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In 1966, father and son dairy farmers E.D. "Bunch" Showalter and Conan Showalter sold their dairy herd and used to proceeds to remodel the "milking parlor" into the area's first overnight photo lab. That lab was the beginning of what is now King Photo. The Shenandoah Valley's first King Photo store opened in Waynesboro, Virginia in 1974. Five years later, in 1979, King Photo opened a second store at 889 East Market Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia. http://www.harrisonburg.org This store sold the usual cameras and photo processing services but with one important difference. It was the first retailer in the Valley to offer film processing with same-day service. This innovation proved popular and led to the opening of the first King 1 Hour Photo in Valley Mall in 1983. In 1998 King 1 Hour Photo opened in Staunton, Virginia. In 2001 the entire company was sold to Allen Showalter, son and grandson of the founders. Allen is a member of the Society of Photo Finishing Engineers, a Certified Photographic Consultant, sat on the Board of Directors of the Digital Imaging Marketing Association (DIMA) and is the International President of the Photo Marketing Association International, the world's largest photo marketing group. http://www.pmai.org |
