"How about favorite Department Stores"???..Either defunct or still extant ones apply....

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I'd dispute your dates about Knapp's in Lansing---I was at Mich State from 1981 to 1985 and think that Knapps closed in 1981 before I was up there. In those days, there were 2 1/2 malls in Lansing (Lansing Mall with Penneys/Wards/Hudson's), Frandor (with Sears)--what a weird place, but was walking distance from campus, and Meridian Mall which had Woolco (!), Penneys and something else, maybe a movie theater.

Remember sitting in a DeLorean at the car show at Lansing Mall in 1981--there was a dealer in town.

Best memory was my grandmother taking me down to Marshall Fields downtown--we got to take the CTA from Jefferson Park and got off right under M-F. Other grandmother would take me down and we'd take the Burlington railroad to Union Station.

WE lived in St. Louis walking distance to a mall with a big Stix Baer and Fuller and Sears, and a small Famous-Barr which had appliances but not furniture or a budget store (which used to be a Vandevoort's). Famous-Barr probably got out of appliances in the early 80s upon a renovation (they kept notions and toiletries past that point) but Dillards (which bought Stix from Associated Dry Goods) kept appliances until the mid 90s (they still sell furniture in some of their markets including St. Louis/Kansas City)
 
Maybe so....

Jamiel,

Two and one half malls....SOOOO true. Do you remember then how Frandor had these funny ramps and different levels without actually going really up or down? Like all the floors in there were uneven. You wold go upwards to get to one part and down to get to another? And how it used to smell funny. Kinda like a glue of some sort was used in its construction?

Frandor actually had a remake here in the late 1990's and is now a completly open air mall. The little center section, where they had Santa Clause is gone as well.

Meridian Mall DID have a Woolco...good eye there. I forgot about Woolco. We had on on the West side of town over on Waverly and Mt Hope. It's now a Value City. Woolco was cool but sold only Eureka vacuum cleaners ( to my knowledge) and was very reminicent to K-Mart. Woolworth's response to I mean.

We also had a Century House over on Pennsylvainia Ave. I know that's kinda a stretch for a department store since it was in fact a catalog showroom, but we shopped there quite a bit. The store closed in the late 1980's, and then was used by the up and coming ABC warehouse, and is now as of 1998 the Toyota/Lexus dealership.

Whitmark was another catalog showroom that was prevelent in this area, but had a larger showroom than Century House, with difinitive departments and had a cool vac selection, but never sold major appliances. This was in another half / mall I suppose Logan Square down on Lagan Street and Holmes. This store lasted well into the 90's when it too died.

You are right about the dates, and I digress. I was 5 in 1981 so this could definitly be so. Im working off a momory here. So a person who was in the need to know, my mom, who again was a part time employee with (Knapp's), told me that that the store was in fact closed June, 1981. But stayed open on the first floor and mezzanine levels and basement selling off merchandise until it was no longer useful to do so.

The store did have three elevators, in the back of the store, two escalators which only went up to the mezzanine level and the elevators did have operators which were mainly regular store clerks who were in rotation. There was no seperate elevator operator's position. Everyone had to know how to use them. Even my mom.

She did go on to tell me for a fact that Knapp's was in the Lansing Mall to the left ofJ.C.Penney's and Wurzbergs on the right of, until they all died in:

1.1983(Wurzbergs)
2.1984(Knapp's)

This left J.C. Penney's, Wards and Hudsons to battle it out.

She wonders why I needed this info by the way. I told her and she just sighed.

I forgot Hudsons! Hudsons was the upscale clothing store that is now Marshall Fields. Hudson's consistently stunk of perfume and you could smell the place from 100 yards. They used to sell Whirlpool vacuum cleraners for a time during the late 80's and early 90's. Before Hudson's came out to the mall, it used to be Robert Hall Clothiers another place gone well before me or before I could remember well.

Okay so, what others do we remember..

Chad
 
Oklahoma City had John A. Brown, Kerrs, Halliburtons and Rothchilds all long gone. All had great appliance displays you could play with.

Dallas (Aunt and Uncle lived there) had Sanger Harris, Tiche Gettogener and Neimen Marcus. I don't remember if Neime's had appliances or not the others did.

