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

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

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

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

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