Saturday, February 2, 2019

Mystery notepad: Atomic Electronic Co. of Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Here's a mini mystery from southcentral Pennsylvania. Or, more likely, a small business that popped up and then dropped off the radar without much ado a half-century ago.

But it left something behind.

A notepad.

Atomic Electronic Co.

The notepad sheets measure 3 inches by 5 inches. They indicate that the business was located at 216 Nevin Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The phone number was EXpress 40-765.

There are two short phrases: "Electronically Yours" and "Near You — Yet Traffic Free." That second one seems like an odd thing to state on your notepad paper.

The 200 block of Nevin Street in Lancaster is a mostly residential area. It's just south of Franklin & Marshall College and within walking distance of The Chameleon Club, where Live played early in its career. Nevin Street is also within walking distance of my workplace, LNP. I should go check it out in person on a nice spring day. But, for now, Google Maps will have to do.

So, what about Atomic Electronic Co.?

There's not much I could discover.

I found that it was incorporated in December 1959. An April 1967 advertisement in The Gazette and Daily of York, Pennsylvania, states that Atomic Electronic was selling tickets for the Spring-Time Special steam locomotive excursion on the Western Maryland Railway between York and Hagerstown, Maryland. In that advertisement, it's referred to as Atomic Electronics Co., with an S on Electronics. So we already have a variation. Does the notepad have a typo? Or does the newspaper ad have a typo?

The last tidbit I found isn't really helpful at all, but it's pretty fun. It's this classified advertisement from the October 31, 1981 (Halloween) edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.


The address is wrong, of course. Number 217 would presumably be right across the street from the Atomic Electronic Co. But that must have been quite the interesting neighborhood over the years.

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