Let's Go Shopping! Stores of Yesteryear

The city of Wilkes-Barre has been located in the heart of the Wyoming Valley since 1769. Over the years, it has seen many stores come and go. Public Square and its adjacent streets were home to well-known department stores such as Fowler, Dick and Walker, Pomeroy's, Isaac Long's, Lazarus, as well as five-and-dime stores including Woolworth's, Neisner's and S.S. Kresge.

Although many of these stores are gone now, save for the Fowler, Dick and Walker Boston Store, which is known as the Boscov's Department Store today, many in the Valley still remember them. While this exhibit focuses primarily on stores from the Wyoming Valley, non-residents can remember local stores from their own hometowns with as much clarity as the residents of Wilkes-Barre remember theirs.

To hear more personal stories, please go here for a community conversation hosted by the Luzerne County Historical Society on the stores of the Wyoming Valley.