Strawbridge and Clothier Store, Jenkintown

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Strawbridge and Clothier Store, Jenkintown
Strawbridge and Clothier Store, Jenkintown PA 02.JPG
The store in 2012
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Location680 Old York Rd. N of Rydal Rd.
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates 40°6′6″N75°7′32″W / 40.10167°N 75.12556°W / 40.10167; -75.12556
Area7.9 acres (3.2 ha)
Built1930-1931, 1954
ArchitectDreher & Churchman; Herbert B. Beidler
Architectural style Art Deco
NRHP reference No. 88003047 [1]
Added to NRHPDecember 22, 1988

The Strawbridge and Clothier Store is a historic department store building located at Jenkintown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It was built by Strawbridge & Clothier in 1930-1931 and renovated and expanded in 1954. It closed in 1988 when it relocated to the Willow Grove Park Mall. It is now an office building, multi-tenant.

Contents

History

The original section is a four-story, steel frame structure faced in limestone and on a granite base in the Art Deco style. It has a flat slag roof with parapet. The building features piers that extend above the roof parapet, two-story projecting entrance pavilions, a one-story flat roofed extension with elegant display windows, and two five-story towers. The addition is a three-story structure with a parking garage. It was built as the second suburban branch of Strawbridge and Clothier. [2] This Strawbridge & Clothier store closed in 1988 when it relocated to the Willow Grove Park Mall. [3] In the late 1990s, the building served as the headquarters of fast-growing online music retailer CDNow. It currently houses an Outback Steakhouse.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. [1]

The building was built on the site of Wyndhurst, banker John Milton Colton's estate containing a Horace Trumbauer-designed Tudor-style residence built 1899-1900. [4] The main residence was razed in 1930 to build the Jenkintown store, but one of the outbuildings in similar Tudor style remains at 2 Rydal Rd. [5]

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References

Notes

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System.Note: This includes Patrick W. O'Bannon and Diane E. Newbury (October 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Strawbridge and Clothier Store" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  3. Giles, David M. (October 23, 1988). "Strawbridge: The Malling Of A Tradition". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Retrieved October 18, 2010.
  4. Arrigale, Lawrence M.; Keels, Thomas H. (2012). Philadelphia's Golden Age of Retail. Arcadia Publishing. p. 106.
  5. Old York Road Historical Society (2000). Abington, Jenkintown, and Rockledge. Arcadia Publishing. p. 40.