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Customers always ask, “Why are you called Toll Gate Liquors?"
And our owner responds…
“Well, as my late
Nana would say... ‘when Wilmington was a prairie’ ....Lancaster
Pike was the main thoroughfare from west Wilmington to central Pennsylvania. At the edge of town there was a small house that was
home to the toll collector who saw to it that those who traveled to and from our fair city paid for the use of the roadway.
In the early 1900's that toll collector's house was converted into
a commercial establishment. One of the businesses that occupied the old toll house was Flitch's Liquors.
In 1972, Dan Angeline bought Flitch's and renamed the business.
The new name was....Toll Gate Liquors.”
The story of Toll Gate Liquors continues over three generations…
Five years after Dan opened the original Toll Gate became too small for his expanding business and he
moved one block to the current location. Unfortunately the old Toll Gate was torn down to make way for a pizza shop.
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The new/current location, at 3115 Lancaster Avenue has quite a bit of history itself.
The building was originally set up for three stores. Dan took the first
unit and continued to run Toll Gate Liquors. In the center of the building was
Dean’s Pharmacy and the last unit was occupied at that time by Fredrick’s Photography Studio.
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Dean’s Pharmacy was eventually bought out by a larger company and moved out of the 3115 location. When this happened Dan decided he was once again running out of room and he expanded
Toll Gate Liquors into the center unit as well as the first. The third unit has
been occupied by varied and sundry businesses over the years but eventually Dan opened another archway and took over the entire
building.
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In 1992, Dan sold the business to his son Drew and happily retired.
Drew is now accompanied by his daughter Becky, who joined him in 1995 and his son Justin, who joined them in 2000. At that time Drew, in his infinite wisdom, began to plot a major overhaul
of the building. Due to the original use of the building, there were still three glass store fronts along the front
of the building and this was confusing to customers as well as spatially awkward. Two
years and a lot of dust later Toll Gate Liquors had more space inside and the exterior of the building was transformed to
a more uniform design.
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Again, the words of our owner….
“Along with my daughter Becky, my son Justin and our friendly staff
I would like to invite you to visit our world of beverages at 3115
Lancaster Avenue. We would be glad to
answer any other questions you may have about beer, wine and spirits. Or what happened to the pizza shop.” -Drew Angeline
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