I loved Wanamaker’s. The salespeople at Wanamaker’s were extremely nice and they knew not to call me Miss Starr. It’s always Sally.
—Sally Starr, Philadelphia children’s television host
Wanamaker’s continued to open branch department stores in the Philadelphia area. On February 27, 1958, Wanamaker’s opened a 165,000-square-foot store in the suburb of Jenkintown.
Wanamaker’s president Richard C. Bond said:
The company can better serve Philadelphia and its suburbs by keeping abreast of the expanding volume of potential retail business. To maintain the Wanamaker policy of efficient customer service at its usual high level, John Wanamaker store facilities will be brought into the rapidly expanding suburban communities as they develop.
Jenkintown was a very successful and popular store. For many years, it was the company’s most profitable branch.
Sales at the Center City department stores continued to decline during the 1950s. Wanamaker’s was careful to maintain an image of balance between running its Center City store and putting effort into branch development. In a speech to the Wanamaker’s Board of Trustees on May 21, 1958, John R. Wanamaker assured the members that the success of the Center City store was the number one priority for the company.
Wanamaker said:
The Jenkintown Wanamaker’s was once the crown jewel of all of the branch stores. It is pictured here in 1995. Courtesy of the author.
John Wanamaker opened up the Queen Mary Laboratory in 1880. Queen Mary was one of Wanamaker’s signature house brands for many decades. Photograph by Christian Colberg. Courtesy of the author.
The Market Street view of the Center City Wanamaker’s store. The vertical John Wanamaker sign was dismantled in 1959. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
The old saying “the tree is only as good as the trunk” seems to well typify our organization. Our branches draw from the trunk and our trunk is strong. One could say ‘cut down the tree and where are the branches?’ We agree with this theory and we have continued faith in our main store.69
Wanamaker went on to recognize the Center City store as a “stellar Philadelphia attraction.” President Bond agreed by saying “I feel that while most of the emphasis today is on suburban living, and although there has been tremendous development in our suburbs, we should not forget that we have a responsibility toward our city dwellers.”
Even after the New York Main Store closed its doors in December 1954, Wanamaker’s continued to operate its small Liberty Street location. A number of buyers from the Main Store relocated to Liberty Street, and the four-story, forty-five-thousand-square-foot store continued to draw loyal Wanamaker’s customers. However, in 1958, the lease on the Liberty Street store expired and the Philadelphia headquarters wanted to discontinue the location. Francis Kellogg, a Wanamaker family member and store manager, offered to take over the store but the building’s landlord wanted the Philadelphia headquarters to guarantee the lease. They finally agreed to grant Kellogg use of the Wanamaker name with the condition that Philadelphia maintain a 50 percent ownership of the business. “Philadelphia initially didn’t want any part of it because they didn’t want any liability,” says Francis’s son, Christopher Kellogg. In the end, the arrangement worked out and the Liberty Street store thrived for many years.70
The Wm. H. Wanamaker store was located just a stone’s throw from the John Wanamaker store on Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street. It is pictured here in 1958 before the renovation of its storefront. Courtesy of the Lawrence S. Williams Inc. Collection, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
The logo of the Wm. H. Wanamaker stores was somewhat similar to that of the John Wanamaker stores. The stores were under completely separate ownership. Courtesy of the author.
Under President Bond, Wanamaker’s was considered among the top two most profitable department stores in the country. The store held special fairs and festivals to draw customers into the Center City store. A World of Imports Fair brought espresso from Italy, Steif toys from West Germany and Japanese dolls to Philadelphia customers. Over the years, the contributions of exotic countries from Vietnam to Israel were celebrated. Whenever a celebrity visited Philadelphia, it was customary to make a noon appearance in the store’s Grand Court. Wanamaker’s hosted stars such as Shirley Temple, Princess Grace, Liberace, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Jane Fonda and Rudy Vallee in the Center City store.
A crowd gathers in the Grand Court waiting for the arrival of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco on April 22, 1963. Courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Also in 1963, Bob Hope receives the key to Wanamaker’s while Public Relations director Reeves Wetherill reads Hope’s book I Owe Russia $1,200. Courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Electronic fireworks and imported Italian goods were some of the highlights of Wanamaker’s Festa D’Italia. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
On October 11, 1961, the Cherry Hill Mall welcomed thousands of shoppers in Delaware Township, New Jersey. Strawbridge & Clothier was the center’s anchor store. Strawbridge’s had been working closely with famed shopping center designer Victor Gruen to bring a new type of shopping experience to the Philadelphia area. Gruen originated the covered mall concept in 1956 when Minneapolis’s Southdale Center opened for business. “Gruen’s idea of stores facing each other, across an enclosed mall—a garden-like street of trees and flowers, courts and fountains, and benches for strollers—was the perfect premise for the mercantile environment of quality that Strawbridge must have.”71 Over fifty stores joined Strawbridge & Clothier in Cherry Hill. Cherry Hill became a shopping destination for shoppers as far away as New York and Washington, D.C., and the mall at Cherry Hill was the largest regional all-weather enclosed mall on the East Coast, south of New York.
