 | |
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merger and closure |
| Successor | Sibley's |
| Founded | 1867 |
| Defunct | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Buffalo, New York |
| Products | apparel, shoes, household furnishings, accessories |
| Parent | Associated Dry Goods (1916) |
The William Hengerer Company, known informally as Hengerer's, was a Buffalo, New York-based department store chain, with stores exclusively located in the Western New York region.
The company was founded in 1867 as J. C. Barnes & Co., followed by Barnes & Bancroft in 1869, at 259 Main Street, with James K. Bancroft. [1] In 1873, William Hengerer was admitted as a partner and the company became known as Barnes, Bancroft & Co. [2]
Along with other department stores located in Buffalo including AM&A's, Flint and Kent, and the Sweeney Company, Hengerer was very successful in the 1880s and 1890s. The department stores offered cooking classes, beauty parlors, and restaurants and introduced washing and sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, and iceboxes to the public. [3]
In 1889, Hengerer's new department store was built at 268 Main Street and was designed by Cyrus K. Porter and built of brick with Medina sandstone trim. In 1903, a new store was constructed and by 1907, Hengerer's boasted of being the largest department store between New York City and Chicago. [2]
Wm Hengerer Co. was a founding member of the Associated Dry Goods Corporation in 1916. [2]
The Hengerer chain was merged into ADG's Sibley's name in 1981, with its flagship store at 465 Main Street in downtown Buffalo closing by 1987. [4]
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different product categories known as "departments". In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London, in Paris and in New York.
Hens and Kelly, established in 1892 by Mathias J. Hens and Patrick J. Kelly, was a chain of department stores based in Buffalo, New York. They were early adopters of S&H Green Stamps as a promotional incentive for repeat customers. The downtown store was located at 478 Main Street at the corner of Mohawk Street. The first branch location opened in December 1950, in South Buffalo at 2262 Seneca Street. It closed in 1959. Other stores followed in the L.B. Smith Plaza in Lackawanna, New York; 2863 Bailey Avenue, in Buffalo; and the Transitown Plaza, in Clarence, New York.
Associated Dry Goods (ADG) was a chain of department stores that merged with May Department Stores in 1986. It was founded in 1916 as an association of independent stores called American Dry Goods, based in New York City.
Joseph Lowthian Hudson, a.k.a. J. L. Hudson, was the merchant who founded the Hudson's department store in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson also supplied the seed capital for the establishment, in 1909, of Roy D. Chapin's automotive venture, which Chapin named the Hudson Motor Car Company in honor of J.L. Hudson.
King's Department Stores was a chain of discount stores in the Eastern United States. The chain started in 1956, in Brockton, Massachusetts. They expanded to about 190 stores when, in 1978, they purchased the bankrupt Mammoth Mart chain. Three stores operated in the Buffalo, New York area. Because of the Mammoth purchase, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982, and in 1984 Ames Department Stores purchased the chain and converted most of them into Ames stores.
Goldblatt's was an American chain of local discount stores that operated in Chicago, Illinois as well as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Founded in 1914, the chain grew to more than twenty stores at its peak, gradually closing its stores in the 1990s and selling others to Ames before finally closing completely in 2000.
Jenss was a small chain of department stores in Western New York State. The company was founded in 1887 by the Jenss brothers in Lockport, New York. In 1951, Harold Dautch bought the company. In 1962, the company opened its flagship department store at the Boulevard Mall in Amherst, New York. Other locations were: Summit Park Mall, Eastern Hills Mall, and Main Street in Niagara Falls. It also operated the Jenss Twin Ton location at Main and Niagara streets in downtown Tonawanda (city), New York, the former Zuckmaier Brothers department store. In 1997, the company decided to close its Summit Park Mall Location. On September 15, 2000, Jenss closed all of its department stores. In 2002, Jenss, while remaining a separate company, chose to open stores exclusively with Reeds Jewelers. No merger took place, and the companies retain separate and distinct operations.
Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company (AM&A's) was a chain of department stores based in Buffalo, New York. It was an institution to generations of shoppers in the Buffalo area. The company remained family owned until its sale to The Bon-Ton in 1995.
Franklin Simon & Co. was a department store chain specializing in women's fashions and furnishing based in New York City. The store was conceived as a collection of specialty shops rather than a traditional U.S. dry goods store. Each "shop" had a specialty product line, such as ready-to-wear apparel for women, misses, girls, boys, men, young men and infants. When the chain closed in 1979, there were 42 stores.
Oppenheim Collins was a major women's specialty clothing store, headquartered in New York City, New York.
The J. N. Adam & Co., commonly referred to as J. N.'s, was a department store located in Buffalo, New York that became part of the Associated Dry Goods Corporation.
