Bixler-Nightengale Bldg

1

(Photos by Richard F. Hope)

Bixler-Nightengale Bldg. (315-21 Northampton Street)

Striking 3-1/2-story, peach-colored brick, with green decorative band and dormers, peaked green roof with red trim, exhibiting “Richardson Romanesque” and “Victorian” features.[1] (Map Reference 34)(These are two separate parcels in the tax records.) The current brick building appears to be a renovation of at least a part that existed in 1862.[2]

This is the original site of Christian Bixler III’s homestead and clock and jewelry store. Various sources date the business from approximately 1785;[3] one source dates the homestead specifically to 1787.[4] The Bixler (originally, Buchsler) Family – morespecifically, Christian Bixler’s namesake grandfather – had emigrated from the area near Bern, Switzerland in 1727. Bixler’s father, Christian Bixler II, was a veteran of Washington’s army in the Revolution, who had become a clockmaker in Reading.[5] Christian Bixler III moved to Easton in approximately 1785, and began making clocks at his homestead at the NE corner of an alley (now called Bank Street) and Northampton Street (now 321 Northampton Street).[6] He formally purchased that property from the Penn Family in 1789 for £38 6 shillings and 8 pence “in Specie”.[7]

Bixler made some 465 clocks between 1784 and 1812, especially “tall case” (grandfather) clocks which (in one case) originally sold for £38, 6 shillings and eight pence, plus a “quit rent of one barley corn, payable on the 5th day of March, each year, forever thereafter, if demanded”. Today, when they are in good condition,these clocks are expensive collector’s items worth thousands of dollars. Bixler soon began selling jewelry as well.[8] After about 1830, his store came to rely more on the jewelry business, as his brass movement clocks were replaced with cheaper “Yankee” clocks with wooden movements.[9]

In addition to his store, Christian Bixler “erected and operated one of the first mills to be put in operation on the Delaware river in Easton, and owned considerable real estate.”[10] His properties included the purchase in 1800 of the rocky (unfarmable) hilltop along what is now North 2nd Street, where the Easton Union Academy had been established, in order to save that land from repossession by the Penn Family (who had never been paid for it). Bixler was later reimbursed.[11] As a result of Bixler’s loan, the land was called “Bixler’s Bluff”.[12] He was a founder of the local library, and joined a volunteer fire company.[13] He was a founder of the Easton Water Company (engaged in bringing drinking water to town from spring on Chestnut (now College) Hill via wooden pipes).[14] He was chairman of the town committee charged with getting a charter for the Easton Bank, which came to be headed by Bixler’s “intimate friend” Samuel Sitgreaves.[15] In 1799, he ran against his brother-in-law Daniel Wagener (also spelled Wagoner) for Chief Burgess of Easton. They tied, and Wagener was chosen by lot.[16]

• Christian Bixlerhad married Catharine Opp, one of three daughters of Jacob Opp, the German immigrant who operated an inn on the site of the present-day Hotel Lafayette. Indeed, it was probably his involvement with the Opp Family (who were distant relatives) that bought Bixler to Easton in the first place.[17] Catharine’s sister, Eve (Opp) Wagener, was the wife of Daniel Wagener.[18]

Christian Bixler died in 1840 in his homestead at Northampton and Bank Streets.[19] At that time, the property contained a 2-1/2 story “Stone House”, with a brick building in the rear. A published sketch has purported to show this building.

Christian Bixler’s Homestead[20]

• This sketch shows a building with a chimney and dormer at each end that could have been divided between Bixler’s boys (see below), but intriguingly also shows an adjacent stone building (perhaps on the theory that William had a separate house of his own. The artist, and the basis for this sketch, are unknown.

Christian Bixler’s will gave a life estate in a “Brick building in the rear of the Stone House now occupied by me situated on the corner of Northampton Street and Bank Alley”.[21] His will went on to, in effect, divide his“Stone House” residence in half between his two sons (William and Daniel). [The widow’s brick building in the rear went to Daniel after her death, suggesting that it stood entirely on Daniel’s half of the property.] The will made special provision that William would also get the right to use the entry door and hall.

