Geller's Grand Emporium
Perhaps the most famous of all Lansdale business establishments was Geller's Grand Emporium, started in the 1880's by Jacob C. Geller, a self-taught merchant who was known for miles around.
A three story addition, to the right, was added in 1895. Geller’s Grand Emporium was Lansdale’s version of a department store. Geller sold everything from food to caskets, furniture to corsets and claimed to have the biggest inventory in Montgomery County.
Geller claimed that he would sell anyone anything - and if he didn’t have it, he’d get it for you pronto.
This photo shows Jacob Geller and his clerks ready for customers at his Grand Emporium in 1916.
This reproduction of a colorized classic downtown Lansdale photograph graced the lobby of Commerce Bank’s office at Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike which opened circa 2000. It was a nice gesture toward local history but there’s something wrong with it. What’s the problem?
If you bought your furniture from Jake Geller, he’d assure that it would be delivered to your house by Geller’s well-dressed movers using a fancy wagon pulled by a well-groomed horse. As a bonus, the furniture would arrive at the most socially-advantageous time for you – so all your neighbors would know you had the good sense to buy from Geller’s.
This is the interior of Speirs’ Hardware, circa 1940, in what was Wilson’s Hardware in the old Geller’s Grand Emporium building.
The Emporium is shown as it appeared in about 1940 with Drissel and Badman’s hardware and appliance store taking up two-thirds of the building along with Shelly’s confectionary shop on the left. Of interest to the right was Clemens Market in the old Godshall Building.
Drissel and Badman’s hardware and appliance store in the Geller building.
The Lansdale School of Cosmetology has been located in Geller’s Emporium building (215 W. Main) since at least 1981 when this photograph was snapped.
Like many of Lansdale's old buildings there have been many businesses that have come and gone...
