Category:Koch Brothers, Allentown, Pennsylvania

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Thomas James Koch (1861) and his brother Franklin Walter Koch (1850) were both born in Khunsville. They began their business career in clothing in 1876 along with a friend, Wilson Shankweiler on March 30th, 1876 under the name Koch & Shankweiler in the storefront of 618 Hamilton Street. The store was also referred to as the Eagle Clothing Hall. At that time, Thomas was the only clerk.

In 1884 the firm expanded to purchase the old Allen House hotel on the Northeast corner of 7th and Hamilton streets. The Allen House was torn down, and they erected a new building, the Hotel Allen. The store was moved to include the entire first floor of the hotel, and using the upper floors as a hotel, one of the finest in the city. The firm made 97 percent of the clothing sold by the firm, employing about 60 garment-makers.

In 1896 Wilson Shankweiler died and half of his interests were purchased by his brother Lewis Shankweiler, the other half by Thomas Koch. On 1 April 1897, the firm's name was changed to Koch Brothers. This arrangement continued until July 1906 when Franklin Koch was killed in a railway accident, while on a business trip to England. Subsequently Thomas Koch brought two of his nephews into the firm, Willis E Kuhns and Harry W. Jordan and assumed sole ownership of the company.

Thomas Koch died on February 10th, 1915, with ownership being assumed by several partners, who operated both the Hotel Allen and the firm until November 1946, when the Hotel Allen was closed. In 1949, the building was extensively modified and turned into a three-story clothing store, retaining the name Koch Brothers that opened in June 1952. In March 1955, with the sale of the building to the new First National Bank, the clothing store moved to 732 Hamilton Street. The Koch Brothers clothing store filed for bankruptcy in 1957 and passed into history in December after 81 years of business.

Camera location40° 36′ 08″ N, 75° 28′ 17″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMapinfo

Subcategories

This category has only the following subcategory.

H

Media in category "Koch Brothers, Allentown, Pennsylvania"

The following 191 files are in this category, out of 191 total.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Koch_Brothers,_Allentown,_Pennsylvania&oldid=342479381"