Bot’s Tavern, 7-9 South Market Street
George Wagenseller in front of Wagenseller’s Drug Store and Schoch Flour & Feed, 1885. Image from the Charles L. Fasold Photo Collection.
Although appearing today as one composite structure, this building has, occasionally, had two different owners and functions. For many years it has been the home of drug stores.
- Purchased from Anthony Selin by Simon Snyder, Selin’s brother-in-law and future PA Governor. After Snyder’s death in 1819, Snyder’s son Henry (farmer/businessman) took over the property.
- In 1843 the property was sold to Charles Smith, then Isaac Gearhart who opened the first drug store on this site.
- In 1856 Peter Richter Wagenseller purchased the store in partnership with J.G.L. Shindel. The store was on the north side and Wagenseller’s home was on the south side.
- Wagenseller graduated from the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Selinsgrove to begin his medical practice. He was the town’s burgess and a director of both the local schools and the Missionary Institute, the forerunner of Susquehanna University.
- J.G.L. Shindel, the son of the Reverend John Shindel, clerked for area businessmen before partnering with Wagenseller. He was the first telegraph operator in Snyder County, Postmaster from 1857 to 1861, and Treasurer to the Board of the Missionary Institute. The 1852 telegraph line lasted for twenty years. It was via this line that Selinsgrove residents learned of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
- The property burned down in the Great Fire of 1872 and was rebuilt on the same site, opening as a drug store in 1873. On March 31, 1873, the firm of Wagenseller and Shindel dissolved.
On August 16, 1873, Peter Wagenseller was stabbed during an argument in front of the Keystone Hotel (now BJ’s). He was carried to the second floor of his residence where he died one day later, aged 43. This stabbing occurred during an argument Wagenseller had with a friend of his hired hand who was quickly apprehended and after trial was sentenced to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.
A Sanborn fire insurance map from 1890, showing the divided property.
- Wagenseller’s heirs came to own the property, led by George Wagenseller (pictured above). They kept the drug store on the north side and the dwelling on the south side.
- In 1918 Charles Keller bought and remodeled the property, establishing Keller’s Meats and Groceries on the north side and a drug store on the south side. Dr. Howard Lytle was succeeded in drug store operations in 1942 by William Cott, who ran the store until 1952.
Interior of Charles Keller Grocery and Meat Market (1930) From the Charles L. Fasold Photo Collection
- From 1952 to 1967, a Walgreen’s chain drug store was located on both sides of the first floor, operated by William Cole.
- 1967-1968 Jim Copeland’s Coffee Cup diner was located here.
- 1968-1980: the local office of the Sunbury Daily Item was located here.
- Mary Botdorf purchased the building in 1980 and Bot’s moved from East Pine Street to this site.
- Linda Fry bought the property and operated Bots until 2006, when Donna and Richard Shuck bought it. They are the current owners.
Selinsgrove History Association