William Seel — Liquor Made His Historic Place

William Seel

This website is replete with pictures of the multi-story buildings constructed or purchased by pre-Prohibition “whiskey men” to house the manifold activities required to wholesale and retail their alcoholic products.  Most such buildings long since have been torn down.  One exception stands out.  Liquor dealer William E. Seel in 1912 razed a single-story home he owned on Market Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  In its place Seel, shown here, erected a four story brick and brownstone structure that has been hailed as “a wonderful example early 20th Century commercial architecture.”  Shown below as it looks today and still bearing Seel’s name, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building facade facing Market Street displays artful brownstone arches and large windows each with a transom, as shown close up in the photograph at left below.  The brownstone was mined from the nearby Hummelstown Brownstone Quarries, below right.  The quality of the brownstone is well recognized. Seel capped his building with an overhanging cornice supported by corbels and ornamental brackets at the corners.  The remaining three sides of the building are made of red brick.  As the application for historic designation states: “The building has largely maintained its integrity while its neighbors have suffered from the pressures of urban renewal.”

With his partner, John Waller,  Seel occupied the building in 1913. It would be home to “Waller and Seel Wholesale Liquor Dealers” until shut down by the advent of National Prohibition.  The partners found Harrisburg’s Market Street a bustling commercial avenue with ample foot and automobile traffic.  The  business prospered.

Seel’s story began in the small community of Beechwood, Pennsylvania,  where he was born in July 1873 to Catherine and Frank J. Seel.  The public record hold scant information about his education or early occupations but it appears the family moved 210 miles south to Harrisburg sometime during his youth.  Seel first shows up in local business directories in 1893 as a 20-year-old bookkeeper working on Market Street.

When and under what circumstances he met John Waller are not clear.  As early as 1887 Waller, who had been a Union infantryman during the Civil War, was listed in local directories running a liquor store. The first listing of Waller & Seal together in the liquor business was in 1900, located at 319 Market.  As wholesalers they were “rectifying,” i.e. blending, whiskeys on the premises to achieve the desired color, taste and smoothness and selling them under proprietary labels. 

 

Among their brands were "Cabin John", "Conewago", "Drumore", "Kahweam Club Gin", “Mount Vernon,” "Ridgeside", and “Welland.  They featured two flagship brands, “Conestoga Pure Rye,” and “Waller Rye.”  Of these the partners registered only “Waller” with the Patent & Trademark Office.  As an indication that the partners were also selling at retail are flask and quart sized bottles with their labels.

Like other wholesalers, Waller and Seel provided their customers at saloons, hotels and restaurants with advertising giveaway items.  Shown here are two corkscrews, one advertising Conestoga Rye and the other Waller Rye.  The partners also gifted customers with shot glasses.

While growing the company, William also found time for a personal life.  In July 1906, at age 33 he married a local woman, Jennie Marks Fauble,  the daughter of Martin and Zina Fauble.  Quite unusual for the time, Jennie, shown here on a passport photo, was a year older than her husband and apparently previously had not been married.  There is no record of their having children. 

With the coming of National Prohibition, in 1919 Waller and Seel shut the doors of their liquor house and Seel leased the building to a shoe company that occupied the premises until the 1970s.  Newly freed from business cares William, with Jennie, quickly left on an extended vacation to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Seel owned the building until his death in July of 1964. At the age of 90 after falling and fracturing a hip he died of a blood clot in his lungs.  He was preceded in death by Jennie who passed in 1953 at 71.  For unknown reasons they are buried separately.  William is interred in Harrisburg’s Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery where he shares a gravestone with two sisters.  Jennie lies in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Colonial Park, Pennsylvania.  Their grave sites are shown below.

During ensuing years Seel’s iconic building has known many occupants.  With the whiskey man’s death the building became a home and school for orphan girls.  That use was followed by becoming the Harrisburg quarters of the AFL-CIO.  Subsequently turned into apartments, the building has been leased to Harrisburg University for Science and Technology and provides housing for some fifty students. Still known as the William Seel Building, it is shown below, dwarfed by a sprawling university structure.

Notes:  This post was gathered from several internet sites.  Most importantwere "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form."  United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service,1980, by Janet Bassett, and ancestry.com.