'Hats Trimmed Free of Charge': The story behind Philadelphia’s iconic Lit Brothers building

PHILADELPHIA - People walking down Market Street near 8th Street in Center City have likely noticed the massive, historic Lits Building taking up the entire block.

Above the entrances, carved stone plaques display a phrase that often leaves modern shoppers scratching their heads: "LITS - Hats Trimmed Free of Charge." While it might sound like a haircut promotion or a custom sizing service, the phrase is actually the original marketing hook that launched one of Philadelphia’s most legendary retail empires.

WATCH: Philly transplant learns about Lit Brothers for the first time

What 'hat trimming' actually means

Behind the Words:

To understand the sign, it helps to understand how people bought hats in the late 19th century.

In the 1890s, shoppers did not buy fully styled hats off a rack. Instead, they purchased a plain hat base. "Trimming" a hat meant custom decorating it by adding ribbons, feathers, lace, flowers, or bows.

Because trimming was a skilled, custom job, milliners typically charged customers a steep extra fee for the service. The term uses the same traditional definition of "trim" that survives today when decorating a Christmas tree with ornaments and lights.

How Rachel Lit built a retail empire

The backstory:

The story behind the store began in 1890 when Rachel P. Lit opened a small dress and hat shop on 8th Street above Filbert Street.

To stand out from competing shops, Rachel came up with a brilliant promotion: if a customer bought a plain hat base at her shop, she would do the custom trimming entirely free of charge.

The gimmick was an instant success, driving massive foot traffic to her store. Seeing how profitable the business had become, her brothers, Samuel and Jacob Lit, joined her in the business.

Together, they expanded the small millinery shop into a full-scale department store at the northeast corner of 8th and Market streets. While upscale competitors like John Wanamaker’s, Gimbels, and Strawbridge & Clothier targeted wealthy shoppers, Lit Brothers explicitly positioned itself as the affordable, welcoming alternative for working- and middle-class Philadelphians.

33 buildings under one cast-iron facade

Dig deeper:

As the department store grew over the decades, the owners did not construct a single new skyscraper. Instead, they gradually purchased 33 neighboring commercial buildings between 1859 and 1918 and connected them internally.

Because it was cobbled together from dozens of separate properties, the store was famous for its maze-like interior, uneven floors, ramps, and wooden escalators. Architects Charles M. Autenrieth and Edward Collins designed cohesive exterior additions, transforming the block into a seamless Victorian architectural landmark featuring Renaissance Revival cast-iron facades, arched windows, and octagonal corner towers.

Today, it remains the only full block of commercial Victorian architecture left in Philadelphia.

The Lits Building today

Big picture view:

After decades as a Center City retail staple, Lit Brothers closed its flagship Market Street store in 1977 as shoppers shifted toward suburban malls.

Threatened with demolition, the property was saved through historic preservation efforts, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and fully renovated into commercial office and retail space in the late 1980s.

Today, the structure operates as "The Lits Building," housing corporate offices like Five Below's headquarters, while Rachel Lit’s original 1890s marketing promise remains permanently carved above the doors.

Philadelphia