Kind Cafe
16 N. Market Street

Five men stand in front of the Lutz Tonsorial Palace in this photo from 1905. From the Charles L. Fasold Flickr collection

A building that consistently had apartments on the top two floors, it has housed a changing parade of commercial and professional organizations and people on the first floor, adding to what has been (and largely is) a business block in Selinsgrove.

→ Before 1874, Welles O. Holmes owned the simple stone building made with uncut stone (that is, stones merely snuggled together with no mortar) and rented the bottom floor for a saloon.

→ Except for the foundation, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1874.

→ In 1876 Holmes, with his brother-in-law D. B. Lupfer, build a structure of fired brick on the pre-1874 foundation.

→ The building was eventually owned by Esther Long who bequeathed it to her son Peter. The Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War fraternal organization, began to meet on the third floor (to which a few of its aged members could climb).

The building (marked #506) as it appeared in an 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Note the “G.A.R. 3rd.”  From Penn State’s collection

→ In 1888 Daniel and Mary Crouse purchased the building.

→ In 1900 Annie Lutz bought the building and the Lutz Tonsorial Palace (a barbershop) was conducted in it. The bottom floor was rented, and among its tenants was Sigfried Weis who had his “NY Fancy Store” here. He was the father of Sigmund and Harry Weis, brothers who launched Weis Pure Foods in 1918.

Advertising for the Sigfried Weis store. From the Charles L. Fasold Flickr Collection

→ Mrs. Lutz died in 1935 and, with no one purchasing the property, no taxes were paid on it from 1935 until 1940. The Snyder County Commissioners paid the tax, took over the building and sold it in 1944 to Max Wentzel.

Wentzel’s Hardware in 1949. From the Charles L. Fasold Flickr collection

→ Wentzel Hardware was located on the first floor, again with apartments above.

→ In 1970, the Wentzels sold the property to Joan and Fred Harvey. The Harveys had moved to Selinsgrove in 1966. Fred was a Canadian trained as an engineer who served in the Canadian Army during World War II. He met and married Mary in Burslem, Staffordshire, England, she, thus, became a war bride. In 1970, Joan opened Joan Harvey’s Gift and Specialty Shop which was located in the first floor.

→ In 1981 the Harvey’s sold the property to Ralph Perecca.

→ In 1988 Dr. Anthony Nespoli purchased the property and opened his doctor’s office there.

→ In 2002 Olga Smith, who owns several properties in Selinsgrove, bought the building and one year later the Kind Café, a coffee shop, opened in this space and has been there to this day.

Selinsgrove History Association