 1962–1984 logo | |
| Company type | Company and then division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Defunct | 1984 |
| Fate | Unable to compete with The May Company's Famous-Barr, was later sold to Dillard's |
| Successor | Dillard's |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Owner | Associated Dry Goods |
Stix, Baer and Fuller (sometimes called "Stix" or SBF or the Grand-Leader) was a department store chain in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1892 to 1984.
Originally called the Grand-Leader, the original central downtown store was located on the north side of Washington Avenue between Sixth and Seventh street and by 1920 had grown to encompass the entire city block.
The store was founded in 1892 by Charles Stix, brothers Julius Baer and Sigmond Baer, and Aaron Fuller. It was a public company, with its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was a longtime member of the American Merchandising Companies ("AMC"), a trade association of important, locally owned department stores across the United States. For many years the company was known as the leading high-end fashion store in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, although a smaller competitor, Scruggs, Vandervoort and Barney, also vied for that position.
In 1937 Arthur B. Baer (1895–1970), the only son of Julius Baer (1861–1940), became President. At one point, Stix's largest shareholders were Arthur B. Baer, Sidney Baer and Leo C. Fuller, who were also the senior officers of the company. However, they hired a series of more experienced retailers to run the business as general managers. Those with the longest tenure were first, Morris Jelenko and later, Frank P. Wolff. The last general manager and president was J. Arthur Baer, son of Arthur B. Baer.
In 1966 the company was purchased by Associated Dry Goods (ADG) and eventually expanded into the Kansas City market.
Unable to compete against Famous-Barr, ADG sold the 13-store division in 1984 to Dillard's, which also re-branded the stores to the Dillard's name. The flagship store in downtown St. Louis, designed by John Mauran and built in stages between 1906 and 1991, was briefly closed and reopened in 1985 as part of the St. Louis Centre Mall, but would be shuttered in September 2001, amidst the mall's failure. The River Roads store was demolished along with the rest of shopping center. The store at the former Crestwood Plaza was demolished in Fall, 2016. (The remainder of the former Crestwood Plaza will also be demolished Winter 2016, and into 2017 for a new development.)
Grand–Leader (Stix, Baer & Fuller Dry Goods Co.) Building | |
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    | |
| Location | 601 Washington Ave., St. Louis, Missouri |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°37′57″N90°11′23″W / 38.63250°N 90.18972°W |
| Architect | Mauran, Russell & Crowell |
| Architectural style | Early Commercial |
| NRHP reference No. | 03000650 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 17, 2003 |
In the early 1930s, the company sponsored a local St. Louis Soccer League team, known as Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. This team won the 1933 and 1934 National Challenge Cup national soccer titles.
On April 3, 1922, the firm started a radio station with the call sign WCK. In June 1925 the call letters were changed to WSBF in accordance with the company's initials. The station was sold to the Mississippi Valley Broadcasting Co. in 1927. [2]
In 1955 Arthur Baer donated funds toward the construction of the first building that housed Channel 9, the first television studio in the nation built expressly for educational television. The Julius and Freda Baer Building was named in memory of his parents and was located on the edge of Washington University in St. Louis campus at 6996 Millbrook Boulevard (now renamed Forest Park Parkway), at the southeast corner of Millbrook and Big Bend boulevards. A beautiful new Washington University dormitory now takes up the entire block. The station building was just to the right of the main entrance to the dormitory.
The S bar F Scout Ranch in Knob Lick, Missouri, is named for Stix, Baer, and Fuller due to their contribution to help buy the property.
In September 1942 Stix, Baer and Fuller donated $10,000 (~$142,340 in 2022) to save the old Campbell House in downtown St. Louis from demolition. The donation was made in recognition of the company's 50th anniversary. Shortly thereafter the Campbell House Museum with original furnishings opened to the public. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat noted at the time, "A show window replica of the Campbell parlor, furnished with objects from the home, will be displayed by the department store tomorrow at Seventh street and Washington avenue. Figures in the window will be dressed in the costumes of the period, including some of the dresses worn by Mrs. Robert Campbell when she was the reigning hostess of the city." [3]
Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company also has stores in 27 more states; however, it is absent from the Northeast, most of the Upper Midwest, the Northwest, and most of California, aside from three stores.
The Famous-Barr Co. was a division of Macy's, Inc.. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Railway Exchange Building, it was the flagship store of The May Department Stores Company, which was acquired by Federated on August 30, 2005. On February 1, 2006, it was subsumed into the newly created Macy's Midwest division.
The Jones Store Company was an American chain of department stores located in the Kansas City area formerly operated by Mercantile Stores Company and the St. Louis, Missouri-based May Co.
Saint Louis Galleria is a shopping mall in Richmond Heights, Missouri.
The Washington Avenue Historic District is located in Downtown West, St. Louis, Missouri along Washington Avenue, and bounded by Delmar Boulevard to the north, Locust Street to the south, 8th Street on the east, and 18th Street on the west. The buildings date from the late 19th century to the early 1920s. They exhibit a variety of popular architectural styles of those years, but most are revival styles or in the commercial style that would later come to be known as the Chicago School of architecture. Most are large multi-story buildings of brick and stone construction, built as warehouses for the St. Louis garment district. Many have terra cotta accents on their facades. After World War II, the decline in domestic garment production and the preference for single-story industrial space led to many of the buildings being vacant or underused due to functional obsolescence.
Associated Dry Goods Corporation (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.
The Stewart Dry Goods Company—alternately known as Stewart Dry Goods, or Stewart's—was a regional department store chain based in Louisville, Kentucky. At its height, the chain consisted of seven store locations in Kentucky and Indiana. The chain in its later years operated as a division of New York–based Associated Dry Goods.
