Wednesday 26 September 2018

Department store ARCHIVES - Stix Baer and Fuller Chesterfield Mall




Exterior rendition
(The Department Store Museum)
Stix Baer And Fuller at Chesterfield mall opened in 1976. It was 198,000 Square Feet On three levels. It was designed by well known retail design firm Copeland, Novak And Israel. It featured a Garden room Restaurant like Most Stix Baer and Fuller Locations. Its competition at the Mall was Sears Roebuck And Company And JCPenney.




By 1984 Stix Baer And Fuller Was sold To Dillard's. Along with the rest of the St. Louis Based Chain. This Store was converted to Dillard's At this time. Dillards Remodeled The building Sometime in the 1990s Totally erasing the Stix Baer And Fuller Look. Aside From the Escalators Flanked By a glass Elevator The store looked like a generic Dillard's inside and out. 






      Dillard's Temporarly Closed this Location After a water main burst and caused Major damage to the building. Due to the fact that Chesterfield Mall was in a steep decline at this point Dillard's Abandoned this Location. In 2018 Hull Property group purchased the mall. Knowing them this Building will probably be demolished.


Stix Baer And Fuller Credit Card
These Photos From: Stores of the Year Book 1, 1979, Store Planning And Design By Adolf Novak, 1977





Monday 24 September 2018

Department Store ARCHIVES - Joseph Horne Company Randall Park Mall - updated


If you are like I was and wondered what the inside of this branch of Joseph Horne Company Originally looked like well , your in luck. This store opened along with the rest of the Mall on August, 11th 1976. It was 201,000 sqft on 3 levels. 



The store closed in 1994 and was split between LaSalle Furniture and Burlington coat factory. Both later Closed and the building was Razed when Amazon cleared all the remaining building aside from Sears.
Grand Opening Ad

Hornes Credit Card Circa 1970s

Thursday 2 August 2018

Department store ARCHIVES - Bloomingdale's Mall of America Bloomington MN

Bloomingdale's at Mall of America opened in 1992 It was a fixture of the malls original tenant lineup
Escalators well 2nd floor
(Grazzini Bros.)
 

Escalator well 3rd level
(Grazzini Bros.)

Exterior
(Labelscar)
 It had a large escalator well with a giant skylight. The exterior was white marble with a large clock tower it became a local "landmark" of sorts.


Skyways to parking
(Biz journals)

3rd floor
(Barb tweed)
It lasted until 2012 when parent Macy's inc closed the store. The space has been divided between LL Bean, Forever 21 and Crayola experience. The second floor remains mostly vacant.

The skylight
(Barb tweed)


Department store ARCHIVES - Famous Barr Eastland Mall Evansville IN.


This Famous Barr location opened in  1996 at Eastland Mall in Evansville Indiana. It was a typical may stores prototype for the time. It was a new build on the site of Ben Snyder's Later acquired by Hess's in 1987. an original anchor structure from 1981.
The store was closed in 2006 after Macy's already had a location in the former Lazarus. It was sold to Dillards who currently occupies the space.
(Pictures courtesy of Arc construction)
Exterior 

Interior near escalators

Mall profile- Westdale Mall Cedar Rapids Iowa



Westdale Mall Opened October 4th 1979. It was developed by the Hahn company a major shopping center developer at the time. It's orginal anchors were Younker Brothers of Des Moines Ia, Petersen Harned Von maur of Davenport Ia(originally planned to be Brandeis of Omaha Ne.) ,J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward. It also included an Osco drug. Petersen Harned Von Maur was shorted to Von Maur in 1989. Montgomery Ward closed in 2001, but was replaced by Steve and Barrys in 2005. In January 2007 Von Maur closed in 2008 Steve and Barry's closed after they went bankrupt. Linn county moved temporary offices into the former Steve and Barry's in 2008 after a major flood. The demolition of the mall was completed in November of 2014 after the mall closed March of that year. The only remaining structures from the mall are Younkers, Von Maur and Penney's. Younkers closed in the first round of Bon Ton closures in 2018.
Wards in 2000

Holiday 1980s

Grand opening 1979

Holiday 1980s

Younkers escalators 1980

Younkers 1980

Department store ARCHIVES - Joslins Park Meadows Lone tree Co.


This particular Joslins opened in 1996 as a part of Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree Colorado. It was designed by BHDP architecture of Denver. The first two photos are sourced from their website. The building did not last long as Joslins, being that mercantile stores Joslins parent company was sold to Dillards in 1998 . Dillards already had a store in Park Meadows. The store was converted to a Lord and Taylor in 1999 which closed in 2004. Only ten years old the building was demolished in 2006 for a lifestyle wing which is anchored by h&m.
Front courtesy of BHDP

Side courtesy of BHDP

Side courtesy of W&W Glass

Side courtesy of W&W Glass

Department store ARCHIVES Carson Pirie Scott - Miracle Mile Shopping center




Carson Pirie Scott at Miracle Mile in Rochester MN opened in the 1987. After they bought out Minneapolis based Donaldsons who built the store back in 1952. And had been there since. By 2001 it was the last Carsons in Minnesota. The others which were also former Donaldsons locations had been closed and sold off to Mervyn's among others. In 2001 rumours began to spread that Carson's would convert to Herbergers another Saks inc Nameplate and move to the recently vacated Wards store at Apache mall. In 2002 this became a reality as the second article below states. Carson's remained vacant until it was converted to a HOM furniture. Herbergers is part of Bon Ton stores and is closing the buildings future is currently unknown.
2001 article

Once it became reality 2002
Same scene from below in 2018

Picture from 2001 
                                   

Tuesday 3 July 2018

R.I.P. Toys R Us

Toys R us is gone forever in the Us after 69 years in business. The chain was founded in 1948 by Charles Lazarus. The original namesake was Children's Bargain Town . Eventually the name Toys R Us was implemented. With the R backwards to make it look like a child had written it. Mascot Geoffrey the giraffe was named by an employee Toysrus became an instant classic. The iconic "I don't wanna grow up commercial " was created in 1983. Another version including the same actors was done ten years later. Toysrus created a children's clothing store coined Kidsrus 1985 this was discontinued in 2005. Babies R Us was another Toysrus brand selling infant and baby products. The beginning of the end was when Toysrus was sold to Bain capital in 2006. In fall of 2017 Toysrus filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced several store closings. In March of 2018 it was announced that all US toysrus locations would close for good. Founder Charles Lazarus passed away in the same week as this announcement. On June 29th 2018 all remaining Toysrus stores closed forever. Enjoy these few post mortem photos of the Rochester MN store taken June 30th 2018



End Of Retail OF Yesteryear

I am making this post to announce the end of this blog. I am Moving on to a new project entitled The Department Store Archives. That project...