In the dust of demolition things can get lost.

As many have documented in recent weeks, including Lehigh Valley Press freelance writer and photographer Jim Marsh, the building once housing the Bon-Ton department store is being demolished to make way for a Giant Food Stores LLC superstore and gas station in South Mall anticipated to open later this year. Giant on West Emmaus Avenue will move to the South Mall location.

However, it is important, to me at least, to not let it be lost that before it was The Bon-Ton, the building was home to Hess’s South, an outpost of the famed Hess’s department store at Ninth and Hamilton streets in Allentown.

“For anyone who knew Allentown and the Lehigh Valley in the 20th century, Hess’s was more than just a place to go shopping,” authors Frank Whelan and Kurt D. Zwikl write in the introduction of their book on the iconic store in downtown Allentown.

And similar praise might be warranted for the suburban iteration at 3300 Lehigh St., Salisbury Township.

In late 20th century mall-friendly U.S.A., Hess’s South Mall was something special, at least to me. Front and center in my memory are a record store and a book store in the modest mall area stretching roughly to where Petco and Staples now stand.

And Hess’s was a spectacle like none other for who I was at the time.

It seemed the world was contained in those department store walls; fashion, shoes, furniture, appliances, a beauty salon, a snack bar that served ice cream and more. The toy department was a particular fascination then.

There were other Hess’s outposts, of course, including stores in Trexlertown, Quakertown, Whitehall and at the Westgate Mall, Bethlehem, all not far from home in Upper Milford Township. Hess’s South, however, will always hold a special place in my memory, especially at Christmas.

In my childhood memories, it seemed I was always waiting for Christmas and when the towering toy soldiers appeared standing at attention at either side of the main entrance of Hess’s South, it meant to young me that Christmas was almost here.

As the arrival of Giant looms larger, it’s worth recalling, I think, where those giant toy soldiers once stood.

April Peterson

editorial assistant

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press