Walther’s Hill House Pizza to close after six delicious decades in business
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Family – including manager Erika Cox and her family, and present and former employees – have spent the past few weeks crowded into the small kitchen, working to keep up with an influx of orders ahead of Walther’s Hill House Pizza’s closing. Cyril Walther, center, in a backwards ball cap, has spent the past 60-plus years in the pizza shop and is looking forward to retirement.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Cyril Walther cheeses – both for the camera, and the Sicilian-style pizza he and his family have served to Washington County from a small building in North Franklin Township for more than 60 years.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Cyril Walther stirs sauce inside the kitchen of Walther’s Hill House Pizza, where the 79-year-old has worked for more than six decades. Walther is closing the family-run business March 31 to enjoy retirement.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Keepin’ it simple: Walther’s Hill House Pizza is a sweet, flaky Sicilian-style pizza topped with pepperoni, unless you ask for one of the three other toppings. The pizza shop also sells two kinds of sandwiches and cans of pop.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Four generations of the Walther family grew up crafting homemade Sicilian pizza at Hill House. From left: Kiersten Walther, the current owner’s granddaughter; Cyril Walther II; Renate Walther, daughter; Johann Walther, son, and Cyril Walther III.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Four generations of the Walther family grew up crafting homemade Sicilian pizza at Hill House. From left: Kiersten Walther, the current owner’s granddaughter; Cyril Walther II; Renate Walther, daughter; Johann Walther, son, and Cyril Walther III.
It’s easy to drive past the weathered building along West Maiden Street without giving a second thought to the white siding or the faded sign situated above a red tin overhang.
But those who recognize this small space know it is home to some of Washington County’s best-loved pizza.
“If you worked for us in 1961 and then left, and came back today, you’d fit right in because nothing has changed,” laughed Cyril Walther, who has owned and run Walther’s Hill House Pizza since 1978, when he purchased the business from his parents, Cyril and Gail. “We still use the same deck ovens. We just have one kind of pizza, and that’s the kind that we started with. We started with just pepperoni. I did add mushrooms, hot peppers, sweet peppers, and that’s all the toppings we have.”
And that’s all a slice of sweet, flaky, square Hill House pizza ever needed.
This Thursday, Walther and his staff – manager Erika Cox, who has worked alongside the owner for 26 years, kids, grandkids and local high-schoolers – will serve the final slices of handmade Sicilian pizza.
When Walther announced his retirement on Facebook, hundreds hurried to express their sadness in the comments.
“I feel like a part of me just died,” wrote one local, who said some of his best memories were made at Hill House.
Others thanked the family for decades of delicious pie and wished Walther happiness in retirement.
“I feel really bad about having to close it up,” Walther said. “I’ve been continuously working about all my life, really. To be honest with you, I’m getting kind of tired and just kind of would like to have some time to myself that I could just enjoy.”
The Washington native has spent more than six decades in the kitchen. His father, Cyril Sr., was a street motorcar driver with an entrepreneurial spirit. While two gas station ventures were short-lived, there was something promising about a plot of land that went up for sale in North Franklin Township.
“It was supposed to be an ice cream shop,” said Walther. “He didn’t have a lot of time for remodeling. We were getting late in the season for ice cream. He said, ‘Why don’t we just make a pizza shop out of it?’ I think we were the third one here in Washington.”
When Walther’s Hill House Pizza opened its window for business in 1961, pizza was more dessert than dinner, Walther said. He and his family (a younger brother, Regis, and sister, Sorelle) spent the evenings stretching and saucing dough and serving up slices to locals.
“The hours at that time was 7 in the evening until midnight. In those days, we had two steel mills working and we had nine glasshouses. We did catch a few people going to work at 11 or coming home around midnight,” recalled Walther. “I kept it that way until 1980.”
Though the hours have changed over the years, one thing has remained the same: Hill House Pizza is a labor of family love.
Between the time the shop opened in 1961 and its purchase by the second-generation owner in 1978, Walther married, taught school for Fort Cherry, spent three years in the U.S. Army during Vietnam, and returned home to devote his life to family: Kathy, his wife of 60 years, and three children, Cyril, Renate and Johann.
Kathy, who died four years ago, took care of the books while Walther, his kids and grandchildren made pizza dough, cooked and filled customer orders.
Cox and her family became family (Erika teared up at the mention of the shop’s closing) and the high-schoolers from local districts who worked in the small kitchen are family, too.
“It’s just been family all the way through, just the same pizza all the way through,” Walther said.
He’ll miss walking over to the shop and crafting pizza, but Walther is looking forward to retirement. He plans on exploring his 310-acre farm in Prosperity and spending time with his family – outside the pizza shop.
“I’m getting older and it’s hard for me to keep it going,” he said, adding a big thank you to anyone who has stopped by throughout the years.
“As far as the customers, we’ve had just wonderful people there that would come and buy our pizza. We’re into maybe even three generations of customers,” Walther said. “We’d like to thank our employees as well. Erica Cox’s family – they’ve been fantastic as far as employees go.”
Walther will close up shop, but he won’t be selling the business or his recipes. The only thing he plans to sell is out of pizza on Thursday.
“My oldest son said, ‘Well, Dad, you’ve given 60 years of your life to the pizza shop. The next 60 are for you,'” laughed Walther. “Altogether, pretty much I’ve lived the American Dream, where you start off with nothing, then you end up with everything.”