History of Hess in Lancaster County + Hess in Central PA + Former Tom's Warwick Center
For today's post, we have quite a few things to take a look at, including a unique former Tom's Convenience Store. To start, let's take a look at the history of Hess in Lancaster County, plus how CR's Friendly Markets fueled Hess' Central Pennsylvanian expansion. Part 1: Hess in Lancaster County Lancaster saw its first Hess service stations, at 5 Hartman Bridge Road and 1704 Columbia Avenue, in the 1960s. Grand Opening ad for the Columbia Ave location - Lancaster New Era - May 5, 1967 Just over two decades earlier, in 1942, Carlos R. Leffler, Inc was founded in Richland, PA as a fuel and propane distribution business. In 1981, the company opened its first convenience store, known as CR's Friendly Market, around Reading, PA. By the late 1990s, Hess operated three locations in Lancaster County, the aforementioned Hartman Bridge Road and Columbia Avenue locations as well as a station on Furnace Hills Road in Lititz (more on that later on). By 1999, Leffler had gro