Purchase Camera Shop was located at 1116 South University. It was founded by Roy Purchase, a ham radio operator who also owned Purchase Radio Supply, and later owned by John Ransom. Heinz Grasshoff did repair work.

References

Student territory on South University also included Tices Men’s wear, Fileccia Brothers Shoes, O'Gradys Barber Shop and The Dillon Shop with campus “toggery”. The Brown Jug eatery, Englander’s Ladies Wear, the Campus Theater, Purchase Camera Shop, Food and Drug Mart, and Camelot Men’s Clothes were frequented. The Artisan Gift Shop was the only alternative to John Leidy for fine gifts. Miller’s Ice Cream was a staple for town and gown alike. University High School was on East University at South U. It closed in the late 60’s and now some of us don’t have a high school to go back to. That brought on the need for Greenhills, which came later.

I would get my shoes at Fileccia Bros. Store, and Sam was often in the basement repairing shoes. In the back room at lunchtime most every day you could find all the local businessmen making sandwiches and having a business meeting, talking about changes needed on the street to make things better. If I needed a suit, I would go to Camelot Men’s Clothes (later called the Steeple Chase, owned by Terry Chase). I would go to Purchase Camera founded by Roy Purchase (later owned by John Ransom) for my postage stamps and for my film. One day my camera stopped working, so I went to see Heinz Grasshoff in the basement of Purchase Camera. He told me that it was made in Japan and he usually only worked on the “Rollei” cameras made in Germany but would take a look at it anyway. He was never able to fix it, but I thanked him just the same.

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