Sattler's was a regional department store chain headquartered at 998 Broadway, Buffalo, New York, two miles (3 km) from the downtown core. They pioneered "bargain basement" retailing in the Buffalo area. Sattler's was founded in 1889 by 17-year-old John G. Sattler when he opened a one-room shoe store in his mother's home at 992 Broadway. That store would eventually become Sattler's main store which, by 1950, covered 6 acres (24,000 m2) and included the 365,000-square-foot (33,900 m2) flagship store. In the late-1920s the store introduced a number of innovative marketing and promotional schemes to attract customers such as weekly automobile giveaways and high wire walkers. They also resold the contents of bankrupt stores purchased in railcar lots called the "Bargain Train". Starting in 1947, they sponsored an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Sample, also known as The Sample Dress Shop or The Sample Shop, was a family-owned, high end department store specializing in upscale ladies clothing and furnishings based in Buffalo, New York. The original store was established by Anne W. Bunis on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo in 1928. The company started when Mrs. Bunis returned from a trip to New York City with a set of 48 "sample" dresses, which she in turn sold for $12.75 each. Expansion occurred during the early 1950s with stores at Lancaster, New York; Lockport, New York; Thruway Plaza in Cheektowaga, New York; South Buffalo at 2182 Seneca Street; and Downtown Buffalo at 554 Main Street, the former home of Flint & Kent. The Downtown Buffalo store closed in 1959. In 1961, a store opened in Amherst, New York and in 1969, a store opened at Seneca Mall in West Seneca, New York. In 1971, a store opened at Eastern Hills Mall, with another store opening up at the Summit Park Mall in 1972, and in 1985, a store opened in McKinley Mall in Hamburg, New York. The last store in the then 11-store chain opened in 1988 at Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. In 1990, following the death of company chairman Maer Bunis, the company began a rapid descent into bankruptcy. On January 13, 1991, the flagship Hertel Avenue store closed.
Kleinhans, formally The Kleinhans Company, was a high-end men's clothing store located in Buffalo, New York. Edward Kleinhans and his brother Horace opened the store in 1893, and shortly after located in the Brisbane Building at Main and Clinton Streets on Lafayette Square in Downtown Buffalo. The store would eventually grow to be 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2), and was said to be the largest men's clothing store in the country. Edward Kleinhans died in 1934, and left his estate to the city to build the Kleinhans Music Hall. Hart Schaffner & Marx purchased the company in 1967 and operated the chain until it closed December 30, 1992.
L. L. Berger was a high-end Department Store based in Buffalo, New York. The family owned store was started by Louis L. Berger in 1905, at 500 Main Street. The company grew through the next two decades and opened its flagship store at 514 Main Street on February 4, 1929. The first suburban branch opened in 1953, at Thruway Plaza in Cheektowaga, New York, followed in 1960, with a location at Sheridan Plaza, in Tonawanda (Town), New York. At the death of its founder in 1967, the L. L. Berger company was "compared in fashion retailing to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor in New York, I. Magnin in San Francisco, and Neiman Marcus in Dallas." Expansion continued with stores opening in 1969, at the Seneca Mall, in West Seneca, New York and 1970, at the Northtown Plaza in Amherst, New York. Additional stores opened in 1975, at the Lockport Mall, in Lockport, New York; in 1982 at the Transitown Plaza in Clarence, New York; in 1988 at the McKinley Mall, in Hamburg, New York; and in 1989 at the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. A second Buffalo location opened at 510 Elmwood Avenue in the early 1980s. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991. In the early 2000s the flagship store was renovated to be upscale apartments and commercial space.
Flint & Kent was an upscale department store based in Buffalo, New York.
Twin Fair, Inc. was a discount department store chain based in Buffalo, New York. It was incorporated on March 22, 1956, and the first store opened on Walden Avenue. By 1959, four stores were in operation and sales stood at $2.5 million. In 1962, the founders sold the company to Unexcelled Chemicals, Corp., and also expanded the chain to include groceries. The company continued to expand opening an eighth store in 1967 on Seneca Street, along with stores in Connecticut and Cincinnati, Ohio. By 1970, through expansion and acquisition, the chain grew to 37 stores located primarily in New York and Ohio. The Ohio stores were later sold to Meijer, which briefly converted them to a concept called Meijer Square. In 1978, they added Hens & Kelly to their portfolio.
Bond Clothing Stores, Bond Clothes, Bond Clothiers, or Bond Stores, was a men's clothing manufacturing company and retailer. The company catered to the middle-class consumer.
Federal Department Store, or Federal's, was a department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan.
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