The Woolworth Building is a historic building in Watertown, New York. It is a contributing building in the Public Square Historic District. [1] Plans for the Woolworth Building were begun in 1916 by Frank W. Woolworth, the founder of the Woolworth's chain of department stores. [2]
Woolworth began his retail career at the Smith and Moore Dry Goods Store in Watertown in 1873. It was during his time here that he was given the idea of selling fixed price merchandise, which led him to create his successful chain of five and dime department stores in 1879. The Smith and Moore store later became a member of the Woolworth chain. [3]
In 1916, Woolworth purchased the American Building in Watertown, which housed the store in which he began his career. Woolworth planned to demolish this structure, and build a grander building in its place. [4] Woolworth's death in 1919 initially halted these plans, but the Woolworth Corporation eventually decided to go ahead with his plans, and the new six story Woolworth Building opened its doors in 1921.
Woolworth's Department Store occupied the building until 1971, when the store was moved into a modern facility. Many shops occupied the bottom floor of the building in the ensuing years, while the upper five floors remained occupied by various business offices. [5]
In 2007, declining occupancy and poor maintenance led to the building's closure. In 2008, a developer purchased the building, with hopes of converting it into a boutique hotel, which would bear the Woolworth name. [6] This plan was abandoned in 2012 in favour of a proposal to transform the upper floors into low-income residential apartments. [7]
As of 2013 [update] , the interior was in poor condition. [8] Restoration work began in November 2013 [9] and was expected to continue into 2015. [10] As of early 2015 the restoration is complete and the building is occupied.
The ground floor is to remain commercial space. [11]
Frank Winfield Woolworth was an American entrepreneur, the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company, and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" which featured a selection of low-priced merchandise. He pioneered the now-common practices of buying merchandise directly from manufacturers and fixing the selling prices on items, rather than haggling. He was also the first to use self-service display cases, so that customers could examine what they wanted to buy without the help of a sales clerk.
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, setting trends and creating the modern retail model that stores follow worldwide today.
The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m). More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the U.S..
Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. While the American stores were closed in 1983, the chain remained active in Canada until it was sold in 1994 to rival Walmart, which was looking to enter the Canadian market. All of the former UK Woolco stores were sold by Kingfisher, which had bought the UK Woolworth business, to Gateway which subsequently sold them to Asda.
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Lewis's is an online retailer and homeware brand. It was also a chain of British department stores that operated from 1856 to 2010. The owners of Lewis's went into administration several times, including in 1991. The first store, which opened in Liverpool city centre, became the flagship of the chain. Several stores in the chain were bought in 1991 by the company Owen Owen and continued to operate under the Lewis's brand name for several years, but after the closure of the Manchester store in 2001, only the original Liverpool store continued to trade under the Lewis's name. This store was sold in 2007 to Vergo Retail Ltd and closed in 2010.
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Schofields was a department store that operated on the Headrow in Leeds, England, from 1901 to 1996. For much of the 20th century Schofields was regarded as being the pinnacle of shopping in Leeds city centre.
The Paddock Arcade is a 19th-century shopping mall located in Watertown, New York. Built in 1850, it is the second oldest covered shopping mall and the oldest continuously running enclosed shopping mall in the United States. Since it has seen uninterrupted use since it opened in 1850, it carries the distinction of being the country's oldest, continuously operating covered shopping mall. The Paddock Arcade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Quaker Bridge Mall is a two-level super-regional mall located in the Clarksville section of Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. As of 2022, the mall features the traditional tenants Macy's and JCPenney. The mall currently features prominent specialty stores Coach New York, White House Black Market, and Ann Taylor.
The Public Square Historic District is a historic district that serves as an open mall in the center of Watertown, New York, containing 58 buildings, one contributing site, and three contributing objects. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 7, 1984.
The Maine Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in South Portland, Maine, United States. Owned and managed by Brookfield Properties, it is the largest shopping mall in the state of Maine, and the second-largest in northern New England, behind New Hampshire's the Mall at Rockingham Park.
280 Broadway – also known as the A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store, the Marble Palace, the Stewart Building, and the Sun Building – is a seven-story office building on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade streets, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1845 to 1846 for Alexander Turney Stewart, the building was New York City's first Italianate commercial building and one of the United States' first department stores. The building also housed the original Sun newspaper from 1919 to 1950 and has served as the central offices for the New York City Department of Buildings since 2002. It is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark.
Top Ryde City is a large indoor/outdoor shopping centre owned by The Blackstone Group. It is located in the suburb of Ryde in Northern Sydney.
Randhurst Village is a shopping center located at the corner of Rand Road and Elmhurst Road in Mount Prospect, Illinois. The shopping center took its name from combining the names of these two roads.
Filene's Department Store was a department store building at 426 Washington Street in Downtown Crossing, Boston, Massachusetts. It was the flagship store of the Filene's department store chain. The building has been renovated and now serves as the offices for Havas and Arnold Worldwide. The building is maintained as part of the Millennium Tower. It is now home to fast fashion retailer, Primark.
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Charles Sumner Woolworth, was an American entrepreneur who went by the nickname of "Sum", opened and managed the world's first five-and-dime store in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and was founder of the "C. S. Woolworth & Co" chain of 5¢ & 10¢ stores. Sum's brother, Frank Winfield Woolworth, was first to venture into the retail business with his own store, and soon after, he asked Sum to join him. Frank founded "F. W. Woolworth & Co", which later merged with other Woolworth affiliate stores to be the F. W. Woolworth Company. After the death of his brother, Sum became the longest serving Chairman of the F. W. Woolworth Company. During the early years, Sum also partnered with a long-time friend, Fred Kirby, to open a "Woolworth and Kirby" store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. When Fred bought out Sum's share, that store grew to become a "friendly rival" affiliate store, in close alliance with the two Woolworth brothers.