Favourite York City Department Stores

[supersuds]

Laundress's site explains what happened with the John Wanamaker store in New York. I always associated them with Philadelphia, but in the 1980s I worked at a federal building/ post office constructed in 1911 in a small Virginia town. Nothing much had changed and my desk was a huge oak rolltop with a latch inscribed "John Wanamaker * New York." I was told that it had been used by the local postmaster for decades.

I found out later that the Postmaster General in 1911 was none other than John Wanamaker! Funny how some of the furnishings from his New York store ended up in Virginia!

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of pianos and the old time feel of department stores for me Nordstrom still has the original feel of the service you used to receive in the grand old stores.

Our Sears in our local mall closed a few months ago and Nordstrom is moving in. I wasn't aware that Nordstrom was going to totally replace the building too. So Nordstrom is a new anchor tenant with a new building in The Woodlands mall.

 

[kevin313]

Roger - good memory! Hudson's dining room was called the Riverview Room. If you were near the south facing windows, you could get a glimpse of the Detroit River.

Joe - I heard about the "paper bag" test that Hudson's had with African-American employees. I had my first lesson on the subject at the downtown Hudson's store. I was about four, maybe five, and was there with my mom and little sister. Mom had to take sis to the bathroom, and back then there were no "family" bathrooms, and boys did not go into the ladies room!

So, mom handed me off to a TOTAL STRANGER - a plump African-American woman who was shopping near the ladies room. "Can you watch my boy for a minute?" mom asked her. "I'd be happy to," she said and mom handed me over. I stood there holding this woman's hand while she asked my name, how old I was, etc.

Mom and sis returned, my mom thanked this stranger for watching me, and we went on with our shopping. Mom explained that there were two kinds of people - good and bad, and the color of their skin had nothing to do with it. A lesson learned for life at J.L. Hudson's in downtown Detroit.

 

[dirtybuck]

Who Remembers...

Rhodes, Liberty House and Joske's department stores?

 

[whirlcool]

We had Joske's in Houston before Dillard's bought them out around 1987 or so. They were the main competitor of Foley's, Houston's premier department store. Foley's was absorbed into Macy's and now the former downtown location of Foley's has been closed and has a date with the wrecking ball. Too bad, that building was very advanced for its time and still to this day looks pretty modern.

We don't even go into a Macy's anymore. They don't carry anything we would want. If we want something nice we go to Nordstrom.

 

[retromania]

Dillard's

I never heard of Dillard's until one came to Greenville,SC. Now we have one in Anderson. Shock of all shocks. Their stuff is kind of high, but they have great sales!!!

 

[westingman123]

St Louis and Department stores

So many names long gone. Scruggs-Vandervoort; Stix, Baer and Fuller; Famous-Barr. Let's not forget the "dime" stores like S.S. Kresges, Woolworth's, and Shopper's Fair.

The restaurant at Famous had the most scrumptious French Onion Soup, and the desserts were always so pretty! Presentation!

*sigh*

How times have changed.

 

[firedome]

Baltimore of the 20s to 70s

had Hutzler's, Hochschild Kohn, Stewart's and Hecht's, both downtown on Howard Street, and suburban outposts. As downtown dteriorated in the '50s/60s the 'burb stores became the focus, with many of the Towson and Timonium locations becoming the store's flagships. Growing up in Towson the Hutzler's store was a thing of wonder, with it's Dulaney Room for ladies who lunch, the huge picture window overlooking the beautiful Dulaney Valley from it's comanding hilltop location, and a fine bakery within the store, and selling everything from outboard motors to chemistry sets. Mom bought my hula hoop there, in 1958!

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of Joske's, we bought a lot of furniture for our home from them when we came to Houston. They carried most of the best names in furniture like Henredon, etc.

 

[lovestowash]

Fascinating website...

Having worked at Rich's and shopped at Burdine's for years, this brings back lotsa good memories before the Macy's tragedy...
I never knew of the architectural similarities between the Rich's downtown Atlanta location, and the Burdine's downtown Miami location...
Thanks for sharing this...

George

 

[mtn1584]

They're all gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gimbels, B. Altman, A&S, Orbach's, Stern's, Korvettes, Caldor, Bradlees, Barkers, AMES, Gertz, Hernz, READS, Jordan Marsh and John Wanamaker, are all gone in the New York, New Jersey, Ct, metropolitan area.
All that is left is MACYS-everywhere, JCP,-everywhere, Sears-everywhere, Walmart, and Target, some Kmarts as well, that is it.
All are in their own category with no competion!!!
Macys ate up everything!!
MIKE

 

[tolivac]

Nice dept stores-all eaten up by Wal-Marts and Targets!