[William Bixler and his heirs received] “the Eastern half of the said Stone House with half of the Lot whereon it stands” [measuring 20’ X 240’ deep] “with the privilege of using the Door & Hall entering from Northampton Street so long as the same shall be kept as the entrance, or until the owner or owners of the part of the said Stone House shall build up or tear down to the line of his part where the said privilege shall end and the owner of the said Eastern half shall be confined to the said twenty foot front.”[22]

This asymmetry of the entrance door suggests that the sketch of the Bixler Homestead shown above is not accurate. This discrepancy supports the supposition that the sketch was prepared at a later date – possibly even in the 20th Century – quite possibly based only upon later descriptions or recollections of the building.

The two Bixler brothers continued the business after their father’s death under the name “W. and D.L. Bixler”, but within a few years “they separated . . . each branching out in the same business under his own name.”[23]

The Eastern Half

Christian Bixler’s older son, William Bixler,took into his part of the business a very young Eli M. Fox as an employee in the 1840s.[24] William Bixler diedon 8 February 1848. His widow,Sophia (nee Tolan),[25]took over the business.[26] In the 1850s and ‘60s, the street listing for this property was No.115 Northampton St.[27] By 1873, Mrs. Bixler had made Eli M. Fox a partner in the business.[28] Fox also resided in Mrs. Bixler’s building.[29] Fox, in turn, took on his nephew, Eli Fulmer, as his apprentice.[30]

• After the renumbering of Northampton Street in 1874, the Bixler & Fox jewelry store was listed as No.317,[31] and the residence as No.315.[32]

During the 1870s, Sophia Bixler’s son, J. Elwood Bixler, lived with his mother and worked as a jeweler, presumably in the Bixler & Fox store.[33] According to one source, Elwood had been born on 26 February 1848 – 18 days after his father’s death.[34] After Sophia Bixler died on 18 May 1879,[35]she was succeeded by her son, J. Elwood Bixler, as head of the family business.[36] Eli Foxleft the Bixler firm in 1880 (the year after Sophia’s death and Elwood taking control), and opened his own competing jewelry store, taking his nephew Eli Fulmer along with him as his partner.[37]

• This Fox & Fulmer store was known as the “jewelry palace of Easton”, initially located at 345 Northampton Street[38] (the Fraley Building).[39]

Elwood Bixler’s manager for some years was Walter Hammann (also spelled Hammann),[40] apparently beginning in about 1886.[41]

• In 1873, Walter Hamman had been listed as the proprietor of a jewelry store at 406 Northampton Street.[42] This was apparently the location where Elwood’s cousin, Rush Bixler, had previously operated his jewelry store.[43] At that time, Walter Hamman was a young man of about 21 years of age, just starting in business.[44] Hamman married in 1878[45] -- just before Elwood’s mother died in 1879 and Fox left in 1880.

J. Elwood Bixler continued to run the family store until he died in 1891,[46] ending his branch of the Bixler family’s involvement in the jewelry business.[47] His manager, Walter Hammann, then moved to Philadelphia.[48] The Bixler Family continued to own the Northampton Street property thereafter.[49] Elwood Bixler’s widow, Emma (nee Eilenberger), built the mansion at the SW corner of Second and Spring Garden Streets in 1893, with the assistance of her nephew, Floyd S. Bixler (one of Daniel Bixler’s sons – see below).[50] In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, both the store and residence were apparently rented to the photographic business of Kreidler & Crider (operated by Vincent A. Kreidler alone after Crider retired in 1897).[51]

The Western Half

Christian Bixler’s younger son,Daniel L. Bixler (1810 – 1892[52]), had attempted unsuccessfully to strike out on his own before his father’s death. In about 1837,[53] and against father Christian’s advice,[54] Daniel had put his wife and 2-year-old daughter Adelia in a covered wagon, to “try the west”. Taking along a cow (for milk) and a supply of clocks, store stock and fixtures,[55] they required about 5 weeks of hard travel to the relatively new state of Ohio,[56]evidently via the first federally-funded “National Road” which was just then being opened to their destination at Springfield (a little West of Columbus). Both existing version of this story make the point of how awful the road was during this journey.[57] Once in Ohio,Bixler’s business started well, but “one morning Mr. Bixler awoke to find that thieves had entered his store and had taken everything of value.” Unable to replenish stock, and without equipment to continue operating as a jeweler, had was forced to apply to his father for money to defray of the expense of the journey back to Easton.[58]

