Erie Dry Goods Company
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Boston Store (Erie Dry Goods Company)
1929–1931, Shutts and Morrison; 1949–1950, Meyers and Krider. State St. at W. 8th St.
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(Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
For over seventy years the largest storefront on State Street has been this buff brick, Art Deco structure with the distinctive square clock tower on its roof. A second, interior clock, which hung from the first-floor ceiling, was a favorite meeting spot. Architects Frank Shutts and Karl Morrison opened their firm in Erie in 1912 and continued their busy practice well into the 1930s. This, the largest of their commissions, had two additions in the 1940s and 1950s that gave the building entrances from Peach and 7th streets and served as a pedestrian short cut. As the Boston Store was the first in Erie to make home deliveries, it is fitting that their livery stable of 1906 survives at 422–424 French Street, now adapted for the Children's Discovery Center.
The same firm designed the four-story Meiser Building, the former Erie Lighting Building (c. 1921; 21–23 W. 10th Street), with polychrome terra-cotta ornament as a central design element.
Writing Credits
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Data
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Location: Erie, PennsylvaniaRegional Overviews:Architect:Styles:Materials:
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Citation
Lu Donnelly et al., "Boston Store (Erie Dry Goods Company)", [Erie, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-ER17.
Print Source
Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 490-490.
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