Sears Roebuck, Tampa, FL.
Murphy’s, Ft. Wayne, IN.
Bresee’s, Oneonta, NY.
Bullock’s, Pasadena, CA.
Burdine’s, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Jordan Marsh, Miami, FL.
Maas Bros., St. Petersburg, FL.
J. J. Newberry Co., Billings, MT.
Thalhimers, Richmond, VA.
Neiman Marcus, Fort Worth, TX.
Montgomery Wards, Lakeland, FL.
Brandeis, Omaha, NE.
If the Sears in Tampa had looked like that when I had lived there, I would have shopped there more often even if only for the architecture of the building, alone. I also remember hearing about Mass Bros. when I had lived there.
The old Mass Bros. department store building downtown Tampa had been vacant for years and years by the time I was a resident of Hillsborough County. I’m pretty sure it’s torn down now.
The former flagship Brandeis store in downtown Omaha is now tastefully converted into residences. I like that they kept the pink neon signage under the covered walkway.
*Maas Bros – stupid autocorrect
Thanks for the images, A shopping experience unlike today. In the Sears ripple roof parking lot is a lonely Triumph TR probably a 2 but maybe a 3 with a custom recessed grill. It looks so tiny and those are only mid fifties sized cars and not tall 3 row SUVs. And it is parked in only half of the slot sticking out into the driving lane, are they trying to get hit?
I’d say being to the back of the space was an attempt to NOT get hit, or at least not annoy other parkers. With that small of a car and standard sized cars parked on either side it could look like the space was empty until someone tried to pull in, if it was to the front of the space. Personally I try to do the same when driving our little (by today’s standards) convertible.
I call it “shallow” parking when I’m parking my Fit with its’ nose several feet from the curb and with its’ back bumper in line with the Ferd F-fifteenthousand on one side and the Canyonero on the other.
I do the same. In a crowded parking lot, some race to get the seemingly open spot. Then are surprised to find a small vehicle there and have to slam on the brakes. It takes a bit more room for a three-ton vehicle to come to a stop.
I was thinking that’s one way to keep from spending too much money, bring a tiny car shopping!
You might notice that the little Triumph looks afraid to park too close to that big, bad, black 1949 Chrysler that is parked a distant nose-to-nose with it.
My parents and I use to shop often at the SEARS store in Hackensack, NJ where my father bought a 6/12Volt Allstate battery charger and a creeper for me to work under our cars. I still have them both and the charger works great on our more modern cars, a 1985, a 1989 and a 1994. That’ the newest we got!
Thanks for the memories. And though I’m now 86, I can still get down and roll around on that creeper.
It’s a stock TR3, that is the facotry grill. TR3a got the widemouth grill.
Murphys pic has a ’48-’50 Packard coming at us, the Wards Service Center with the camper out front, brings back memories of camping trips delayed by some service issue, usually overheating. Mom was making lunch in the camper. The last pic has 2 motorcycles, they look like early 60s Honda 50s(?) The ’61 Starliner next to them is pretty sharp.
“Jordan Marsh” looks like a hotel/ parking garage, combo. “Bullocks, Pasadena” looks like a museum.
Bullock’s Pasadena was a beautiful post WWII store in a “close-in” Los Angeles suburb. It is now a Macy’s. “There goes the neighborhood.”
While Pasadena has “aged” much more gracefully than has most of California, especially the City of Los Angeles, Pasadena is evidencing the irrational illness(es) that has/have swept so much of California. Traffic is congested but millions of dollars have been spent on bicycle lanes and shrinking streets from 4 lanes to 2 lanes, which naturally adds tremendous congestion for the non-bicyclists.
That these things irk me shows my antiquity … much like my taste in cars … big, smooth and powerful.
in the Wards Auto bottom half photo is an import I can’t ID just outside the Lubrication service bay. The reverse slant C pillar should tell me what it is.
British Ford Anglia around ’59-61.
As a counterpoint to today there is this at 9:30 am in the morning. One of five still left in the country just a few miles from me.
Concord, CA
So sad as it was my favorite in the 70s and 80s for tools.
Closed long ago but was my go to place for tires and batteries from 1977 into the 90’s.