Daniel continued with his brother William in the jewelry business for a time after his return to Easton, but the brothers ultimately separated their businesses.[59] [For a history of his family’s jewelry business, see the entry for 24 Centre Square.] After his father’s death, Daniel “altered the old corner at Bank and Northampton Streets into a . . . hardware store, and did a fine business, though many of the people to whom he gave credit never paid their accounts.”[60] In 1852, the Sheriff seized Daniel’sportion of the Bixler homestead property (at the corner) over a debt of $1,708, and sold the property for $5,600to shoe salesman John A. Nightengale (also spelled Nightingale).[61] However Daniel L. Bixler’s principal biographer (and son, Floyd) indicated that Danieland his family did not move their residence from the Northampton Street house until 1854.[62] In 1855, Daniel Bixler had become the superintendent of Easton’s Water Works, and was by then living on Ferry Street.[63] A biography also indicates that at about this time he also built a saw mill on the Lehigh River, to the West of the foot of what is now 4th Street. However, his old business problem of collecting from delinquent accounts also rendered this venture “disastrous”.[64] From 1859, until he retired in about 1878, Daniel Bixlerbecame a clerk or bookkeeper at the Easton National Bank[65] (which he father had helped to found). Daniel L. Bixler died in 1892.[66]

John Nightengale (also frequently spelled Nightingale) had come to Easton in approximately 1834[67] from Massachusetts, and opened a retail shoe business.[68] He may not have moved his business onto the Bixler property immediately after purchasing it in 1852, becausein 1855 his business was still advertised in the building now known as Military Hall, farther up Northampton Street.[69] Bixler Family tradition holds that Daniel Bixler’s hardware business – run by a John Cooper – continued in Daniel Bixler’s premises until 1854, and that Nightengale only took over the space in 1855.[70]

Nightengale’s shoe business was firmly established in Daniel Bixler’s former property by the 1860s. At that time, the property was numbered 117 Northampton St. He also established his family residence in the building.[71]

By 1869, one of John A. Nightengale’s sons, Henry O. Nightingale,[72] was operating his own shoe store (perhaps as a branch of the family business) on the South side of Northampton Street.[73] His business also operated another branch in Centre Square, located in the Porter Block (later incorporated into the modern Alpha Building).[74] In 1871, H.O. Nightingale erected a new building on the North side of Northampton Street, at what became 447-49 Northampton Street[75] –known as the Nightingale Building.[76]

In 1868, one of John A. Nightengale’s daughters, Ophelia, married Easton resident W.W. Moon.[77] Moon was the son of Easton painter Samuel Moon[78] (“one of the most prominent artists of Pennsylvania” of the period[79])and grandson (through his mother) of noted Easton innkeeper William “Chippy” White.[80]

• Indeed, William Moon’s middle initial, “W.”, stood for “White”.[81]

Thus, Moon and Henry O. Nightingale were brothers-in-law. In addition, Moon was also independently related to Henry O. Nightingale’s wife, Emily Cottingham,[82] through the White Family.[83] The family relationships were apparently close. For example, on 29 October 1871, “H. Oscar” and Emily Nightingale had their daughter (Nina Josephine) baptized at the same time that William W. and Ophelia Moon had their sons Arthur and Fred baptized, at Trinity Episcopal Church.[84]

Consequently, it should probably come as no surprise that when Henry O. Nightingale died at the age of only 33 on 1 April 1875,[85] William W. Moon took over his shoe store business.[86] In 1879, Moon’s father-in-law, the old shoe merchant John A. Nightengale, purchased a mansion at 60 North 3rd Street,[87] where the Moon and his wife promptly took up residence.[88] When Nightengale died in 1894,[89] he left title to the house to his daughter Ophelia in trust, with one of her brothers as trustee.[90]

Meanwhile, for some years before he died,old John A. Nightengale had left his own shoe business (at 321 Northampton Street) to the direction of his son Charles.[91] Another son, John F. Nightengale, by 1881 had joined Moon’s separate firm.[92] In approximately 1884, William Moon purchased (presumably from Charles) the Nightengale Family’s main shoe sales operation[93] at 321 Northampton Street, continuing to operate it under a separate firm name (Moon & Co.) with a Nightingale son, John F. Nightingale, as his partner. Old John A. Nightengale continued to live in residential space in that building.[94] Charles Nightingale, meanwhile, had left the sales side of the business to concentrate on manufacturing shoes at a factory at the corner of Bank and Church Alleys in the rear of the shoe store property.[95]

