginning, when Acme was the nearest competition on the other side of the center. That was before the major consolidation waves that hit the grocery business.
Hair Hut opened in the mid '80s, as did what is still one of Fulton Bank's busiest branches. Fulton Bank, which eventually expanded, is located where Smitty's, a Ray's Appliance store and H&R Block...