Independence Center is a 1,032,000-square-foot (95,900 m2) shopping mall located in Independence, Missouri. Anchor stores are Dick's Sporting Goods and Dillard's with two vacant anchors last occupied by Macy's and Sears.
Oak Park Mall is a super-regional shopping mall located in Overland Park, Kansas, containing over 180 stores in a covered area of 1,607,803 sq ft (149,369.8 m2). It is the largest mall in the Kansas City Metro Area as well as the entire state of Kansas, and is split into two levels and contains five department stores. It was developed by Copaken, White & Blitt in conjunction with Frank Morgan and Sherman Dreiseszun. The mall is anchored by two Dillard's locations, Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, Barnes & Noble, and H&M.
The H. & S. Pogue Company was a Cincinnati, Ohio based department store chain founded by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Pogue. They came from County Cavan, Northern Ireland, to Cincinnati and worked in their uncle's dry goods store. They later were able to buy him out and H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was established in 1863 at 111 West Fifth Street. Brothers Thomas, Joseph, and William Pogue would eventually join the enterprise.
The Crossings at Northwest is a mixed-use commercial center containing 400,000 SF of retail and 500,000 SF of office uses located in St. Ann, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It was redeveloped from the old Northwest Plaza. The former mall comprised nearly 1,770,000 square feet (164,438.4 m2) of gross leasable area, making it the 27th largest mall in the United States according to the International Council of Shopping Centers prior to its closure. With a total of 1.9 million square feet (180,000 m2) of enclosed space, it was the largest enclosed mall in the state of Missouri. The mall featured nine anchor stores and more than 210 stores at its peak.
River Roads Mall, also known as River Roads Shopping Center, was an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened in 1962 as one of the nation's first shopping malls, it featured J. C. Penney, F. W. Woolworth Company, Kroger, and Stix, Baer & Fuller as its anchor stores. The mall was expanded in 1972 with a new location of J. C. Penney, but began losing major stores in the early 1980s. J. C. Penney closed in 1983, but was soon reopened as an outlet store, while Stix, Baer & Fuller was sold to Dillard's in 1984 and closed only two years later. Tenancy continued to decline throughout the 1990s, culminating in the closure of the J. C. Penney outlet and mall proper in 1995, although the abandoned structure was not demolished until 2006.
South County Center is a shopping mall located in Mehlville, Missouri, at the intersection between Interstate 55, Interstate 255, and U.S. Route 50. It opened on October 17, 1963 and was designed by Victor Gruen. it included a dome-roofed Famous-Barr, which became Macy's in 2006, a National Supermarket occupying the basement floor, which closed in 1973, and later JCPenney as anchors. Stix, Baer & Fuller,, was added in 1973 along with a new wing of stores. A Sears, a food court, and additional mall stores were added in 2001. In 2004, Several stores and restaurants were added that could be accessed from outside the mall including Qdoba, Applebee's, Noodle's and Company, and Border's. The anchor stores are Macy's, Dillard's, and JCPenney.
White Oaks Mall is a shopping mall in Springfield, Illinois, United States. It is located at the junction of Illinois Route 4 and Wabash Avenue. With 928,772 square feet (86,285.7 m2) of retail space, it is the largest shopping mall in Central Illinois. The mall's anchor stores are Macy's, Michaels, LA Fitness, and Dick's Sporting Goods. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once Bergner's and Sears.
Chesterfield Mall is a shopping mall in Chesterfield, Missouri, at the intersection of Interstate 64/U.S. Routes 40-61 and Clarkson Road. The mall opened in 1976, built by Richard Jacobs. With the closing of Northwest Plaza in St. Ann in 2010, Chesterfield Mall became the largest shopping mall in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The mall presently includes about 30 shops, three restaurants, and it used to have an AMC Megaplex theater. Chesterfield Mall's three anchor stores are all vacant, the last having closed in November 2022. In 2020, plans were announced to demolish the property in 2023 for a mixed-use development.
One City Center is an office tower complex and former shopping mall in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jamestown Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Florissant, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened in 1973, the mall formerly included Dillard's, JCPenney, Macy's, and Sears as its anchor stores. The mall had become increasingly vacant since the beginning of the 2000s. It closed in July 2014 and has been slated for redevelopment as an open-air center.
Crestwood Court was a shopping mall in Crestwood, Missouri. Opened in 1957, it was the first major mall in the St. Louis area, and one of the first to have more than one department store. The mall previously included Macy's, Dillard's and Sears as anchor stores, all three of which were vacant for at least 5 years before demolition began in May, 2016, resulting in a "dead mall". Demolition was finished in October 2017. A Dierbergs opened at the site of the demolished mall in March of 2023. Decline was first noticeable in the early 2000s, but took off seriously in 2006, when many stores started to close their doors. The announcement the Dillard's would close in August 2007 was critical, because it was the most popular store. Two years later, Macy's closed, which was considered the ultimate dagger. It was by then assumed that Crestwood Mall was not going to be around much longer, and that became official in September 2013, when the exterior Lens Crafters closed their doors.
Dierbergs is a supermarket chain based in Chesterfield, Missouri, that, along with Schnucks, dominates the Greater St. Louis grocery market. Dierbergs operates 26 stores in both Missouri and Illinois. In 2006 it employed more than 5,000 employees, making it one of the top 25 largest employers in the St. Louis metro area.
St. Clair Square is a shopping mall in Fairview Heights, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1974, the mall features Macy's, Dillard's, and JCPenney as its anchor stores. It is managed by CBL & Associates Properties. The mall formerly had a Sears, which closed in 2019.
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