Photo 2009 by Richard F. Hope

1

(Photo 2009 by Richard F. Hope)

Knecht Bldg. (20-24 South 3rd Street (at Pine St.), now Masonic Temple and recently Sherwoods Furniture, with Salvage Goods recently opened at 24 South 3rd Street[1]).

3-story, 6-bay building with flat room, large ground floor picture window, flat entablature over second-story windows, and curved entablature over third-story windows. The architectural style has been identified as “Victorian Commercial”.[2]

This was the site of the earliest official building in Easton: the town jail, built of logs just after the founding of the town in 1752,[3] and improved with stone by 1755, to serve as a refuge from Indian attack if necessary.[4] John Finley, a mason and (apparently) original settler in town, “laid up the walls of the prison in 1752”, and consequently got the contract to build the wall enclosure around it in 1756. He was also given the contract to dig its wells.[5]

Original town Lot No.96, on which the prison was built, was formally obtained from the Penn Family in 1763.[6] However, the written survey observed that “As ye Lot for ye County Gaol was laid out 60 ft. &c ye Trustees have built to ye Extent of ye 60 Ft. before ye new Regulation for reducing ye Lotts to 55 Ft., you must make ye Return 60 Ft. &c. ye next unimproved Lot to ye southwd. of ye Jail viz. No. __ must be but 50 ft &c. that will bring all right again.”[7] Contrary to this notation, historian A.D. Chidsey’s Penn Patents shows the prison Lot (No.96) with only 55’ of frontage on South 3rd Street, while he ascribes the 60’ frontage to Lot No.98 (next to the South), leaving the shorted 50’ frontage to Lot No.100.[8]

In December 1777 (during the Revolutionary War, after British General Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga), various prisoners of war were sent to Easton. American Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper wrote from his Easton headquarters that he had ordered all the “Brittish Prisoners to be close locked up”.[9] Five days later, he wrote that “Since the Brittish Prisoners have been close confined, they have attempted to brake thro’ the Goal Wall, but were discovered in good time.”[10]

• By contrast, Col. Hooper wrote he had “not confined the German [i.e. Hessian] Prisoners, they are hired with our Farmers and behave well – I have taken security for their appearance on demand”.[11]

In 1784, during the “Pennamite War” between Pennsylvania and Connecticut settlers over the land around Wilkes-Barre, 27 captured Connecticut (“Yankee”) settlers were held in Easton’s stone jail for several months, but they ultimately overpowered the guard and escaped.[12] A visitor to Easton in 1794 noted: “The prison is not so good, for the traveler notes that the construction of it is such as to account for the frequent escapes of prisoners.”[13]

The early stone jail was apparently gutted in 1851 (although the building shell may have remained thereafter – see below). It was replaced by the second jail – a limestone building located immediately behind it (to the east), surrounded by a jail yard and wall. A brick residence for the Sheriff (warden) was built east of that, facing Sitgreaves Street. This limestone building was only used as a jail until 1871, when a new and very costly county jailhouse was opened 10 years after the transfer of the Courthouse from Centre Square to Walnut Street.[14]

Old Easton Jail[15]

In the mid-1880s John Knecht built a commercial building on the site of the original jail and perhaps part of the limestone jailhouse (with warden’s residence).[16] In approximately 1885, wholesale dry goods partners Floyd S. Bixler and James W. Correll (who had been operating in Centre Square since 1880) “suggested to Mr. John Knecht that if he would erect a building on the corner of Third and Pine streets they would take a good share of it. On this offer Mr. Knecht determined to remove the shells [of the old jail] that stood on that prominent corner and put up the handsome building that now beautifies the location.”[17] The Bixler & Correll firm moved into the building in 1886,[18] in the corner room. An expansion in 1887 added more space for that firm, removing “frame buildings on Pine Street”. By 1888, the firm held a “large double room at the corner”, a basement of equal size underneath, and a second story room, all “connected by an Otis elevator, driven by water power”.[19] Despite (or perhaps because of) the success of the firm, James Correll (born 1852[20]) withdrew from the partnership in 1896 or ’97to conduct his own firm.[21] Bixler continued his business as the F.S. Bixler Company in the Knecht Building, which became“one of the heaviest wholesale dealers in dry goods, hosiery and notions in the State outside of Philadelphia”.[22] In 1902, he moved his firm to 126-30 South Third Street.[23]

