Brick, pink granite, Indiana limestone and copper face the Reilly Brothers and Raub Building in front of you in Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Designed by noted Lancaster architect C. Emlen Urban and built between 1910 and 1911, this four- to five-story, L-shaped, steel-frame structure reads like a carefully composed chapter of the city’s past. Your eye travels over brick, pink granite, Indiana limestone, and copper cladding — materials chosen to announce permanence and pride.
Created in the Beaux-Arts style, the building once held the Reilly Brothers and Raub hardware store, and in 1983 it was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it has been repurposed: the interior now contains a mall and an apartment complex called the Central Market Mall, a modern life layered into historic walls. Stand here and imagine the steady work of builders around 1910–1911, the hardware trade that once filled these floors, and the softer hum of residents and shoppers now.
Picture the L-shaped footprint tracing this block, then notice the nearby Lancaster Central Market at 23 North Market Street, which anchors this part of town.