 

[ovrphil]

Disappointing

....is a euphemism for what's happened to the retail choices today...so many good stores, gone.

Being from Michigan, I miss Hudsons(as Kevin313 mentioned), especially their Christmas displays and upper floor where the decorations and trees were elablorately decorated to create this wonderland for kids and adults - all the lights, decorations, etc. My mom took my sister and I down there EVERY December to enjoy the lights and displays(so thankful my mom did that for us).

Besides Hudsons - loved Jacobsens, and miss Crowleys, even though towards their end, their store in Birmingham, MI. was "tired" looking.

Here, I miss Parisian and Rich's ...(lucky Michigan has Parisian stores, in a unique situation, that we visit).

Years ago, while visiting my grandmother in St. Petersburg, downtown, we shopped at Maas Brothers(pictured and probably not remembered by too many here). I remember seeing my first surfboard(sunny yellow) at Maas Bros. Good memories here in this Launderess thread.

So many stores are replaced with disappointing Macy's. Federated.

Adulterated.

 

[laundromat]

I loved the downtown area in Baltimore. My mom had the Baltimore Shopping Plate she could use at Hechts,Hochschild Kohns,Hutzlers,Stewarts and Hess Shoes. She was the head teller at First National Bank of Maryland in their main branch just catticornered from the stores.She took me to sit on Santa's lap and their was a display at Hect Company of a realistic/toy FRIGIDAIRE kitchen made by Wolverine.I ran over and prayed that I would get them. I even told Santa he was the real,true one and the rest were fakes! Alas, when Santa came, I got a Varoom bike .That was when my beliefs changed and I hated Santa!

 

[cuffs054]

ovrphil,
Thanks for the memory. When we moved to St.Pete in 57 Maas Bros was THE place to shop. Did you ever visit the William Henry store on 34th ST? It was the flagship of THE WILLIAM HENRY BELK stores, now just Belk's.
Our neighbor who I called aunt and uncle took me to Maas every year to see the Christmas set up on the top floor. In fact Uncle Vince Sklar was the pharmacist at Maas for as long as I could remember.

 

[petek]

I remember the JL Hudson store as well. We always went a few times a year and it was huge. Besides the toy department I probably spent most of my time playing on the escalators and elevators. Never knew where my dad went (probably for a beer somewhere) and mom and sisters were all looking at dresses and boring stuff. Obviously the folks weren't worried about me like most parents would be today letting their kid out of their sight.
We only went to Toronto perhaps once a year if that being much further away but my distinct memory of the Eatons flagship store on College St very early on were the wooden escaltors and the elevators with the woman operators and that crank handle they used to operate it. I was fascinated by that. Eatons was a stunning art deco palace. It's still there but been chopped up in portions into other stores. The magnificent theatre on the top floor is still in operation but I've never been up there since. As well there is still one original wooden escalator hidden in one of the new furniture stores that faces Yonge St. It was a short escaltor about 15 feet to take you from the lower entrance grade up to the main floor at the south end of the store.

 

[petek]

This is the foyer of the top floor theatre and ballroom

 

[ovrphil]

Cuffs054 - you're welcome! No, I never visited the William Henry Store. My grandmother brought us down to the now gone Million Dollar Pier where a lot of retirees danced each weekend...and I think Maas wasn't far from the street that faced the Gulf and Pier. Great memories- there was a store called, I think, Epps or Eppes? It was so long ago, I can't remember, except I do remember the seniors would mow you down with their shopping carts, just gesturing to move out of the way as they entered or especially exited from the store.
Epps? It was near Tampa or somewhere around, not far from Riverside, FL., where we stayed.

Petek - GREAT pictures! I remember Eaton - last there about four decades ago...good memories of Toronto - went with a buddy of mine and when we crossed the US/Canadian border, they thought we were high on something and detained us for a while. 1970. Just kids, you know?

 

[cuffs054]

ovrphil,
You are correct Maas was right down town and near the pier. Did you ever visit "WEBB CITY" with the live mermaid show? You could buy anything at Webb's it was part store part carnival!

 

[cuffs054]

A visit to Webb's

http://www.google.com/search?q=webb...gT0_ID4CA&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=571