When the developers of Cherry Hill wanted to have a second anchor store, they had to run the decision by the officials at Strawbridge’s. Strawbridge & Clothier decided to offer that opening to Bamberger’s. Bamberger’s was a Newark, New Jersey-based department store that was a division of R.H. Macy. Bamberger’s was a successful retailer in the northern half of New Jersey with nine department stores; Cherry Hill was its first southern New Jersey location. Strawbridge & Clothier and Bamberger’s proved to be the perfect match, shutting out potential Philadelphia department store competition at Cherry Hill.
Bamberger’s at Cherry Hill was a popular Philadelphia area shopping destination. Professor Mercia Grassi was a fan of Bamberger’s. “It was a breath of fresh air. They knew their customer,” says Grassi. Grassi praised Bamberger’s “phenomenal” Executive Training Program. “They knew what they were doing at a time when many major retailers didn’t know what they were doing,” says Grassi.72
Wanamaker’s needed to make a move in order to address the success of Cherry Hill and the concept of an indoor shopping mall. The company began selling off some of its excess Center City real estate in order to finance the construction of more branch stores. In September 1961, Wanamaker teamed up with Gimbels and announced plans to develop an indoor shopping mall in Moorestown, New Jersey. It would be the first shopping center in the Philadelphia area that would be anchored by two Philadelphia department stores. In 1963, Wanamaker’s opened its 190,000 square foot Moorestown Mall branch. It was constructed of Mansota marble and Avondale granite that kept “the same architectural feeling as the Wanamaker stores in other suburban areas.”73
A sketch of the Moorestown Mall John Wanamaker store. Courtesy of the author.
Moorestown Mall struggled to compete with Cherry Hill. Strawbridge & Clothier continued to partner with shopping center developers. In every instance, Strawbridge’s effectively shut out the other Philadelphia department stores. Wanamaker’s, Gimbels and Lits found themselves defending their market share and finding lesser shopping centers within which to locate their stores.
On August 16, 1965, Wanamaker’s welcomed forty-one hundred shoppers at its newest branch store in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The King of Prussia store was located in a large shopping center with J.C. Penney, EJ. Korvette and Gimbels. The freestanding Wanamaker’s store was octagon-shaped in design and featured an “air door” that freed the building of permanent doors. The centerpiece of the King of Prussia store was its Eagle. Every Wanamaker store featured an eagle as an acknowledgement of the Philadelphia headquarters. The King of Prussia location housed an eagle in flight, designed by artist and sculptor Henry Mitchell. Mitchell cast his 10-foot, 450-pound bird in Milan, Italy. Wanamaker’s stated that “it was decided that instead of an eagle around which people gather to meet their friends as they do in the Philadelphia store, the new one would fly over the heads of the customers, suspended three floors above in the central octagonal court, and visible from all the doors and escalators.”74 A marble bench was placed under the eagle so that people would still have a place to meet while in the store.
The King of Prussia Wanamaker’s store featured an unusual “eagle in flight,” suspended over the main floor. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
A list of Wanamaker’s branch locations and their opening dates taken from a 1966 employee manual. Courtesy of the author.
As Strawbridge & Clothier marched into the successful malls like Plymouth Meeting and Neshaminy, Wanamaker’s scrambled to find suburban opportunities. The company’s efforts to locate a store in Springfield constantly met obstacles. In April 1968, Wanamaker’s and Gimbels teamed up once again and announced that they would anchor the new Harrisburg East Mall. Wanamaker’s said that the new Harrisburg store “will carry the same high-quality merchandise which we have in our Philadelphia store and, as in all Wanamaker stores, service will be the hallmark of our dealings.”75 Louise Wanamaker recalls visits to the Wanamaker’s Harrisburg store. “I liked Harrisburg a lot because it was a nice, homey store. It was different,” says Wanamaker.
The Globe Store in downtown Scranton, as it appeared during the Christmas 1991 season. Courtesy of the author.
A Globe Store credit card from the 1980s. Courtesy of Barbara Caldwell.
Wanamaker’s began to look past the immediate Philadelphia area for expansion. The company set its sights on Scranton. On August 21, 1968, Wanamaker’s purchased Scranton’s Cleland Simpson stores. Cleland Simpson operated the Globe Store in Scranton and the Isaac Long store in Wilkes-Barre. Industry experts called the acquisition shrewd. The Globe Store dated from 1878 and produced $15 million in annual sales; it was extremely popular in Scranton. The Globe Store brought escalators to Scranton in 1936 and its downtown store was completely modernized in 1950. That renovation included air conditioning and a new storefront. In 1955, Cleland Simpson purchased the Isaac Long store, which was founded in 1874. In 1968, the smaller Isaac Long store earned only $3 million in annual sales. Wanamaker’s wanted the Globe in Scranton and so did Lit Brothers. Wanamaker’s won the bidding and kept the name of the store—and its management—intact. The Globe Store was a success and Wanamaker’s couldn’t afford to change that.