Peter Watt (formerly Twatt)

Peter Watt, formerly Twatt, on the far-right of the photo, was born at The Bu on Stronsay, the third of five sons of Ann Sclater (1803-1878?) and James Twatt of Rothiesholm (1794-1867). He served four years as an apprentice in a Kirkwall draper's shop and then emigrated to the United States in 1870. He worked in dry-goods stores in Boston and in Hartford, Connecticut, and met up with two fellow Scots, Gilbert Thompson and James Shand.

The three young men decided to set up in business for themselves. By 1877 they had saved up enough money and, having visited several cities, settled on Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as the site of their store. They leased 30ft x 60ft of space on East King Street and opened on 9 March 1878, with eight clerks. Their first sale was a $5 wool plaid shawl.

Unfortunately, Gilbert Thompson died in the following year. His partners bought out his widow and when they bought a new store on West King Street in 1885, it was called Watt and Shand, Peter having wisely removed the first letter from his name when he left Orkney.

The business flourished and expanded into neighbouring buildings. In a Lancaster Board of Trade publication circa 1910, the business featured prominently:-

"The reputation and commercial claims of a city center is the character of its representative business institutions and in any review such as this, they occupy a most prominent position.

While Lancaster takes a pardonable pride in measuring her prestige in comparison with other cities of the same and even greater population, and with justice places much stress upon her manufacturing interests and financial institutions it is also a fact that the liveliest interest is felt and the greatest satisfaction expressed when reference is made to the big retail houses of the city and the part they play in the life of this section. Standing conspicuously in the front ranks of such mercantile institutions is the New York Store, of which the firm of Watt & Shand are proprietors.

This store, or, more accurately speaking, these stores, for there are in reality, more than a dozen stores contained in this mammoth building, serves as a drawing card for not only all the population of this city, but for the residents of rural districts for many miles around.

Like many another far-reaching enterprise, this concern had rather a modest start back in 1878. The original proprietors being Watt, Shand & Thompson. The business was conducted under the title for two years and after the demise of Mr. Thompson, the remaining members of the firm, Messrs. P.T. Watt and James Shand, continued the business and have retained the proprietorship since, experiencing a growth and expansion which have hardly been duplicated in the commercial life of the city. Both Mr. Watt and Mr. Shand are natives of Scotland and located here in 1878. They possess to an unusual degree that shrewdness, business acumen and far-sighted common sense that are so essential in the conduct of modern-day business enterprise. Mr. Watt has filled the office of Director of the Farmers Trust Co. and other important places; Mr. Shand is president of the Y.M.C.A. and a member of the City Board of Health. Both gentlemen are actively interested in the Lancaster Board of Trade, Mr. Watt having filled the office of President last year and Mr. Shand this year serving on the transportation Committee, as chairman.

The New York Store occupies a five-story building at the corner of East King and Centre Square, where 75,000 square feet of floor space are utilized and an immense stock of up-to-date and attractively priced merchandise is seen. The various departments include dry goods, millinery, shoes, men's clothing and men's furnishings, ladies' and children's cloaks, suits and ready-to-wear garments of all kinds, art department, carpets, rugs, drapery, house furnishings of every descriptions, jewelry and novelties of many kinds.

With the enormous sales of this store, heavy buying is a necessity, and thus prices are a notch lower than when purchases are made in small quantities. Dependable merchandise is always on sale, and one hundred and fifty courteous and well-informed salespeople are employed to give the public every attention.

The interesting displays seen in the big windows on two sides of the building are a source of instruction and attraction to all passers-by and sure to elicit favorable comment. This store is unquestionably the largest retail establishment in the city and its numerous meritorious features are always pointed out by residents to strangers and guests in our city as an evidence of the metropolitan character and progressive spirit to be found in Lancaster."

Peter Watt died in 1921 but "The Store", as it was known in the family, remained a family-run business and bought out its main competitor in the early 1980s. However, the business was itself bought out in 1992 and ceased trading in 1995.

The store, with its beautiful Beaux-Art building in Penn Square, was a Lancaster institution. Everyone in the city either shopped, worked or ate there or just admired its famous Christmas decorations. Debate has raged about what should be done with the building and it has now been decided that the façade will be left to front a $165.5 million convention centre and hotel.

Peter married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Learmonth of Housebay Farm, Stronsay, in August 1882. Their twin daughters, Annie Slater and Katharine Angus (named for their Orcadian grandmothers) were born on May 22, 1883. Lizzie died 5 days later, poetically lamented in a front page article of the Lancaster newspaper. She was barely 21 years old.

Four years later, Peter Watt married Laura Geiger, a local woman. They had four children: James (who became a Presbyterian missionary in India), Charles (who helped run the store with his Shand counterpart), Donald, who began his working life as an aid worker to eastern refugees after the First World War, and Laura, who died young in the first year of her marriage.

Donald founded the Experiment in International Living. Annie, the first-born of the twins, outlived all her siblings: she died in May 1987, the day before her 104th birthday. Her twin sister lived to be 94 years old. The photo at the top of the page is of Annie's marriage to Henry B Davis MD. Donald and Laura are seated at the front.

Thank you to Annie’s grand-daughters, Nancy Clure Groff and Anne Campbell Slater, both of Pennsylvania, for much of the information in this biography and for the picture.