New Orleans (another aunt and uncle plus lived ther myself 15 years) Masion Blanche, D.H. Holmes (locals called Holmesss'), Gus Meyer and the best Krauss Ltd. Krauss had a full floor of appliances and when we moved in the late 80's still had wringer washers for sale on the 6th floor. Old old building with creaky wood floors, sales staff worked on comission, and used the old pneumatic tubes to send money to and get change back. Krauss would have bargin days and give out flowers to first so many shoppers the sidewalks would be overflowing with little old ladies waiting to get in when store opened. Like a cattle stampede when the doors opened. When we visited in the 50's and 60's we would all take the streetcar downtown from uptown they lived off Ferret Street. All great stores no longer there. Had Woolworth's (Woolsworth as locals said) two of which were about 12 blocks apart on Canal Street. The malls there are generic with the same store you see anywhere else.
 
In the downtown districts of smaller towns. . .

. . .it's always fascinating to see the Penney's "P" (before they became JCPenney) or a Sears-Roebuck monogram set in stone in the entrance to what's now an antique mall.

Sometimes the current occupants aren't even aware of the building's heritage unless you point it out. Even rarer are the combined clothing-only and catalog centers but Sears and JCPenney still operate a few. At the Sears stores, a Kenmore laundry pair usually sat to one side of the catalog order and pickup counter.

How's THAT for nostalgia? :)
 
In Akron,

The store of my dreams was O'Neil's. They were, I believe part of Federated, and had Maytag, GE, Frigidaire, and Ambassador. The downtown store was so elegant.

I miss the lunch room, "The Georgian Room." They had some of the best orange muffins I have ever had! Oh, how I miss being able to spend time, as well as money at department stores.

O'Neil's was one of the old line stores. Could get a haircut, have lunch, pick up the latest novel, get your writing paper re-ordered, and have everything DELIVERED, even a spool of thread.

In the 80s, it became May Company (or May Company rebadged), and then it's current incarnation is Kaufmann's (Yes, Pittsburgh).

I was SO sad when they dropped major appliances in the late 70s, but almost everyone did, except for Sears. I don't particularly care for Sears, but they are useful.

Of the mass merchandise stores, Target is the store for me. I do not like Wal*Mart one bit, and never go there, if I have a choice.

I am sad about how price has trumped service. I like being able to go to a store and be recognized. I loved being able to phone a store and talk to a live person immediately.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
The store in question

So,

Just wanted to let you all see the place that I remember from my youth, disputed or not.

This is J.W.Knapp's and Company, 301 N. Washington Avenue in it's heydey. This picture was taken in 1959 according to the source where I found it.

Anyway here it is....
 
When we lived in Mass., our local department store was Park-Snow. It was one of the old-fashioned kind with an actual elevator operator. I was SO impressed when we went there one day and my brother and I decided to go down to the toy department. We just walked into the elevator and my older brother told the operator what floor. I thought to myself "we're not going anywhere. The operator isn't going to listen to a couple of little kids!" But he took us down and for a little while, I though my brother was totally cool. Then we started fighting again (as brothers do) and everything was back to normal!
We also had R.H. White's, though I don't remember much about it.
In Baltimore, we had Stewart's, Hochschild-Kohn, and Hutzler's. Still have The Hecht Co. Stewart's used to have an annual warehouse sale and the line of cars to get onto the lot was incredible! Never cared much for Hochschild's, but I still miss Hutzler's. That was a genuine department store, not like the current batch that pretty much just has women's clothes, shoes, and makeup, and a teeny little corner for men. Hutzler's had everything. If your shopping list consisted of a cub scout uniform, toilet paper, a rosary, winter coat, camera, wig, record album, and book, you could get it all in one place. I don't remember them selling major appliances, though.
The closest thing we have to a traditional department store now is Boscov's, which sells all the clothing stuff, but also has furniture, electronics, and major appliances.
Random thought: when I was a kid, the cosmetics department was always right in the front of the store. There was always this display of what I now know was face powder; several clear canisters with different colors of beige in them. Apparently, someone at the counter would custom-blend powder. Don't see that any more!
veg
 
Fav Department Stores

Growing up in Miami we had Burdines (we loved to have souffle in their restaraunt), Jordan Marsh, Sears, JC Penneys, and Richard's. Veg, Richard's had elevator operators too. I always wondered how they didn't get sick going up and down all day long. It had about six floors. The basement was their bargain area. They also sold everything else, including major appliances. As a matter of fact, my dad sold major appliances there for a couple of years.