The “Knecht Building” was also constructed in part to include rooms specially designed for the use of the Masons. In fact,the propertyhad been acquired by the Knights Templar (a Masonic organization) in 1884, and occupied by Masonic organizations ever since. In consequence, the Masons’ portion of the building has been called the “Masonic Temple”.[24] In 1890, the Easton Mayor’s Office was also located in this building.[25] In 1902, the Johnson & Snyder firm (wholesale distributors of shoes and rubbers) moved into the building, and in 1904, that firm tore down whatever remained of the second jail building at the back of the property to construct more storage space.[26] By 1912, Charles Bercaw’s wholesale liquor store and the Snyder Company shoe store were both located in the ground floor of the building, when the rear of the building was damaged by a serious fire. Although the fire has been called the “Knecht fire”, it in fact originated in the Bijou Theatre in the Pomfret Building next door, which was completely gutted.[27]

The commercial portion of the Knecht Building is today (in 2012) occupied by Sherwood’s Furniture store. The basement of the Knecht Building still contains walls from the original jail, including rings on the wall where shackles and chains were said to have been affixed.[28]

In 1997, the City of Easton awarded a $7,000 façade grant to the Masonic Building Corp. to replace doors and windows and repaint this building – a project with an overall cost of $24,900.[29]

• In 1999, the bricked upper floor windows of the Masonic Temple were painted to show the reflection of the old Drake Building, as if it were still standing across the street. (See entry for 25 South Third Street: Easton Parking Garage). The mural was done in five shades of grey by Easton artists Donna Thatcher and Suzanne Newhard,[30] based upon an idea by Easton architect Oliver Andes.[31]

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

[1]See Photo Article, “New to the Easton Area”, Easton Irregular 16 (Dec.-Jan. 2010-11).

[2]City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982).

[3]A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton 203 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Soc’y, 1940).

[4]Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a16, 18, 27(George W. West 1885).

[5]M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley 63 (Bixler & Corwin 1860).

[6]Patent, Penn Family to Thomas Craig, et al., Trustees, Patent Book AA4 220 (18 Jan. 1763), indexed online at see Northampton County Warrant C27 (second) issued to Thomas Craig, et al., Trustees (9 July 1762, returned 15 Oct. 1762), indexed online for Northampton County p.28 Warrant No.27 (second) at surveys copied at Survey Book D80 223 and D88 53 and 54 (returned 15 Oct. 1762).

See generally Survey Book D88 2 (5 June 1764)(note on survey of 80’ X 80’ “Great Square” and notation that trustees to obtain land to build a Court House and Prison were Thomas Craig, Hugh Wilson, John Jones, Thomas Armstrong and James Martin, of whom any three acting together were authorized to act).

[7]Survey Book D88 54.

[8]A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937).

[9]Letter, Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., to Elias Boudinot (Commissary General of Prisoners) (Easton 22 Dec. 1777), reprinted in Ethan Allen Weaver (donor, and presumably the transcriber), Letters of Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr. from November 1777 – June 14, 1778 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, undated).

[10]Letter, Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., to Elias Boudinot (Commissary General of Prisoners) (Easton 27 Dec. 1777), reprinted in Ethan Allen Weaver (donor, and presumably the transcriber), Letters of Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr. from November 1777 – June 14, 1778 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, undated).

[11]Letter, Hooper to Boudinot, 22 Dec. 1777, supra. Hooper asked permission in that letter to continue his practice with the “German Prisoners”. Since the practice continued, it was presumably granted (or at least he was not ordered to discontinue it).

[12]Ethan Allen Weaver, “The Forks of the Delaware” Illustrated xvii (Eschenbach Press, Easton, PA, 1900)(available online from Heritage Quest through Easton Public Library website); Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 27-28; Marie Summa, Frank Summa, & Leonard Buscemi Sr., Images of America: Historic Easton 14 (Arcadia Publishing 2000); George C. Williams (ed.) & Ethan Allen Weaver (author, historical article), 15 Fifty Years A City (Easton Golden Jubilee June 1937).

For additional history of the Pennamite Wars and Captain William Patterson’s participation in them, see separate entry for the Hooper House at 501 Northampton Street.

[13]Rayner Wickersham Kelsey, At the Forks of the Delaware 1794 – 1811 6 (The Pennsylvania History Press 1920)(paraphrasing Theophile Cazenova).