By 1887, Moon and J.F. Nightingale had consolidated the shoe stores at 321 and 447 Northampton Street into the single W.W. Moon & Co. firm name, while John F. (now listed as “J. Frank”) Nightingale had taken over brother Charles’s old residential address at 616 Ferry Street.[96] Charles was no longer listed, apparently having left shoe manufacturing and Easton altogether to run a glass and bottle business in Binghamton (NY) and Chicago; he later retired to Oakland, California.[97]

Old John A. Nightengale died in 1894.[98] Moon continued in the shoe business until 1897, when he sold his interest.[99] After his wife’s death in 1905,[100] Moon left Easton to live with his daughter, Emilie Miller, in Nazareth.[101] Moon subsequently tried several other activities in various locations for short periods of time. Finally, he returned to this area and to the telephone business he had entered as a young man, by becoming the manager of the Slate Belt Telephone Co, where he remained for ten years.[102] W.W. Moon died in 1919; his funeral was held at the residence of “J. Frank” Nightingale.[103]

After his father’s death and William Moon’s retirement, John F. Nightingale took over control of the main family shoe business at 321 Northampton Street. He continued to manage that business until 1902, when he also retired.[104] He then leased 321 Northampton Street as expansion space for the adjacent Bush & Bull store.[105] In retirement, he indulged his passion for cards, becoming one of the most expert whist players in national competition in America (with his partner, C.D.P. Hamilton of St. Louis), and the founder of the Nightingale Club to play bridge in the afternoons. He also continued his early membership in the Pomfret Club, acting for many years as its Treasurer.[106] In fact he had provided the Pomfret Club with its location over the shoe store at 321 Northampton Street from 1891 until 1895, when it moved to its present location in the John O. Wagner mansion.[107] John F. Nightingale died in 1937.[108]

• After Moon’s retirement, control of the Nightingale Building shoe store (now numbered 449 Northampton Street) was assumed by Fred O. Nightingale.[109] Fred was H.O. Nightingale’s son, and had been born in the Nightingale Building.[110]

Despite the lease to Bush & Bull, the Nightengale Family (by now consistently spelled Nightingale) continued to own their portion of the Bixler-Nightengale property long into the 20th Century.[111] John A. Nightengale died in 1894,[112] willing the property to John Franklin Nightengale. He, in turn, died in 1937, willing it to Elizabeth A. Magee,[113] his daughter.[114] She was married to John Magee, who worked his way up to become the President of the Alpha Cement Co. in Easton.[115] Elizabeth Magee died in 1954, and her Estate Trustees didn’t sell the property until 1985.[116]

Two Buildings / One Building

The Nightengales and Bixlers, initially operating separately, appear to have replaced their respective portions of Christian Bixler’s stone homestead property with their own buildings. The 1852 notice and deed Sheriff Sale of Daniel L. Bixler’s property references a 2-story stone building, apparently the same homestead described in Christian Bixler’s will. Specifically, the Sheriff stated that the property was “improved” by:

“a Stone House two stories High twenty feet by thirty four feet fronting on Northampton Street with Brick back building attached two Stories high Seventeen feet by forty three feet, also on the back end of the lot a building twenty feet by thirty five feet two Stories high”.[117]

In 1858, Sophia Bixler concluded an agreement with the owners of the adjacent property towards Centre Square. The agreement recited that she was “about to repair and improve” her House “by raising the Roof thereof”. To do so, she wished to “take down the Eastern wall of her said house”, and the wall with one of “Brick three Stories in height, thirty four feet or thereabouts in deptch and nine inches in thickness”. It would sit half on the wall of Bixler’s celler, and half on the wall of the neighbor’s cellar. The agreement established that it would be a party wall, belonging half to the neighbors.[118] This agreement appears to date Bixler’s replacement of the old stone homestead with a taller brick building, at least on one side. The Nightengales apparently did the same on their side , because a picture datedto 1862 appears to showthat Nightengale had by then built a brick building at the corner with Bank Alley. It was 3-1/2 stories high, 3 window bays wide, with 2 front dormers on the roof.[119] An even clearer photograph taken in 1897 shows the same (apparently brick) building at the Bank Street corner, identified as “Nightingale’s” Shoe Store.[120] Yet another photograph of Northampton Street in 1900 appears to showeach side of the oiginalBixler homestead location occupied byaseparate building of similar – but not identical – height about 3 stories high, each with its own separate façade.[121]