Spring Brings Out The Hats

by Jane Gottlund (originally published in Along the Saucony, Vol 20, No 1, March 1997)

The Spring catalogs, fashion magazines and newspaper ads are featuring hats. I have always enjoyed wearing hats, and have gained a reputation for sporting quite a collection. I inherited my interest in hats. My mother, Ruth Rupp Esser made hats for my dolls and for me, and she decorated most of her own hats. She said that she learned how to use ribbons and flowers from her mother Louisa Otto Rupp who decorated the mannequins in the the store windows of her husband's store in Lehighton, Pa.

I remember my mother taking me to Helen Snyder Christ's (sister of Mrs. George Weaver) Millinery Shop on W. Main St. in Kutztown to either rent a hat for a special occasion or to see the latest fashions. Later, I sat many times in Leh's store in Allentown watching mother buy her spring hat. I still have a couple of those hats in their boxes in my closet.

On the other side of my family, I have found out from local records that my great  grandfather was a hatmaker.

Charles W. Esser, a native of Maxatawny was one of the earliest hat makers in Kutztown. He learned the trade early in his life conducting his business in a building on Main Street, the front room serving as a salesroom for the hats manufactured in the shop in the rear.

In the Kutztown Sesqui-Centennial Commemorative Book 1815-1965 there are these listings about hat stores, factories, and milliners .

Hats and Caps

1794

"Two hatmakers making poor hats ... "

1860

Charles W. Esser

1870

Daniel Wartzenluft (1874-1933) in the same building, 275 W. Main, remodeled in 1925.

Hat Factory

1850

Moses Wolfe, a hunchback, on site of Shardin Tannery, before Sharadin.

1964

Mark Stump, 164 W. Main St.

The Hub, 164 W. Main St.

Milliners

1880

J.L. Eck; Mrs. D.A.G. Wink; Mrs. Mary A Zimmerman; Mrs. Mary Long; Mrs. Von Scheetz at 332 West Main [before the Bakeries], Mrs. Elizabeth DeTurk (1902-1905) sold to Mrs. F. Sarles.

1900

Mrs. Nathan Levan's New York Millinery Store, 351 W. Main St.

Hinterleiter's, 222 W. Main St.

Laura Gehring, 222 W. Main St.

1904

Lillian Lichtenwalner's Paris Millinery Store, 222 W. Main St.

1907

Ella Stump, East Main St.

1913

Mabel Gernerd moved from the front of the Auditorium to 113 W. Main St.

Lichtenwalner's moved to 218 W. Main St.

1914

Helen Snyder, "Mourning Hats to Loan", 261 W. Main St.