Department Stores?

[Flivver]

I grew up in Worcester, MA...a city that had several interesting local department stores.

The largest of them Was the Denholm & McKay Company, known simply as Denholms. The Denholm building still stands on Main St across from City Hall.

We also had the Barnard Sumner & Putnam Company, known as Barnards, specializing mainly in clothing.

But my favorite always was the C.T. Shearer Co. because of its radio ties. Shearer's opened Worcester's first significant radio station in 1924 with call letters WDBH. This stood for the store's slogan "We Do Business Honestly". In 1925, the call letters were changed to WCTS for C. T. Shearer. In late 1925, the store sold the station to the local newspaper who changed the call letters to WTAG (Worcester Telegram & Gazette). WTAG is still on the air today at 580 Khz AM.

Unfortunately, by 1970, all the local department stores except Denholm's had disappeared as shopping centers entered the area. Our City Fathers had the brilliant idea in the early 70s to create a downtown shopping mall with expensive pay parking. Denholm's moved to the mall, called Worcester Center, and failed after only a few years. I believe the plan is now to tear down the Worcester Center complex. I can only say "Good Riddance".

 

[Rafter]

I grew up in Worcester, MA...a city that had several interesting local department stores.
The largest of them Was the Denholm & McKay Company, known simply as Denholms.

Joni Mitchell had this to say in one her songs, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got til it's gone".

Here's a pic of the Denholm & McKay Company, standing on Main St., across from City Hall.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Well, our newly redeveloped old Montgomery Ward store from the '20s is getting loft condos now to finish out its redevelopment:

"One Montgomery Plaza will have 240 condos ranging from about 1,000 square feet to 4,600 square feet. Marquis will offer 17 floor plans for one to three bedrooms.

Condo prices will begin in the low $200,000s and go to around $700,000, depending on the size and location.

The higher-priced units will be on the upper floors, with the most expensive and largest units on floors seven and eight. The better views will cost more as well.

Parking will be on the second and third floors, and in the basement of the east tower. Each unit will have two parking spaces. The parking garages are connected by a pedestrian bridge and bridge that cars can traverse between buildings.

Nearly $23 million has already gone into renovations, but "considerably more" will be spent on the building, Maya said.

The renovations have included the addition of ramps to the parking areas, and the buildings have been completely outfitted with energy-efficient windows, roofs, and heating, air-conditioning, electrical and plumbing systems.

All this means a new era for the building, which has been a Fort Worth landmark for generations.

At One Montgomery Plaza, most of the condos have 12-foot-high ceilings, but on floors seven and eight, the units will have 16-foot ceilings, and some will have skylights. Every unit has a bank of the large windows that dominate the building's exterior and with interiors designed so that sunlight penetrates, Maya said.

Other amenities will include rooftop dining and swimming pool, and a movie room and fitness area above the second-story parking garage in the northwest corner.

"People are going to think they've walked into Shangri-La," Maya said.

The units will have roomy kitchens, spalike bathrooms and closets, he said.

"We wanted to make these residences a comfortable place," he said."

Teaser site now online - the opening Flash animation has some cool shots of the building's construction back in the '20s:

http://www.montgomeryplaza.com/

Wouldn't it be nifty to live in a late '20s department store?

That just made me want to move to TX and I thought I never wanted to move to TX! The good news is I can't afford to live there but I sure would like to!

 

[ShooShooBaby]

That just made me want to move to TX and I thought I never wanted to move to TX! The good news is I can't afford to live there but I sure would like to!

haha, seriously! the other day i was saying to a friend that it would be cool if they turned the Jantzen Building (in portland) into apartments. then i realized, wait, there's no way i'd be able to live there anyway! i'm sure they'd be $$$.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Here's some pics (tiny tiny) of our local treasures both living and dead:

http://www.roadsidepeek.com/roadusa/southwest/arizona/azretrolook/azgoldera/index.htm

 

[Kimberly]

I grew up in Worcester, MA...a city that had several interesting local department stores.

The largest of them Was the Denholm & McKay Company, known simply as Denholms. The Denholm building still stands on Main St across from City Hall.

We also had the Barnard Sumner & Putnam Company, known as Barnards, specializing mainly in clothing.

But my favorite always was the C.T. Shearer Co. because of its radio ties. Shearer's opened Worcester's first significant radio station in 1924 with call letters WDBH. This stood for the store's slogan "We Do Business Honestly". In 1925, the call letters were changed to WCTS for C. T. Shearer. In late 1925, the store sold the station to the local newspaper who changed the call letters to WTAG (Worcester Telegram & Gazette). WTAG is still on the air today at 580 Khz AM.

Unfortunately, by 1970, all the local department stores except Denholm's had disappeared as shopping centers entered the area. Our City Fathers had the brilliant idea in the early 70s to create a downtown shopping mall with expensive pay parking. Denholm's moved to the mall, called Worcester Center, and failed after only a few years. I believe the plan is now to tear down the Worcester Center complex. I can only say "Good Riddance".

Yes the Worcester center is a disaster and it has yet to be torn down yet. I have seen pictures of the old stores and wish I was around when they were open. I actually now collect vintage clothing from Worcester (and Worcester area) dept. stores and I have quite a few nice things and frequently wonder what they were like.

 

[Atomic Glee]

That just made me want to move to TX and I thought I never wanted to move to TX! The good news is I can't afford to live there but I sure would like to!

They've actually gone *UP* in prices since the initial news came out. After their grand premiere sneak preview VIP thingy last month when they started pre-sales, they had so much interest that they raised prices to $275 per square foot. The cheapest units are now around $255,000, with the big ones topping out at $1,550,000. They're already around 50% sold.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Yes, I did notice how many condos had been sold already. They are really nice though.

