J.R. Wedin & Company

     The oddest things pop into my head after I lay down in bed. As sleep is sneaking up on me, I never know where my thoughts might go. For that matter, I never have any idea where they will go after I’m asleep, my dreams constantly amaze me.

    Last night, my thoughts took me into the city of Pittsburgh and a favorite stationary store located on Wood Street. The J.R. Weldin store has fascinated me from my first visit. It was one of those stores that reminded me of the way things used to be, it was like taking a trip back in time. Wooden counters lined the walls of the store and were filled with just about anything you could ever want. The shelves behind them held an assortment of boxes and items, all stashed in their proper spot, right where the counter staff knew they would be. A center island sat in-between. The counters had glass in them so items could be seen.

    A set of stairs in the back led up to a balcony that looked down on the floor below. It was fun watching from above as the sales people helped customers. A pair of cats roamed around the store, often sunning themselves in the windows. If you were lucky they’d sniff your hand and maybe even allow a quick pet or two before they headed elsewhere.

    There were notebooks, journals and datebooks, calendars, fine stationary and invitations. Fountain pens, roller pens and ballpoints, any type of pen you might want were there for their customers. The store also stocked inks and cartridges for your pens and would even repair them if you favorite writing instrument wasn’t performing properly. They had topographical maps in the back and a large selection of signs such as, “No Smoking, Men’s Room and Do Not Disturb”. I would look at all these signs wondering which ones I could possibly use. With just about anything an office could want, the store was comfortably stuffed.

    I’m guessing I first visited the store in the late 70’s. I would buy topographic maps for my various hiking and camping trips. In later years I would purchase bottles of ink there, for my Waterman fountain pen. Every visit was another exciting adventure. It was much like visiting a Staples or an Office Max, they had just about everything you could want, only this was in a nice warm store rather than a huge warehouse type of enclosure.

 

    The company was started by Josiah Ross Weldin in 1852 as a book and stationary store. The store was located in a few different spots before it got to 415 Wood Street, most of them on the same street. At one of the earlier locations, a cyclone knocked down a building beside the store, damaging the Weldin store and killing two employees in the process! They moved to a new location and then two years later, a fire destroyed the store! They continued on, eventually moving to the 415 Wood Street location.

    They thrived here, even surviving the 1936 flood. The store remained for 103 years until 2014 when they moved once again. This new location was in the Gulf Building. Sadly, the store was much smaller and didn’t carry much of their previous stock.

    I was really saddened when I visited Weldin’s new location. I was looking forward to seeing how they managed to move their store into a new building. It was nothing like the store I had always looked forward to going to. I only visited the new store three times before it finally closed for good in 2020. They stayed in business for one hundred and sixty eight years, no small feat!

    We’ve seen it before, the Buhl Planetarium, the Jenkins’ Arcade (or how about the Parker Button Company) and Walleck’s Bookstore, sitting almost across the street from Max Azen Furs and my regular bus stop. (As a young boy I always tried to stop there before getting on my bus. Then I’d have something to read on the way home.) They were all things that we thought of as always going to be there. What are the chances they would ever close? These places are all gone now, along with hundreds of others. Gone, but thankfully, not forgotten!