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This is next to the last stop. If you’re not at the Parkview Hotel, stand back by a fence post over Lititz Run and I’ll talk a bit.

Look across Broad Street:

18 N. Broad St

The Lititz Welcome Center, 1999. The next half century (1870-1930) saw continued growth. In 1863 the Reading and Columbia railroad built a station here. Travelers came to picnic and stay at local hotels. The Welcome Center is a replica of the 1884 train depot with public restrooms. Restrooms are also at the west end of the park.

With the railroad broadening market access, by 1875 several industries opened including a window sash factory and a stave factory. Merchants carried dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, toys. By 1900 the leading employer in town was the tobacco and cigar industry.

In the early 1900s, Lititz was known for its presence in industry. Other businesses of this time period included shoe manufacturers, pretzel bakeries, Victor mousetrap Co, Keystone Underwear mill, a planning mill, a safe company, and Penn Dairies.

In 1901 a Board of Trade was organized to oversee the new businesses being established. Lititz grew quickly as new houses were built and commercial businesses opened. (1914 saw the Young Men’s Business League formed. 14 years later the Chamber of Commerce was organized; disbanded in the late 1960’s.) In 1970 several local businessmen led by Frank Ford agreed to invest in the future of downtown yet preserve it as a tourist destination. Lititz Improvement, Inc. continues to invest for the benefit of this community of ten thousand. Lititz Borough was instrumental in establishing historic district legislation and in 1957 became the first community in PA with a historic district ordinance.

Up the tracks less than half a mile is the Kenvue manufacturing plant which makes consumer healthcare products including Listerine. Elmer Bobst (pron. Boobst) grew up in Lititz and became a pharmacist. In 1915 he transformed Warner Cosmetics by adding pharmaceuticals and grew it over the decades. In 1953 Bobst became Chairman of the Board and CEO of what became Warner-Lambert. The Listerine plant in Morris Plains, NJ was outgrowing its production space so in 1956 a new plant on 100 acres was built here. (In 1957 Elmer Bobst funded a $100,000 renovation to Lititz Springs Park. He was president of the American Cancer Society and funded local scholarships. He held anti-Semitic views yet was the prime benefactor of NYU’s Bobst Library.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Holmes_Bobst

Now look across Broad St and slightly right just beyond the tracks to the large, four and five story red brick building.

48 N. Broad St.

The former Wilbur Chocolate Company plant. In 1902, the Ideal Cocoa and Chocolate Company began constructing a large factory. By 1915, the building was enlarged to four stories. It was via a merger with a Philadelphia company, Wilbur, that operations were consolidated in Lititz in August, 1930. Cargill purchased the business in 1992 and in 2016 moved operations to a modern building less than half a mile from here.

To your right, about half a mile north, up Broad Street on the left is Lititz Watch Technicum founded by Rolex in 2001. It was created to help make up for the deficiency of skilled watchmakers in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lititz_Watch_Technicum

About a mile north on Broad Street is Rock Lititz opened in 2014 on a 108-acre campus. It serves the live event industry. 40 different companies employ nearly 2,000 designers, integrators, engineers, technicians and artists. Artists such as Taylor Swift turn tour ideas into reality here. (Studio 1 is 8 stories high, 52,000 sq ft., the ceiling can hold 500 tons.)

https://www.rocklititz.com/home

Continue across the tracks and at the parking lot turn right to go to the last stop.