7 Stores and Hangouts Pennsylvanians Still Miss Long After They Closed

In downtown Pittsburgh, “meet me under the Kaufmann’s clock” was all the directions you needed.

Pennsylvanians still miss places like that.

Here are the stores and hangouts Pennsylvanians still miss long after they closed.

1. Horn & Hardart Automat

At the Horn & Hardart Automat, Philadelphia diners bought their meals from coin-operated vending machines.

The company’s first Automat opened at 818 Chestnut Street in June 1902, according to the Philadelphia Encyclopedia.

Jewelers’ Row merchants and Gimbels employees frequented the Chestnut Street location.

If you were a dockworker on irregular hours, you’d have preferred the 24-hour location at 234 Market Street.

Women called “nickel-throwers” gathered thousands of coins every day, and the city found them fascinating.

For less than fifty cents, diners could eat three meals a day, the essay says.

That’s a lot of coins.

Greater Philadelphia’s last Automat, in Bala Cynwyd, shut its doors on May 12, 1990.

Public media station WHYY’s special “Things That Aren’t There Anymore” counts the Horn & Hardart Automats among the beloved Delaware Valley landmarks that have disappeared.

2. Isaly’s

Many people across the Pittsburgh region still fondly remember Isaly’s Dairy Stores.

At the company’s peak, the stores numbered nearly 400.

That’s a big footprint.

You could order a “Skyscraper,” a tall ice cream cone made with special scoops.

If you grew up near Pittsburgh, you may remember chipped ham, sliced very thin, a signature item in the stores.

Lots of factors slowed the company’s growth in the 1960s, and Isaly’s changed hands in the early 1970s.

The Tarentum shop closed in 1987, TribLive reports.

A retired pharmacist across the street from the empty Tarentum building longs for its homemade meals and ice cream.

The Isaly’s name lives on, though.

A new shop was set to open in the Strip District in 2026.

3. Willow Grove Park

Willow Grove Park opened in 1896 as a trolley park that the People’s Traction Company created.

The grounds had picnic groves, walking paths, boating lakes and pavilions for dancing and concerts.

You could hear John Philip Sousa and his band there, starting in 1901.

He played there almost every summer for more than two decades.

The park also had a roller coaster, the Thunderbolt.

Quite a combination.

You’d follow a dress code there, and park guards enforced the rules of behavior.

Many Philadelphia-area families still share stories about summers there.

During the 1970s, the park became Six-Gun Territory, a western-themed amusement park.

The park closed in the mid-1970s and was razed to make way for the Willow Grove Park Mall, which opened in 1982.

4. Gimbels

Gimbels, at Ninth and Market, hosted a Thanksgiving Day parade in 1920.

Ellis Gimbel and several employees with musical talent led a motorcade from City Hall.

The procession grew every year, and by the 1940s the parade had become both a tradition and a sensation, Hidden City Philadelphia reports.

As the parade ended in front of Gimbels, Santa would ascend a tall ladder through a window into Toyland.

What a finale.

If you grew up in the Philadelphia area, your grandparents may remember it.

The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that parade is now known as the 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Gimbels agreed to anchor the new Gallery mall across the street, and the new store opened on August 11, 1977.

Sales kept falling, and Gimbels liquidated in June 1986.

Allied Department Stores bought most of the Philadelphia locations and reopened them as Stern’s.

Stern’s didn’t last either.

5. Kaufmann's

Kaufmann's, the downtown Pittsburgh department store, turned its clock into a meeting spot.

Carnegie Magazine says meeting under that clock was as much a part of the local lexicon as Pittsburghese.

Kaufmann's unveiled its new building in 1913 without the clock, much to the public's dismay.

Later that year, it added a bronze clock to the facade.

Problem solved.

You could tell a friend to meet you under the clock.

In 2013, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that people still said they'd meet under Kaufmann's clock, even though the store had become a Macy's.

Macy's closed the downtown store in 2015, after selling the building to Core Realty.

Core Realty promised to keep the iconic clock outside the building.

In a 2026 TribLive story, one Pittsburgher recalls lunch trips with her mother to the store's Tic Toc restaurant.

6. Lit Brothers

Lit Brothers grew out of a dress store that Rachel Weddell opened on North Eighth Street in 1891.

She became known for trimming hats free if you bought the materials from her.

Samuel and Jacob Lit set their store apart by offering lower prices on similar goods.

The Philadelphia Encyclopedia says Lit Brothers was famed for its block of five-story buildings.

Its mottos included "Hats Trimmed Free of Charge."

Try finding that today.

Inside, you'd find the Colonial Christmas Village that Lits created, one of the traditions many Philadelphians cherished for generations.

According to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Lit Brothers rebuilt the store in the early 1900s as a flagship that took up an entire city block.

Bankers Securities Corporation bought it in the 1920s.

The flagship closed in 1977.

7. Smithfield Cafe

Smithfield Cafe was on the 600 block of Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, near Liberty Avenue.

A Greek immigrant opened the restaurant in 1933.

He started with seed money from a fellow Greek immigrant.

In 1975, the owner told the Pittsburgh Press he served 1,000 lunches a day.

That's a full house.

You could stop in for coffee and a sandwich for almost 80 years.

Many of the staff had decades of experience there.

In a 2026 TribLive story, an attorney says it's been many years since he had the cafe's hearty sandwich.

A hand-lettered sign on the door said the kitchen was closed but the bar was still open.