Have you ever wondered about the businesses that lined the streets of East Stroudsburg during the days of old?

There were many that came and went. But one unique business — a retail piano shop — opened on Washington Street around 1910 and was operated by an enterprising woman known as Mrs. J.H. Lanterman.

An ad for Mrs. J.H. Lanterman's The Victrola Shop, published in The Morning Press during 1918.

The East Stroudsburg resident got her start by selling the large musical instruments from her home, according to the “Music Trade Review,” a publication of the time. Lanterman eventually would rent space for her store in what was then known as the Garris building.

By 1913, the business had grown; Victrola IV models were selling for $15 each and Victrola XI models for $100 each. To improve business, Lanterman would develop a complete “talking machine” department.

In 1915, she moved her Piano and Talking Machine Store to the furniture department of her husband’s undertakers and furniture business, according to the 2008 book “The Stroudsburgs in the Poconos.”  The undertaker/furniture shop was the predecessor to the modern-day Lanterman & Allen Funeral Home, which is still in East Stroudsburg.

Lanterman’s music store was both popular and successful, according to the 1915 book “The Bells Ringing The Message Of Progress In Monroe County, Pa.”  “Monroe Countains (could) feel certain of fair and reliable treatment,” book reveals.

As the business changed, Lanterman’s  store would become known as The Victrola Shop, a fact that was discovered in an advertisment published in The Morning Press during 1918.  During this time period, she offered for sale not only pianos and victrolas, but also sewing machines.

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Check out the history of Lanterman & Allen Funeral Home
Link to “The Bells Ringing The Message of Progress” to  read about Mrs. Lanterman’s success in the piano business.

During June 1979, Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh ordered stations to pump at least $5 worth of gas for every customer.  At the time, gas cost less than $1 per gallon.

In the Poconos, lines at service stations formed for blocks. Motorist, waiting and sweating in the summer heat, became impatient and angry.

But bringing a little relief to the situation were Vic Dougher and Melissa Brandt, both of Delaware Water Gap, who embrace the situation in East Stroudsburg.

As customers waited, station attendant Todd Tilwick carried out Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s  orders, allowing only $5 worth of gas for every customer.

Gas lines became a common sight at stations such as this line that extended along West Main Street outside the BP station in Stroudsburg.

On this day not all customers got their fill -  the station ran out of gas.

In an unusual turn of events the price of the gas became so high in cost and availability and so scare, a seller took the side of the consumer.

“The motorist is getting it again” was the wording posted on a sign at Learn Brothers’ BP Station in East Stroudsburg.

View these photos in gallery format

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Local gas stations from other years:

• Although the bustling tourist attraction and gas station of the 1920s is gone, the Cold Air Cave for which it was named remains along Route 611, roughly two miles south of Delaware Water Gap.

• The 1940s saw a commercial Bushkill along Route 209 corridor with A&P, Turns General Store, Rick DePue’s Bar, Left Barr’s Soda Fountain and Norman Gallott’s Gas Station open for business, serving the public.

• During the late 1950s and early 1960s, high school dances were held for students in the building next door to the gas station, which was across the street from St. Luke’s Church in Stroudsburg.

• In the 1960s, Ray Bensley’s Texaco gas station and neighborhood grocery store was located at the corner of North Courtland and East Broad streets in East Stroudsburg.

Check out the “Yesterdays Gas Stations” photo gallery.