Category:John Bowen & Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

John Bowen was born in Heartfordshire, England in September 1838. He came to the United States with his family at the age of 11 in 1850 which settled in Mach Chunk (Jim Thorpe). His father was a teacher. He was to say that at that time he was one of the few people in the township that had English and not Pennsylvania-Dutch as a first language. In 1859 he went west and lived in California, Montana and the Dakota Territory and returned to Pennsylvania about 1868. He settled in Allentown and was found work at a grocery store clerk, and in 1868 started a grocery business with Charles Christman under the name Christman & Bowen, located at 107 Hamilton Street. Charles Christman died in 1878 and under the name J. Bowen & Company he bought out Christman's ahare of the business from his family and 1879 set up John Boen's Grocery store at 809 Hamilton Street. Bowen’s store was located in the first floor of what had been Hagenbuch’s Opera House, Allentown’s first stage theater. Mark Twain gave one of his first public readings there in the 1870s. It was a distinctive building that had large second story windows. Bowen’s selection of exotic coffees from around the world was its hallmark product. He is also said to have been the first person to sell bananas in the city.

Bowen died in January 1902 after which his son, James K. Bowen took over operations of the store. in 1925 the store on Hamilton Street was leased by the S. S. Kresge company, and the Bowen Grocery moved to a new, custom Built store at 32-34 North Ninth Street in July 1926. After the move, the Bowen building, which dated to 1866 was demolished in order to make way for the S. S. Kresge building, who would eventually re-brand as Kmart. The new Bowen Grocery on Ninth Street operated a few years before closing in 1932, a victim of the Great Depression, 64 years in bushiness. A new grocery store, the Puritan Beef Company leased the building and opened in the former Bowen store in May 1933, however it only lasted a few years before going out of business in 1937.

After closing the business, James K Bowen began to practice law in Allentown, and was associated with the Allentown YMCA. However the failure of the business would affect him the rest of his life. He declared bankruptcy, and stated in bankruptcy court that the business on Ninth Street never made a profit after the 1926 move. Bowen passed in 1943 at the age of 72.

The former Bowen store on Ninth Street was vacant for several years, being tied up in bankruptcy proceedings until 1940 when Pep Boys Automotive purchased the property and moved its store from Linden street to the Ninth Street Store in December. It operated for over 30 years before being purchased by PP&L for an expansion of their headquarters. The building was torn down in 1971 and replaced by a new PP&L office building.