 

[Viola]

For me, department store = Wanamaker's.

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and one of the first department stores in the United States. It was renowned for its honest reputation and for innovating many retailing firsts in America. At its zenith in the early 20th Century, there were 16 Wanamaker's stores, but the chain was absorbed into Hecht's (now Macy's) in 1995 after years of decline.

Here's a picture of the bronze eagle that was/is a big landmark in the city. People still say "meetcha at the Eagle?" but the whole thing is a freakin' Macy's now. :rage:

-Viola

 

[Flivver]

Joni Mitchell had this to say in one her songs, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got til it's gone".

Here's a pic of the Denholm & McKay Company, standing on Main St., across from City Hall.

That's a great photo of Denholm's, as I remember it when I was a child. From the cars on the street, it looks like it was taken in the mid to late 1950s. Thanks for posting it, Rafter!

I sure wish I could step into the picture and have a walk around the store.

 

[Rafter]

Filene's! (Wait - Filene's is gone now..?)

It was the giant retail conglomerate, Federated Department Stores, that closed the flagship store and retired the Filene's name!
Federated did not just end the proud legacy of Boston's Filene's but also Chicago's equally storied Marshall Field, and Pittsburgh's Kaufmann's. All of these, have become Macy*s.

The folding of Filene's into Macy*s is part of a homogenizing trend in which our country is becoming the United States of Generica. In one sense, this is no big thing. Retailers come and retailers pass away. When family businesses lack a suitable heir, or cease to be competitive, or just want to cash in, they typically sell out to a big chain. The chain, in turn, is free to do as it wishes. This has been going on for centuries. So the consumer who romanticizes a particular store is a bit of a sucker. It's all commerce.

On the other hand, Filene's was in a special category. It was a Boston landmark, along with the Red Sox (also a commercial enterprise), the Symphony, Faneuil Hall, the brick cityscape, and the other unique institutions that make the town Boston and distinguish it from a hundred other cities. At least the people who bought the Sox had the wit not auction off naming rights to Fenway Park.
Filene's was part of Boston's soul. You wouldn't expect a big conglomerate to appreciate that.

 

[Flivver]

Filene's

One of the many things that made the Filene's flagship store special to Bostonians was a bronze plate embedded into the marble floor at the store's entrance on the corner of Washington and Summer Streets. It was a large round compass that said something like "Filene's Boston...The Hub of the Universe". I believe it was placed there when the store received a major overhaul in 1950.

I haven't been to Downtown Crossing since Filene's disappeared. Does anyone know if that plate still exists?

 

[panamag8or]

Here is the exterior of the Sears in Gainesville, FL, during WWII. My Grandfather bought the building when they moved (to the mall, of course) in 1966, and I grew up working there during the summers. My Grandfather left everything as it was when Sears was there, like fixtures and decor. It was like working in an old department store. Even the old counters and signs were on the upper floor, where he stored furniture. The building is currently empty, with a "for rent" sign. If I had tons of money, I would open a "Man Mall" in there, with a hat store, shoes, a barber and a shaving store...sigh.

At the time of this picture, the train still ran down the middle of main street, as evidenced by the tracks.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Here is the exterior of the Sears in Gainesville, FL, during WWII. My Grandfather bought the building when they moved (to the mall, of course) in 1966, and I grew up working there during the summers. My Grandfather left everything as it was when Sears was there, like fixtures and decor. It was like working in an old department store. Even the old counters and signs were on the upper floor, where he stored furniture. The building is currently empty, with a "for rent" sign. If I had tons of money, I would open a "Man Mall" in there, with a hat store, shoes, a barber and a shaving store...sigh.

Well I hope you do find the money to do that. Would be cool.

 

[panamag8or]

Well I hope you do find the money to do that. Would be cool.

Here it is today. DOC's are the people that bought it from my Grandfather. He swore he wouldn't let a bar move in there, so he sold to another office supply place.

According to emails I have read on the web, the propery agency it is listed with is trying to get the Supervisor of Elections to move their offices into there. (Gotta love Florida and their open records law)

Maybe I'll hit the lotto Saturday.

 

[Atomic Glee]

Another example from Fort Worth:

The Sanger Department Store in downtown Fort Worth was built in 1929, designed by famed local architect Wyatt C. Hedrick. It was the very first department store west of the Mississippi to be air conditioned. Sanger's closed a few years later, and in 1946 JC Penney moved in. In 1993, the building was brought back to life by architect David Schwarz and reopened as Sanger Lofts, a 59-unit loft apartment development. The ground floor houses the Fort Worth Visitor's Center and Leddy's Western Wear, while the basement houses the Circle Theater.

They even saved the original maple floors from Sanger's for use in the lofts.

 

[flat-top]

I was in the Macy's on 34th St. in NYC yesterday. Truly an experience. 9 floors!
Has anyone seen their great new commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--52Tl-WuFQ

 

[John in Covina]

I was in the Macy's on 34th St. in NYC yesterday. Truly an experience. 9 floors! Has anyone seen their great new commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--52Tl-WuFQ

*****
Do they still have the deli and meat department?

 

[flat-top]

*****
Do they still have the deli and meat department?

I didn't see that, but I DID see a McDonald's in the kid's department, a FOOD COURT in the Junior dept, and a massive Starbuck's.
But as built up as it is, the higher you go in that store, the "older" it seems to get. Rickety "wooden" escalators, and simpler set ups.

 

[John in Covina]

Macy's

I haven't been there since 79-81 maybe. Macy's was one of the biggest meat providers in the NYC area and they had great butchers at their meat counter on one of the lowest floors. Near by was a deli counter and they did box lunch sandwiches that were very good. I just remember being surprised to find the butcher and meat department!