At a time when Lansdale is hoping to grab some of the economic stimulus money to complete the Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts, perhaps a look back at the town is in order.

The photo today is courtesy of the Lansdale Historical Society.



This shows the Beinhacker building, originally known as Zane’s store.

It was built in the 1880s, and was located at the railroad where Green Street enters the Madison parking lot and where Railroad Plaza Park is today.

A variety of merchants operated out of the Beinhacker building over the years.

It was a bakery, a clothing store and at one time the Lansdale News Agency was located along the Main Street portion of the building.

Grove’s Tavern also operated under a number of names over the years.

One of the advantages it enjoyed was its proximity to the Lansdale railroad station, which was only a few feet from the tracks of the Reading Co.’s Bethlehem branch.

Legend has it that rail crews often dashed into the bar for liquid refreshment while passengers were disembarking or boarding the trains — a practice that would be prohibited today.

And as you can see on the top of the Beinhacker Building, when the wrecking ball arrived in the 1970s, hundreds of pigeons and other birds had to find a new place to roost.