Visions for Vacancies

They pepper our Main Street, Bethlehem Pike, Broad Street, side roads and the like in our neighborhoods.

They are vacant storefronts and empty buildings - locales that once had life that now have none.

This feature will highlight certain properties and ask you - what would you want to see there?

Today's featured property - the former Lansdale News Agency location at 301 W. Main St.

The last store to occupy the location was Ah's Garage Sale, which opened in 2009. The sign still hangs outside the store, located across Susquehanna Avenue.

So, what would you like to see go in there? Another news agency? A barbershop? A music store? Tell us in the comments.

The Lansdale News Agency closed in September 2006.

It had been the Lansdale News Agency since about 1950.

Between Ah's Garage Sale and Lansdale News Agency, The Shabby Attic did business there. 

According to Montgomery County property records, the owner is Linda Jacquette, whose address is listed with the county as the third floor of the property.

Paul and Elizabeh Fehnel owned it since 1966, and it was sold to Paula and Linda Jacquette in 1999 for $148,000, according to court records.

The Fehnel's son, Robert Fehnel told The Reporter in 2006 that he sold the agency in 1995. He said his father had first bought the business in 1928.

In its heyday, the news agency was a glorified news stand, with employees bringing magazine racks in and out each day. 

The business expanded in 1950 by moving to Main Street, said Fehnel, who first worked at the store in 1941 as an 11-year-old. 

The row building was erected in 1920. The public land record says there are two apartments above the retail space.

The building contains 2,674 square feet of sale area.

So, tell us below, what you would like to see go in to 301 W. Main St.?