When optometrist Andrew B. Mann came from New Kensington to hang a shingle on South Main Street in Butler, Joan Crawford had won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Mildred Pierce, Winston Churchill gave a speech at Westminster College in Missouri, and Yogi Berra homered in his New York Yankees debut.

Now, 73 years and many thousand spectacles later, the office doors where Andrew examined the eyes of his first patient in 1946 will shutter one last time.

Joel Mann, Andrew's grandson and son of the late Archie Mann, who ran the business for many years, said he will work a few days this week, and then the familiar red letters will be taken down and the door locked Friday.

At the helm for eight years Mann had one message for his loyal customers over the years: “Thank you. I appreciate it,” he said.

The store will close due to a declining customer base for optometrist services, Mann said.

“People want to go to the cheapest places (for an exam, lenses and frames), then come here for us to adjust and fix them,” Mann said.

He said insurance companies are also decreasing the amount they pay for exams, lenses and frames.

“It's not enough to live on,” Mann said.

Coupled with parking difficulties and taxes Mann has to pay, the situation has become untenable.

“I feel bad about it, but I can't help it,” he said.

The optometrist who came once a week to perform exams will continue to practice in his Monroeville office, but Mann and his wife, Patty, will retire.

The couple's children did not continue in the optometry business because it has been in decline for a number of years.

The Manns have been burning old index cards listing customer information and clearing out the office.

“I've got four big garbage bags full of (index cards),” Mann said. “I used some to light the wood burner last night.”

Mann's sister, Gretchen Bauer of South Carolina, said the history of the store's opening shows the sacrifice and determination of the Mann family as they worked to establish an optometrist office in Butler County.

She said Andrew and his daughter, Dorothy, traveled from New Kensington each Sunday night to run the store for the week.

Bauer said her grandfather slept at the YMCA and Dorothy rented a sleeping room at a home in the city. The father and daughter worked at the business from Monday through Friday every week, and then made their way home to New Kensington to reunite with her grandmother and father Archie, then a young boy.

Neither his mother nor Archie were too keen on leaving the familiarity of their community to move to Butler.

Bauer said, finally, after three years, Andrew had enough of the weekly commuting.

“He told Dorothy, 'Go find a house,'” she said.

A suitable home was purchased on Cottage Hill Avenue, and the family was back together again.

She said her father worked at Butler County Ford for a short time and joined the Air Force after graduating from Butler High School.

After his discharge from the military in the early 1950s, Archie returned to Butler and the business his father and sister had started.

Dorothy continued to work at A.B. Mann until the late 1990s. For many years, the family also sold hearing aids.

“At that point, it became a bigger business, between the hearing aids and glasses,” Bauer said.

Dorothy Klee is now 94 years old and lives in an assisted care home in Grove City, Bauer said.

“She's as sharp as a tack,” Bauer said. “She has some funny stories from the business over the years.”

While A.B. Mann may be closing, the building familiar to so many in the Butler community will not sit empty for long.The next-door neighbors of A.B. Mann, Gilliland Vanasdale Sinatra Law Office, will soon expand their firm's space by purchasing the A.B. Mann building.The deal is under agreement and will close by the end of the year, said Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale.She said when she graduated from law school, the market for attorneys was saturated in the Butler downtown, so she opened an office on Route 228 in Cranberry Township.Vanasdale said her business was the first building to go up between the convenience store at the intersection of Franklin Road and Route 19.“It turned out to be a good investment for us,” said Vanasdale, who grew up a mile from the courthouse. “But I always wanted to come home.”She opened an office on Main Street six or seven years ago, right beside A.B. Mann.When the Manns approached her about buying their building, Vanasdale jumped at the opportunity to expand.“We have always thought of that building as a natural extension to our existing building in downtown Butler,” she said. “We also thought it would be a good thing for the Manns.”Vanasdale said the first three buildings on the east side of Main Street from Diamond Street were connected years ago, and she and her husband, Gary, spent considerable time and money having the water separately metered when they moved in.The couple added an elevator, which will also serve clients in the new 3,000 square feet of additional space that was the Manns' building.“We want a state-of-the-art building, not only in design and safety, but accessibility,” Vanasdale said. “We don't want to cut any corners.”The Mann building will contain offices and conference space, which is needed for attorneys and staff from the firm's Cranberry office when they come to the courthouse.The firm will add another associate attorney in the near future as well, Vanasdale said.The Vanasdales also hired Paula Painter, the county's former deputy prothonotary, as the firm's administrator and paralegal.Painter served in the prothonotary office for 18 years and ran for the seat after Glenna Walters announced her plans to retire, but lost the seat to Kelly Ferrari in the November election.