This is the same place where my sister and I used to play "Get Smart" and talk into our watches. I also remember their ladies lounges were huge; sofas, chairs, etc. They also had several pay toilets (10 cents please) which had this uv-like light that would "sanitize" the toilet seat. Very nice and much more special than the regular stalls. What do you do when you're nine and don't want to pay to get in?......you crawl on the filthy public restroom floor and sneak under the door. 'Nuff said.
 
We had Woolworth and Federal here in Michigan. I remember them from the '70s when I was a kid. Here are some others: Naums (a catalog showroom) and Joshua Door (furniture).

This is a little off topic, but I also remember Chatham (groceries) and Great Scott (groceries). Sadly, we no longer have walk-in Sanders stores here. I remember eating ice cream sundaes and chicken salad sandwiches there, always with ice water served in a paper funnel set inside of a metal base.
 
Kinda small but here is Knapp's

Okay here it is...1959

IN the left hand foreground is Washington Avenue.

The penthouse was the executive offices

This building has changed little except being long vacant from the 1959 photo.

Chad
 
My favorite department store was the now-defunct Wieboldt's. It was a complete department store, in that it had clothing, hardware, appliances, a sewing department, furniture, candy, WIGS, etc. I remember the wig department had a sign, "The Wiggery". Wieboldt's was a two story anchor in a now-demolished shopping center. A year or so after Wieboldt's went out of business, our grade school and junior high school were severely damaged by a flood. In a weeks time, they had relocated the schools to the vacant Wieboldt's store, the junior high on the second floor. My homeroom was in the boys department. My "locker" was a drawer in the former lingerie dept, dymo-labeled "34C". We had band rehearsals in a stockroom, PE in the former budget-buy area (it was all tiled...I think we played floor hockey for an entire semester). Art classes were in the beauty salon, the "main office" was the men's shoe department, the nurse was staked out in the stockroom behind men's shoes, and the drama classes made use of the "proscenium" opening to men's formalwear. Our computer lab (TRS-80s!) was set up in the lamp department--plenty of electrical outlets there. Of course, all the deparments were carpeted, linked by tile, and if you were on the tile during class, you'd better have hall pass. It was interesting to be "backstage" in that store and find out that what had appeared to be air vents actually had crows nests behind them for security personnel to watch through.

It was a neat experience and certainly a testament to the resourcefulness of our schools' faculty.

T.
 
OH! And I just remembered that a children's book was written based on our experience of going to school in the department store. I was in high school by the time it came out, so I never read it, but my mother teaches fourth grade and her students read it.

We weren't permitted into to mall area--the security door to the mall was closed and covered with plywood. We did have one band concert in the center court of the mall, though.
T.

 
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Chad, I'm glad you got the picture to work. That is a neat-looking building. One place I know of in Michigan I'm sorry I never got to see was that mammoth Hudson's in downtown Detroit.

Deeptub, one time on a visit to Chicago, I was with some friends from the area and we passed a vacant Wieboldt's. They had fond memories of the store, and later I saw some very old advertising detailing a fashion show and some other events that were going to be going on.
 
There were two independent appliance stores in Buckhead when I was a kid. One specialized in Maytag, neither one was very "child friendly". Then the Sears opened. The old Sears on Ponce De Leon was fun, but the new one in Buckhead had a great appliance department. There were always three or four machines going. A LK Combo nearly always faced an aisle, spraying away at colorful towels revolving around. And then a LK top loader, complete with poker chips and Roto-Swirl agitating away. The people who worked there never said a word to me about my noseyness. Always had a great time. Sharps Appliance over in "Little Five Points" was also lots of fun. They specialized in Frigidaire, they even had a few older used types for sale from time to time. I used to spend summers with my Grandparents in Miami, and they used to turn me loose at some appliance store near them. I remember the old Burdines downtown and the Richards, but don't remember appliances there. I wonder where the Apex's I used to see down there came from? Since my Grandfather knew all the good 'ole Boys in Miami at the time, I'm sure some independent dealer had them. The old Rich's Department store in downtown Atlanta had a fairly large appliance department, and specialized in GE.and Hotpoint. Atlanta Gas Light Co. sold Maytags and always had fun showrooms with everything Maytag sold at the time. J.C. Penny sold "Penncrest" (Hotpoint) and they had a pretty good appliance department, but not nearly as much fun as Sears. Oh, the good old days---------------
 
