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 will have a new address and a new location and will not replace what is already here. For now this site will remain up. thank you for your support here and I will see you at the New project. The new site will be linked on this post when it is up.

Department Store ARCHIVES - Special Presentation! From A&S to Strawbridges .....King Of Prussia PA

1981 The Court at King Of Prussia Is Completed. Its Three Anchor Stores Are Bloomingdale's Abraham & Straus And Bamberger's. The Court was built next to  the Plaza At King of Prussia. Fast Forward to 1987 Abraham & Straus is shuttering its Pennsylvania locations, K.O.P. Included. This Left a large hole in this triple header malls lineup.

Concept Model Of Abraham & Straus

Main Level Of The Store Somewhat Plain

Linens

Fast Forward to 1989 Strawbridge & Clothier had Purchased the building and stripped it down to the bare structural steel. One wall and the roof went also, The only remains from A&S were the escalators and the elevators. The bridge from the store to the parking garage was demolished and replaced with a glass atrium. The store was redesigned to be one of the best!

Redesigned Front entrance

Original Escalators with a very New skylight and Dutch artwork.

What had once been a cool yet simplistic early 80s A&S store was now a palace of commerce. The redesign shined in every way possible with many more types of flooring than A&S'S Parquet. And beautiful light fixtures. The Circular paintings in the escalator well were original pieces of art, of Dutch origin. The spectacular front entrance which had replaced the gangplank style bridge from the original design, contained a replica of the Porcelino fountain. Another replica was housed at the Flagship store in downtown Philadelphia. The front entry flowed up into the third level which contained a small food court style Ice Cream shop/Restaurant. Above the Fountain was a replica of an antique clock, which had SC letters of top of it(This can still be seen today).

Lingerie with Some spectacular light fixtures.

The Cafe Above the main entrance on three.

Childrens

Exterior of the Main entrance At Dusk

Ultimately the Store Didn't even last ten years. This was Because Strawbridge and Clothier at the time of opening of this location was still under the control of Stockton Strawbridge. (Strawbridge's being family owned was the secret behind their spectacular locations). This was the last store built under family ownership before Strawbridges was sold to May stores. When May consolidated John Wanamaker with Strawbridge's this Palace of a store was abandoned for the circa 1963 Wanamaker's store. The building was once again completely gutted and subdivided between several stores. A handful of features from Strawbridge's can still be seen today.

 Photo Credits: Stores For the 90s (1990)
A&S Fans On Facebook , Stores Of the Year Volume 3 (1983) By Martin M Pegler

Department Store ARCHIVES - Julius Garfinkel And Company Landover Mall, Landover MD

Garfinkels was A very exclusive Washington DC based 7 Unit Chain Of Department Stores. They Were Founded in 1905 By Julius Garfinkel. And Eventually Constructed A large Neoclassical Building on 13th And F streets in DC.

Children's Feat. A Disturbing Mannequin

Womens

When the suburban Fever Came Along in the 1950s-70s, Garfinkels chose not to expand as rampantly as some of their competitors into the malls. Their 6 Branch stores were all very well thought out and classically designed.

Great Visuals!

The Landover Mall location Was number 5. Opening in May of 1972. The malls other anchors were competitor Hechts, Woodward And Lothrop. And a totally out of place Sears.

Escalators From The Bottom

Escalators from the Top 

The store’s interior design was completed by fairly well known store planners/Architects Copeland, Novak And Israel. And it was a very classy interior indeed. Sporting separate selling rooms Chandeliers and amazing Visual Merchandising.

Little Bit Of Disco Snuck In 

The Stores exterior sported a simplistic yet classy arch design done in white brick. The entryways sported large archways, and some 70s looking mercury vapor can lights.

Jewelry And Cosmetics

Mens Suits, Classy as all get out

Unfortunately Garfinkels took a turn for the worst in 1990 as a company and Filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. One of DCs Classiest was gone forever. The Landover Location rotted until 2003 and was Demolished that year along with the rest of Landover Mall. Fast Forward To 2019, 29 years After Garfinkel's demise and I finally after years of searching got ahold of one of the iconic blue Garfinkel's Credit cards as seen below. I had wanted one ever since I started Collecting Old credit Pieces 8 Years ago.

Photo Credit: Store Planning And Design Novak Adolph 1977
Store Planning/Design: History, Theory, Process Lawrence J. Israel 1994
Garfinkels Logo Courtesy Of The Department Store Museum

From The ARCHIVES - Euclid square Mall Customer Service Manual

I got ahold of this binder from Euclid Square last summer, from http://mallwalkers.net/ be sure to check them out for more great content.  It contains a whole variety of papers used in the malls operation.

The Binder itself

Towing Record Form

 Stuff inside of it dates from when the mall opened in 1977, all the way into the 90s and 2000s. The older contents are much more interesting.

Riser Room inspection form

 Here, I have scanned a selection of the more interesting pages out of it. For your enjoyment.

Site plan circa 1980s

Site plan circa late 70s

Site plan from 1977

Lease plan circa 1990s

Mall Plan circa mid 1980s

Department Store ARCHIVES - J. B. Ivey Company Pinellas Square Mall Pinellas county Florida

    Ivey's in  Pinellas square mall was a great example of 70s Brutalist architecture. It opened on April 13th 1977. The store was half Round and featured a skylight in the middle above the escalators.

The mall entrance featured a large glass curtain wall overlooking the mall. The actual entrance to the store were set to either side.

 The store was converted to Dillard's in 1990,  Dillard's closed the store in 2003. The store came down with the rest of the mall in 2004. 

Photo Credit: 1980 Marshall Fields Annual Report

From The ARCHIVES - 1978 Montgomery Ward Account Statement

The wonders of having a relative who saves everything! Stuff like this that theoretically should have been thrown away years ago survives for me to find. This account statement along with many Really cool Pieces of paperwork from the past survived were found in my Great Aunts House. Which I helped clear out in Summer of 2018.

Front

 As you can See this particular statement Came from the Janesville Wisconsin store which Closed in 1983. It appears This list of products included some new Tires, installed a card payment, A suit And Some portable electric tools.

Back

One the back we see Wards financing terms, for those who care to read them. 

Mall Profile - Owings Mills Mall Owings Mills Maryland

The Mall Interior

The Conservatory

Champs Sporting goods

Ann Taylor

Owings mills mall opened July 30th 1986 with great Fanfair. It was developed By the Rouse Company of Columbia MD, it was designed by the famed RTKL and associates. The new mall brought Macy's, Saks and Hecht's as anchors. The mall hosted a variety of mid to upscale stores, such as some of the ones pictured . It also had a Conservatory food court with marble imported from France. Owings mills was a very picturesque property, it had a trail to the nearby Owings mills Metro station. This proved detrimental to the mall as in 1992 a cleaning lady from Saks was robbed and murderd on this trail. This was really the begining of the end for this mall. Saks Later closed and was replaced by JCPenney. Lord and and Taylor and Sears were Added to the mall in 1996. Both were gone by the early 2000s and replaced by two different furniture stores, In 2006 Sears was Demolished. Also in 2006 Hecht's was sold to Macy's, this resulted in Macy's abandoning their 1986 store and moving into the Hecht's building. The old Macy's was converted to a Boscov's which closed in 2008 and was never reoccupied. Macy's closed in November 2015, JCPenney closed in Spring of 2016. In March 2016 an auction was held for the contents of the mall. Demolition started in August of 2016. By late 2018 the first stores in Mill Station Were Opened.

The Bombay Company

Britches

Upper Level Layout

1. Photos in this article from Storefronts and facades 2,1988 And New Architecture of the Retail Mall, 1991

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