Mahlon Haines built Haines Building at 101 E. Market St.

Mahlon Haines had shoe stores at six locations within the City of York and three of his stores were within his own buildings; all designed by John A. Dempwolf.
Mahlon Haines built the, still standing, Haines Building at 101 East Market Street from Dempwolf drawings dated June 3, 1922.
Haines’ initial building was constructed in 1915 at 231 North George Street; it served as the headquarters of The Haines Shoe Company empire, however also contained one of his shoe stores. I wrote about that building in the post: Haines Building on North George Street. Unfortunately, that building was torn down in the 1960s to create several off-street parking spaces.
Almost immediately after completing the Haines Building at 101 East Market Street, Mahlon built the Haines Hotel on the northwest corner of George and Philadelphia Streets. It contained one of his shoe stores at 13 West Philadelphia Street. I wrote about that building in the post: Mahlon Haines’ Hotel endures on North George Street. That building still stands as an apartment house.
The 101 East Market Street property was recently in the news. The York firm RSDC, formerly Royal Square Development & Construction, is renovating this building on the northeast corner of East Market Street and North Duke Street. RSDC is planning to move its offices to the 101 E. Market St. building and H&R Block will be staying, with 10 new apartments created on the upper floors.
Mahlon Haines’ property purchase & the Six Stores
On May 17, 1921, Mahlon Haines purchases the 101 East Market Street town house property, which had belonged to Philip A. Small. The Small family in York County had a propensity to continually re-use given names. Haines’ purchase was from the estate of P. A. Small, a grandson of one of the founders of the company P. A. & S. Small. I constructed this condensed Small Family Tree for a previous post about Miss Cassandra Small’s Country House. Three lines from the bottom is Philip A. Small [1866-1918]; it is his wife Jane (Jennie) Reese Small, as executor of the estate, that sells the corner property to Mahlon Haines. (Reference York County Deed Book 21U, page 514)

The will of Philip A. Small [1866-1918] directed his executor to sell any and all real estate except his farm “Grantley.” In the final years of his life, the town house in York had been rented out; while “Grantley” had become Philip and Jennie Small’s year-round residence.
The purchase included three lots. Lot No. One (166-feet deep along Duke Street by 22-feet along Market Street) is where the Haines Building was built at 101 E. Market Street. Lots No. Two & Three were on the southeast corner of Duke Street and Clarke Avenue; Mahlon Haines sold those lots to The Manufacturers Association of York on August 14, 1922. (Reference York County Deed Book 22B, page 523)
Over the years, space in the 101 East Market Street shoe store of Mahlon Haines was donated to various causes; ranging from Boy Scouts fund raisers to Bundles for Britain collection drives during 1940. Mahlon sold the Haines Building on June 1, 1954, to George D. Deardorff. (Reference York County Deed Book 39B, page 117)
The following Mahlon Haines ad appeared in The Gazette and Daily on May 14, 1936. The ad contains the locations of his six shoe stores within the City of York. These were six of the fifty mid-atlantic area shoe stores Mahlon owned by 1936.
Links to related posts:
- Haines Building on North George Street
- Mahlon Haines’ Hotel endures on North George Street
- The Shoe Wizard celebrates 33 Years as a Yorker
- Mahlon Haines runs for Congress in 1922
- Haines’ School of Brains at Kreutz Creek
- 20 York Businesses that Built the Haines Shoe House
- Miss Cassandra Small’s Country House