Category:Shankweiler & Lehr

What would eventually become Khuns and Shankweiler began in the 1870s as the "Reliable Lion Clothing" store on the Southeast corner of 7th and Hailton Streets . In April 1880, the Store was purchased by H Leh & Company, becoming the H. M. Leh Lion Clothing Store selling ready-to-wear clothing in a separate storefront at Center Square. Lion Clothing Hall had two large brass Lions outside of entrance.

Lewis O. Shankweiler was born in Allentown in 1861. He was the brother of Wilson Shankweiler, who had gone into business with the Koch Brothers and was a partner in the Koch & Shankweiler Clothing Store. It was at Koch & Shankweiler that Lewis Shankweiler served an apprenticeship and learned about the clothing bushiness. William Charles Lehr, also was born in Allentown in 1865 also learned the clothing trade with the Kochs. In 1895 the Dresher & Stephens Lion Clothing Store went out of business. Shankweiler and Lehr opened their first business, a laundry, on the second floor of 643 Hamilton, next door to the Koch Brothers store in September 1888. By 1892, Shankweiler & Lehr had opened a retail mens clothing store on the main floor. The Leh Lion Hall Clothing was sold in the summer of 1895 and became Dresher & Stephens, and subsequently in 1898 into Shankweiler and Lehr purchased the bushiness and began an Allentown institution which would last nearly 100 years.

Across the street from Koch Brothers, where they both had learned the trade, Shankweiler & Lehr performed custom tailoring, and also carried a line of ready-made goods, including all kinds of men’s shirts and accessories. In 1898 their business occupied two floors of nearly five thousand square feet each, and in addition had a workshop on the fourth floor in which they employed between thirty and forty operatives and experienced tailors in making garments, either for stock or custom trade.

In 1931, Lewis Shankweiler died and with the retirement of William Lehr, the business was sold to a partnership of Raymond and Richard Kuhns and William W Shankweiler. The name was changed to Kuhns and Shankweiler in 1935 and the business continued for another 45 years before being closed in 1980. The building was purchased by developers in 1982 and subsequently torn down in 1983. Today it is a banking/financial building known as the Hamilton Financial Center. Richard Kuhns passed away in January 1995, along with William W. Shankweiler later in October 1995.