According to local historian Mike Leibrandt, Jenkintown’s iconic Strawbridge & Clothier building at the corner of Old York Road and Rydal Road was built in 1931 and underwent a renovation in 1954.
Four years later and just down the road, the second suburban branch of the John Wanamaker Department Store (pictured above) opened for business in what is now Cheltenham Township. It sold in 1978 for $60 million and the Township was provided with a giant eagle statue in its honor. Strawbridge and Clothier moved to the Willow Grove Park Mall in 1988.
Today, the Wanamaker building is called the Noble Town Center and is occupied by PetSmart, Ross Dress for Less, Bed Bath & Beyond, and AFC Fitness. The Strawbridge building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and is now called Jenkins Court. It houses an Outback Steakhouse.
Wanamaker, a merchant, philanthropist, and former United States Postmaster General under President Benjamin Harrison, lived in Jenkintown (today it is a Cheltenham address). A neoclassic mansion was constructed when his original Victorian Lindenhurst (pictured above) burned in 1907, destroying much of his art collection. A railroad station, Chelten Hills (no longer in existence), was constructed on the property in addition to his mansion. The campus of Salus University is today on part of the former estate…