I knew many who used Sears Auto Center over the decades. I heard very few complaints about their work, but no one that I can recall ever complained about getting ripped off. Times and cars were much simpler then.
I too used to get my tools and tires from Sears.
Yet, my local Sears store has been converted to a large medial clinic. The separate Sears Tire store is now a bank branch. Sears also owned a large chuck of the adjoining parking lot on which a 5 story deluxe apartment complex was built.
Talk about erasing the history of Sears.
My father sold Allstate Insurance in the 50s in Green Bay. We bought everything at Sears, and this continued into the 60s and 70s in Chicago. I still have some of his Craftsman tools.
You should include the former Lord & Taylor department store bldg in Milburn, NJ. It was designed by Raymond Lowey.
Burdine’s building is interesting. The front design is reminiscent of a kitchen radio designed to be mounted under a wall cabinet.
The G.C. Murphy’s store in Fort Wayne was the center of the universe for a kid. You walked in to the smell of hot peanuts and donuts being freshly made. They had everything! I remember buying my first 45RPM records there – and a lot more. Murphy’s was Amazon on the ground but with character and fun. The surrounding downtown upscale stores like Wolf and Dessauer and Patterson-Fletcher were nicer but reserved mostly for special purchases like that first suit or good china. Miss the department stores. And downtowns.
Forgot to mention: If you look closely you can see the electrical cables for the then Fort Wayne Transit’s electric trolley buses that ran from the 40’s up to around 1960. The newest car I see in the picture is a 55 Plymouth so these buses would have been in full force at that time. My great uncle worked his entire career for Fort Wayne Transit from the days of being a trolley car conductor up to his retirement as a manager in the late 60’s (just before it was sold to the city; before that it was a private transit company).`As a kid I always enjoyed watching the sparking coming from the cables as we drove alongside those trolley buses.
You should include the former Lord & Taylor department store bldg in Milburn, NJ. It was designed by Raymond Loewy.
After a nearly 40-year career in department store real estate, I recognize some of these locations. The only one still operating as a department store is the Bullock’s (now Macy’s) on Lake Avenue in Pasadena, CA. Among the others, a few are still standing, albeit either vacant or converted to other uses, including the Brandeis building in Omaha, the Neiman Marcus in Fort Worth, and the Thalhimer’s in Richmond. Unfortunately, department stores are now more often valued for the real estate they occupy rather than as a going concern, so their numbers will continue to contract rapidly in the face of competition from other forms of retail, including both bricks and mortar operations and, of course, the internet.
Yes, the Bullocks (Macys) in Pasadena is a beautiful building, A lot of the interior is preserved… beautiful flooring, murals, etc. I’m sure there are You Tube videos on it. When it was Bullocks, it was an upscale store. Not so much anymore. Macys ruined the regional department store chains that it acquired.
I well remember the Bullocks store on South Lake Ave. in Pasadena .
In 1972 (ish) my Russian girlfriends mother took me to lunch in the very nice restaurant on the top floor .
Nothing IMO will ever beat the well designed and properly stocked big box store .
Yes, I buy many things from the internet but I always prefer to see what I’m getting in the flesh so to speak .
-Nate
The first set of tire I bought myself was a set of Wards Roadtamers.
Altman’s in White Plains NY was a large part of my childhood. The garage had some really interesting stairs
Altman’s in White Plains NY was a large part of my childhood and had interesting stairs in the parking garage. We also frequented the Sears in White Plains which was part of a multipurpose development with an office building and a plaza. I also recall the oh so mid-century complex in Eastchester with Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor and Georg Jensen
I was in the Hollywood Florida area for a wedding in 1988.When we passed Burdines on the way to the church,I asked my snooty, snobby aunt if it was a good store. She corrected me and told me it was pronounced Bur DINES, Then I asked her if Bur DINES was a good store. She had no reply, but if looks could kill,,,,,,,,,,,
I also initially pronounced it “Bur-deens” when I had first moved to Florida. People looked at me like I was an alien. “Bur-deens” actually looks, phonetically, how it would be pronounced.
The Triumph TR3 is a great pic with period accessories. The Oneonta pic with the MGA is neat, been past that very spot a number of times.