[14]Summa & Buscemi, Images of America: Historic Easton, supra at 16; Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 28-30; Article, “Business Succeeds Prison – An Old Jail Torn Down to Give an Enterprising Firm More Room”, Easton Sentinel, Tues., 13 Dec. 1904, p.1, col.5; see Weaver, Forks of the Delaware, supra at xxxii.

[15]From William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 65 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press 1911, reprinted 1984).

[16]Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supraat 27, 29; Interview with Ray Wilkins , Secretary of Masonic Lodge, and tour of building (31 Jan. 2007); see Easton Daily Express, Illustrated Industrial Edition 15 (Jan. 1893)(reprint sold by Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society); West’s Directory for City of Easton 21 (The Union Publishing Co. 1914)(“Blocks, Buildings, Halls”)(corner of Pine and South Third Streets).

This may be the same John Knecht (1830-1907) who was engaged in farming and a livery stable in Nazareth. William J. Heller, I History of Northampton County and The Grand Valley of the Lehigh Biographical Section 271 (The American Historical Society 1920).

But see City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982)(built c.1900).

[17]Article, “An Easton Enterprise. Enlargement of One of Easton’s Leading Business Houses – What Push and Pluck Will Do”, Easton Sentinel, Tues., 23 Oct. 1888, p.1, col.3 (“near five years” after partnership opened in 1880).

[18]Easton Daily Express, Illustrated Industrial Edition, supra at 15; seePortrait and Biographical Record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania 807-08 (Chapman Publishing Co. 1894, reprint by Higginson Book Company)(after 4 years of the partnership, “John Knecht was induced to erect the building they now occupy”).

[19]Article, “An Easton Enterprise. Enlargement of One of Easton’s Leading Business Houses – What Push and Pluck Will Do”, Easton Sentinel, Tues., 23 Oct. 1888, p.1, col.3.

[20]Portrait and Biographical Record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania 807-08 (Chapman Publishing Co. 1894, reprint by Higginson Book Company).

[21]See Obituary, “Floyd Smith Bixler”, supra (1897); American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 22 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics)(began his own firm in 1896, occupying most of the Jones Building at 24 Centre Square; includes a portrait of Correll).

For further history of James W. Correll, see separate entry for the Jones Building at 24 Centre Square.

[22]American Journal of Progress, “Greater Easton of To-day” 12 (originally printed c.1902 during Mayor B. Rush Field’s second 3-year term, reprinted courtesy of W-Graphics).

[23]Obituary, “Floyd Smith Bixler”, supra; seeWest’s Directory for City of Easton Pennsylvania 166 (Union Publishing Co. Inc. 1925).

[24]Easton Daily Express, Illustrated Industrial Edition 7 (Jan. 1893, reprint sold by Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society); accord, Interview with Ray Wilkins, Secretary of Masonic Lodge (31 Jan. 2007); West’s Directory for City of Easton 21 (The Union Publishing Co. 1914)(“Blocks, Buildings, Halls”)(22 South Third St.).

[25]Joseph H. Warner, Census Directory of Northampton County, Eleventh U.S. Census, 1890 58 (Joseph H. Werner, assisted by Geo. W. West 1891).

[26]Article, “Business Succeeds Prison – An Old Jail Torn Down to Give an Enterprising Firm More Room”, Easton Sentinel, Tues., 13 Dec. 1904, p.1, col.5.

[27]Article, “Morning Blaze Sweeps Along So. 3rd Street; $180,000 Loss”, Easton Express, Tues., 5 Mar. 1912, p.1, cols.3-4.

[28]Interview with Ray Wilkins, Secretary of Masonic Lodge, and tour of building (31 Jan. 2007).

[29]Madeleine Mathias, “16 Properties Receive Grants – Money Will Be Used to Fix Up Façade of Easton Buildings with Historical or Architectural Merit”, Morning Call, Thurs., 7 Aug. 1997, p.B-3.

[30]Email from Donna Thatcher (17 March 2007); Madeleine Mathias, “Easton Mural Reflects Lost Building, Lost Age: Artists Enhance Masonic Façade with Image of Old Drake Building that Once Stood Across the Street”, The Morning Call, 2 June 1999, Third Edition, p.B-1; accord, Article, “Art Walk”, Heritage Edition 17, 20, 23 (Easton Is Home Summer 2000).

[31]Jake Blackford, “Design reflects history – A new façade will feature the former Drake-Building”, Express-Times, Sat., 29 May 1999, p.B-1.