Nearing 100 years old: How Harpers survived, thrived as longtime State College business

It’s survived one Great Depression and 13 recessions, outlasted the terms of 16 U.S. presidents and first opened its doors before movies had sound, at least two years before the invention of the chocolate chip cookie.

For Harpers, a fine clothing store that’s stood in downtown State College since 1926, the key to its longevity has been a simple one — a strategy still preached by a third-generation shop owner.

“I feel like we’re always a startup,” said Brian Cohen, 59, whose father and grandfather both operated fine clothing stores. “We’re always restarting, updating, which is really great. My dad was that way too.”

Thanks to an eagerness to adapt and evolve, with a steadfast commitment to quality, the clothing store now at 224 E. College Ave. has long remained a staple of the local business community. Even today, the shop that caters to students and working professionals alike is poised to expand yet again — its second expansion in six years — as Cohen never stops looking for improvements.

Forget the adage of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Cohen prefers a mantra more similar to, “If it ain’t perfect, make it better.”

“You see a lot of businesses that don’t look different than they did 25 years ago,” said Cohen, who recounted with a smile how often his grandparents remodeled their first shop. “I was taught to always keep reinvesting.”

A rich history

To understand where Harpers is, you first need to understand where it came from.

Penn State alum Jack Harper teamed up with two brothers, George and Ken Stark, in 1926 to open a clothing store on West College Avenue. With about 3,500 students at Penn State and fewer than 5,000 borough residents, the co-owners didn’t even bother plugging their address on newspaper advertisements, where they simply stated it was “next to the movies.”

Silk ties sold for as little as $1.50, about $26 today, while white dress shirts sold for as much as $3, or about $52 in today’s money.

In that same year, Brian Cohen’s grandfather opened his “Young Mens Shop” in downtown Altoona.

Harper purchased the Stark brothers’ portion of the business in the late 1930s, and Cohen’s shop expanded into State College by the early 1980s as a competitor. Although Harpers changed ownership several times, with former employees taking over at one point, the Young Mens Shop stayed in the family — and, in 2000, the two shops agreed to merge to better weather the encroachment of chains and big-box stores.

They agreed to honor Jack Harper and tradition by sticking with the Harpers name, a proven brand in State College, and Brian Cohen bought out the co-owners several years later. So, although the roots of Harpers lie with Jack Harper and his out-of-state excursions to find future fashion trends — the CDT once touted his trip to Niagara Falls, where blue was expected to be in the “in” color for the fall — the shop’s character is covered with the fingerprints of the Cohen family and the Young Mens Shop.

Brian Cohen makes sure of it.

Although Harpers moved locations in 2017 — nearly doubling its size to about 6,000 square feet — there’s a nod to tradition and history in every nook and cranny. The classic black-and-white Harpers logo, complete with a coat of arms situated at the top, is almost entirely borrowed from Young Mens Shop, which closed its Altoona location in 2001. There is no apostrophe in Harpers since Brian’s grandfather railed against the punctuation in Young Mens Shop, feeling it didn’t make for a clean design. And small cutouts of Brian and his father get lost easily among the Penn State cutouts like Franco Harris on the ledges downstairs, a subtle nod to statuettes that Young Mens Shop once decorated its store with.

Not far from his desk, Brian keeps close a photo album intermixed with memories and clippings from both Harpers and Young Mens Shop. Evolving doesn’t mean forgetting your past, Cohen said, and he hopes he’s still cultivating a traditional — but playful and updated — version of the shop.

“We’re always reevaluating to see what’s working, what’s not working,” added store manager Sara Court. “We’re always changing, and that’s one of the reasons I love it here.”

Looking ahead / another expansion

Cohen doesn’t tend to sit still for long.

The well-dressed resident of College Heights, whose coiffed gray beard is sprinkled with a pinch of pepper, is constantly eyeing ways to change for the better — while still not losing sight of what’s made his family successful. Under his leadership, Harpers expanded its online presence and its offerings for women. It increased from one tailor to an additional two assistants. And it created its own line of Penn State-branded merchandise, high-end clothing that includes designer brands such as Peter Millar and Vineyard Vines.

That line, Harper’s Varsity Club, is leading the newest change.

Cohen’s landlord approached him in October to gauge his interest in potentially expanding, and Cohen couldn’t resist. He’s in the midst of renovations that would knock down a wall on the bottom floor to increase Harpers’ footprint by another 1,900 square feet. That will double the size of Harper’s Varsity Club, which will soon also be accessible from the adjacent alley.

The expansion is set to open sometime in March.

That means a larger selection and greater variety from the line, which includes wool-blend sweaters from England that are patterned after the football team’s look in the early 1900s. But that also means Harpers is not losing sight of its trademark custom-tailored suits either, whose clientele ranges from head football coach James Franklin to two-time NCAA wrestling champ Carter Starocci to regular students looking to impress on their first-ever job interviews.

In all facets, Brian doesn’t forget where he came from — and that goes for Harpers, too.

“My dad died four years ago but, even near the end, he was like, ‘All right, what are we going to do next?’ ” Cohen remembered. “I do get a lot of that from him.

“I’m fortunate that I get a lot of that from grandfather and my father.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2023 at 6:00 AM.

Josh Moyer

Centre Daily Times

Josh Moyer earned his B.A. in journalism from Penn State and his M.S. from Columbia. He’s been involved in sports and news writing for more than 20 years. He counts the best athlete he’s ever seen as Tecmo Super Bowl’s Bo Jackson.