Industry | Retail |
---|---|
Founded | 1860 |
Defunct | 1973 |
Fate | Liquidation |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Products | General Merchandise |
Parent | City Stores, Inc. |
Lansburgh's was a chain of department stores located in the Washington, D.C. area. The clientele were middle-income consumers.
The first store, at 7th and E Streets, NW, in Washington, D.C.'s downtown shopping district, opened on October 30, 1860. The founders were James and Gustav Lansburgh. The company was known initially for supplying the black crepe used for the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln. [1] Lansburgh's installed the first elevator (wooden) in a commercial building in the District of Columbia. The company remained family owned until its acquisition by City Stores, Inc. in 1951. At the time of its final liquidation in June 1973, the chain ranked eighth in the Washington D.C. retail market, with sales of $28.5 million. [1]
The initial Seventh Street flagship downtown store was located on and constructed in 1882, and was a work of architect Adolf Cluss. [2] The store was greatly expanded in 1916, 1924 and 1941 out to Eighth Street. During the 1970s and 1980s, the store building was used for offices and warehouse space. The former flagship store on 7th Street was at the forefront of the revitalized Penn Quarter section of downtown Washington, D.C. [3]
In 1955, Lansburgh's opened its first suburban branch at Langley Park, Maryland followed in 1959, with a $2.5 million, 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) branch at Shirlington Shopping Center in Arlington, Virginia. [4] [5] The chain was slow to open other suburban branches. The 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) store at Tysons Corner Center opened on October 19, 1969, after protracted battles regarding leases dating back to 1962. Because of that fight, the chain was slow to expand to other malls opening the Washington, D.C. suburbs. [6] This was followed by the store at Rockville Mall on February 14, 1972, and a 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) store at Springfield Mall (later Korvettes, then SpringFest Food Court/AMC) in March 1973. [7]
Saks Fifth Avenue is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C. in 1867. Saks expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902 and flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924. The chain was acquired by Tennessee-based Proffitt's, Inc. in 1998, and Saks, Inc. was acquired by the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 2013.
Langley Park is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is located inside the Capital Beltway, on the northwest edge of Prince George's County, bordering Montgomery County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 20,126.
Tysons Corner Center is a shopping mall in the unincorporated area of Tysons in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It opened to the public in 1968, becoming one of the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping malls in the Washington metropolitan area. The mall's three department store anchors are Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Nordstrom.
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Benjamin Bloomingdale and his son, Lyman Bloomingdale, in 1861. Another of Lyman's brothers, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the business. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1930 under then-president Samuel Bloomingdale.
Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and The Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores that operated mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States. The firm originated in Baltimore, Maryland.
Von Maur, Inc. is an American department store chain based in Davenport, Iowa. Founded in 1872, the chain operates over 36 locations across the United States, primarily in the Midwest.
L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became known for its women's fashions, the Tea Room, holiday events and displays, and the basement budget store. As urban populations shifted to the suburbs, Ayres established branch stores in new shopping centers in several Indiana cities. Ayres also acquired retail subsidiaries in Springfield, Illinois; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky. Ayr-Way, the Ayres discount store subsidiary, became the first discount store launched by a full-line department store. By the end of the 1960s Ayres had become a diversified merchandising business with retail department stores, a chain of discount stores, specialty clothing stores, a home furnishings showroom, and a real estate holding company. A long-time Ayres slogan, "That Ayres Look", promoted the company as a fashion leader, and by 1972 it had become the oldest continuous retail slogan in the United States.
The Harris Company was a retail corporation, based in San Bernardino, California, that operated a chain of department stores named Harris', all in Southern California. Philip, Arthur, and Herman Harris - nephews of founder Leopold Harris of what was once the large Los Angeles-based chain Harris & Frank – started the company with a small dry goods store in 1905, and the company eventually grew to nine large department stores, with stores in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Kern Counties.
The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana. It was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main store was located at 9 East Washington Street in Indianapolis in 1896. The company also identified itself as The Wm. H. Block Co., and Block's.
Forbes and Wallace was an American department store chain based in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Garfinckel's was a prominent department store chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the National Register. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1990 and ceased operations that year.
Springfield Town Center is an enclosed shopping center located in the Springfield census-designated place (CDP) of unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia. It opened in 1973 as Springfield Mall, an enclosed shopping mall, which closed on June 30, 2012 as part of a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan to turn it into a multifaceted "Town Center"-style shopping center with a main indoor area similar to the nearby Tysons Corner Center and Dulles Town Center, while transforming the exterior into a pedestrian friendly environment with restaurants with cafe style outdoor seating and entrances. It is located at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Franconia Road, which is part of the Springfield Interchange, 1/4 mile north of Franconia-Springfield Parkway and the Franconia-Springfield Metro station. The mall reopened on October 17, 2014 following its two-year renovation.
Ballston Quarter, formerly known as Ballston Common Mall, originally opened as Parkington Shopping Center, was one of the first major suburban shopping centers in the Washington, D.C., area. It opened in 1951 and was the nation's first shopping center built around a multi-story parking garage. It is located at the intersection of Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, two blocks from Ballston–MU station on the Washington Metro's Orange and Silver lines.
The Frank R. Jelleff Co., or more commonly Jelleff's was a Washington, D.C.-based retailer that specialized in women's apparel.
The Village at Shirlington opened as Shirlington Shopping Center in 1944, and was the first large shopping center to open in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and one of the earliest in the United States. It is located along Campbell Avenue at the intersection of Shirley Highway and Quaker Lane / Shirlington Road in Arlington, Virginia. The center has been known since the mid-1980s as The Village at Shirlington.
S&W Cafeteria was a Charlotte, North Carolina-based chain of cafeteria-style restaurants. The chain specialized in low-cost, Southern-style food. Branches were located in the Southeastern United States from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, Georgia.
Rockville Town Center is a town centre in Rockville, Maryland. Opened in 1995, it replaced the recently demolished Rockville Mall..
The Shops at National Place was a three-level, indoor shopping mall located in downtown Washington, D.C. in the 16-story National Place Building. It is located on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, F Street, between 13th and 14th Streets NW, the former site of the Munsey Trust Building. It was located near the Metro Center station of the Washington Metro system.
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.
Parts of F Street and 7th Street, N.W. and nearby blocks have historically been the heart of the Washington, D.C. Downtown shopping district. In the first half of the 20th century there were numerous upscale large department stores along and near F Street, while 7th Street housed more economical emporia and large retail furniture stores. The F street corridor stretches west from Downtown's Penn Quarter and Gallery Place towards 15th Street, while the 7th Street corridor includes the neighborhoods of Penn Quarter, Chinatown and Mount Vernon Square, and extends up to the border of Shaw.