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Zippo Museum

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1997, Preston R. Abbey and Associates. 1932 Zippo Dr.
  • (Michelle Krone)
  • (Michelle Krone)

The Zippo/Case Visitors' Center uses architecture as a clever marketing tool and tourist promotion. The museum and retail store, just outside the commercial district of Bradford, are accessible to travelers along scenic U.S. 6 and U.S. 219. The pale mauve cement-block facility tells the story of the windproof lighter coveted by GI's during World War II and of the knives important to hunters the world over. Technicians repair broken lighters behind plate glass to fulfill the company promise “it works or we fix it free.” The lighting fixtures in the parking lot simulate flaming lighters, just as the streetlights in Hershey, Pennsylvania, simulate Hershey Kisses. One enters the building below an oversized lighter in the open position with a glowing neon flame. The building is a large, one-story rhomboid with a two-story polished black granite entrance block.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
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Data

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Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "Zippo Museum", [Bradford, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-MK13.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 417-418.

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