J.C. PENNEY FIRM

A new store building costing $350,000 and containing 29,000 square feet of floor space will be constructed in downtown Williamsport for the J.C. Penney company. 

The new business will occupy the site of the Susquehanna Trust Building at the northeast corner of West Fourth and Laurel Street, immediately west of the present Penney store. 

The project will be one of the most extensive physical changes in the city’s downtown business district to take place in more than two decades. 

The Park Home corporation, owners of the Trust building will construct the new building and lease it to the Penney company. 

The building will be erected in either 1962 or 1963, according to James D. Wither, chairman of the Park Home real estate committee. 

The five-story Trust building and adjoin one-story building will be razed. The new structure will be two stories high. It will have a basement and ground floors measuring 71 x 190 feet and a second floor of 71 x 25 feet. 

A lease for the site has been signed by the J.C. Penney company and plans for the new building are expected to get underway in the near future. 

While the site is being cleared and the building is being constructed, Penney’s will continue to operate at its present location, which it has occupied since 1927. The originally opened in the city in 1924 at 109 West Third Street.