 Boadway Bros.' store at 268 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California, 1918 | |
| Founded | October 1912 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Broadway Brothers |
Boadway Bros. or Boadway's was a chain of upscale department stores in Southern California and New Mexico during the 1910s and 1920s, which started with a single store in Pasadena carrying furniture.
In October 1912, the Boadway Brothers opened a new furniture store on Colorado Boulevard near Marengo. It consisted of three stories of 75 ft x 25 ft each, 5,625 square feet (522.6 m2) total floor space, at a cost of $75,000. [1]
Starting November 20, 1912, the space was used as a Christmas Shop, for which the stock was valued between $5000 and $6000, and the store was to have 130 saleswomen, 24 floorwalkers, 50 "cash girls" (cashiers) and 50 waitresses. [2]
On October 1, 1917, Boadway's opened a new Pasadena store and expanded to dry goods, apparel, thus becoming a mainline department store. It added dry goods, silks, velvets and other "highly specialized lines of merchandise" until acquiring a stock worth $250,000, including selected lines of furniture. A broad, grand staircase to the mezzanine floor was added. The mezzanine was to had four “salons” for display and fitting, each of a different decorative theme. The second floor shoed furniture and the top floor, draperies and carpets. New display fixtures were of mahogany and high-quality plate glass. Stock included imported and domestic lingerie and imported Italian underwear. The store's crowning mark was having a corsetière on site, a woman specialized in fitting and manufacturing corsets to order, in addition to selling high-quality ready-made corsets. [3]
Dr. Edward O. Palmer was to build a six-story, 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) store for Boadway's in Hollywood at Hollywood and Vine, [4] [5] and in 1922, stock was sold to finance its construction. [6] After Boadway Bros. went out of business the next year, B. H. Dyas, a Downtown Los Angeles–based department store, opened in the building in 1927. The Broadway department store took over the building in 1931 and it continues to be known as the Broadway Hollywood Building. [7]
Boadway Bros. stores were acquired and liquidated as follows:
| City | Location | Opened | Acquired business of | Sold to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasadena (first store) | Colorado Boulevard near Marengo | 1912 | (new) | |
| Pasadena (second store) | 268 East Colorado Boulevard | 1916 | (new) | Tooker-Jordan [8] |
| Albuquerque | 1919 | Golden Rule Dry Goods Co. [9] | ||
| Long Beach | 411 Pine Avenue | 1921 | S. A. Schilling [10] | Hugh A. Marti Co. (Marti's), early 1923 [11] |
| San Bernardino | E Street | 1919 | C. Cohn Dry Goods Co. | Markell's department store [12] |
| Colton | 125 Eighth Street | 1918 | Willets department store [13] | Liquidates stock and closed store late 1918 [14] NB: Willet’s re-opened a new store in Colton in later years. |
| San Diego | 845 Fifth Avenue [15] | |||
| Hollywood | Hollywood & Vine now Broadway Hollywood Building | (new) | never opened as Boadway's; opened as B. H. Dyas in 1927 |
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