Sears in the Gables

Steve:

You sure brought back memories of that Sears in Coral Gables (actually on Douglas Road- 37th Ave. and Coral Way). Do you remember their candy department? I loved the counter with the roasted nuts. They carried those red pistachios that would stain the heck out of your fingers. We would get a 1/4 pound in those little paper sacks. My other favourite were the Maple Nut Goodies and Pecan Divinity. Oh yum! This was the only Sears store near us. We got everything from Easter shoes (black patent MaryJanes, of course) to our lawnmower. I also used to love the Lawn and Garden department. They would always have something turning on the spit in one of the model barbeque grills. I was always hoping they would give out samples. Sears just made me flat out hungry!

As a young woman, my mom lived in Atlanta for many years. We went back there many times when I was young. I remember Rich's Department Store. We also tried staying at the Henry Grady Hotel (mom remembered it being "so nice"). What a dump! I could tell you stories.....Needless to say, we stayed at the Hyatt. Loved the rotating restaurant. My mom wouldn't let us go up the small set of stairs to the restroom. She was afraid that the thing would break off and we'd plunge all the way down to Peachtree.

These memories are making me chuckle. Thanks for sharing.

Venus
 
Hudson's

Scott?

I never saw the Hudson's in downtown Detroit either. My mom growing up in 1950's Detroit however has told me several stories about that location. But it WAS a VERY huge deal when they tore it down. Up here many groups tried to give it a stay of excecution, but eventually after no one did anything with it, the demolitioners had their way, and it finally came down. I think in 2001?

For instance, ever winter Santa Clause would appear (magically) during the winter parade,to her and my young uncles and aunt; and the hundreds of other children from the roof and he would wave down to the children. Aparantly Hudson's spent big at Christmastime.

And my mom also got her communion dress from there also. She told me that it cost my grandmother $14.95 in 1958. She said that it was fifth floor young ladies,ladies floor? You must understand that even tho my grandfather worked for Lincoln Mercury, he still only made as an office clerk at the new Wixom facility $7.02 an hour.

Basically he had to work 2 hours to buy that dress. That kind of money was nothing to sneeze at in 1958 either. But there was six of them so money was still tight.

She remember's absolutly nothing about appliances in many cases but did say that appliances were in the basement (pattern here?) and that it also held their bargain area.

The few Hudson's that I rememember was the one in of course the Lansing Mall, and there was another one down in Battle Creek at Lakewood Square (their mall). Both stunk horribly and becasue I have asthma would soon have to huff my inhaler after being in there like 2.5 seconds. Now their all changed over to the Marshall Field's name.

Sears- I remember them having a dual action agitator machine with the white red and blue poker chips in it agitating the same tub of water over and over again. By the time I rememeber washers as I have stated around 1988 or so... anything really cool was gone. However over at Monkey Wards, they did have a Signature 1000? top-loader that had several pairs of jeans that you could stuff into the tub, showing , I guess how big the tub was.

And then again, they did put alot of todo into the Front Load Westinghosue built automatic's also. They stuffed a full or queen size comforter in the model that had the controls in the rear backsplash.This one I just remember purely becasue it was this horrid floral print thing that no one should be caught dead sleeping under, let alone washing. The stackable had towels stuffed in it..ususally.

Does anyone besides me remember that a few K-Marts had restraunts in them? I remember that the main one on Cedar Street here in Lansing had one, and later the on on West Saginaw had one too. You could get breakfast, lunch or dinner there.

So yes there is a few more things I remeber.

Chad
 

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