The Keeley Building
101 N. Market Street

The Keeley Building in 1898. From the Charles L. Fasold Flickr collection.

→ An original wood frame structure on this site was owned by Zacharias Keeley.

→ At the time of the Great Fire of 1874 it was rented to photographer J.A. Clopp and was destroyed.

→ Keeley erected this structure in 1877 on the ruins of his previous building. He was a construction contractor who erected many buildings in Selinsgrove in the latter half of the 19th century. Keeley owned a sash factory, a planing mill, and a brick yard.

→  Other owners were Dr. Howard Straub, then Fred Reichley and his daughter Mary Ann Pinand. The building is now owned by Pat and Beverley Owens.

→ The Keeleys, father and son Chauncey, operated a clothing store on these premises from circa 1890 to 1930.

The Keeley building in 1916, home to the Keeley Clothing Store. In the photo, SU’s Homecoming parade goes by in the foreground. From the Charles L. Fasold Flickr collection.

→ Over the years many businesses and activities were housed in this structure:

  • lodge rooms of the Patriotic Order Sons of America were in the upper floors
  • Chauncey Keeley conducted a music school there
  • perhaps most bizarrely, a confectioner and undertaking business shared space there
  • in 1913 one of Selinsgrove’s earliest telephone exchanges was located in a first floor room
  • currently, the building consists of several apartments

The Keeley building on a 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, showing, from top, a clothing store, a tailor shop, and a private dwelling.

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(1/2) Second Empire

This building is a beautiful example of Second Empire architecture. This style was typical in America from 1860 to 1880. It is marked by a mansard roof which is straight then curved, has dormers and a pattern in the roofing material. The building has paired entry doors with glass in the top half and fanlights over each panel. The windows are Italianate in style topped by a hood mold. The south side has a two-story bay window. The front and back porches were added in the 20th century.

(2/2) Chauncey

Chauncey Keeley was a skilled piano player, taught piano lessons, served as choir director at Trinity Lutheran Church, and played the piano for silent movies presented in the town’s first and only movie house, the Stanley Theater on Market Street.

Selinsgrove History Association