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The Famous-Barr Co. (originally Famous and Barr Co.) was a division of
Macy's, Inc. Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito' ...
(formerly Federated Department Stores). Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Railway Exchange Building, it was the flagship store of
The May Department Stores Company The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many ...
, which was acquired by Federated on August 30, 2005. On February 1, 2006, it was subsumed into the newly created
Macy's Midwest Macy's Midwest, St. Louis, Missouri, is a former division of Macy's, Inc. It had operations in New York, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It was created February 1, 2006 from a reorganiz ...
division.


History

The company can be traced back to Motte's, a store founded in 1874 by Jesse W. Motte, who sold boots and shoes at 714 Franklin Street. In 1876, Motte took on as business partner his store's supervisor, Joseph Specht. The two added clothing to their wares, and presently moved the store to 703–705 Franklin, where it was listed in the city directory as Famous, Motte & Specht. It was more popularly known as the Famous Clothing Company — "famous" reportedly coming from the public's referring to the store as the "famous place for bargains". Retailer David May acquired the Famous Clothing Store in 1892. Sometime later, he acquired William Barr Dry Goods Co. In 1911, he merged the two to create Famous-Barr. Famous-Barr was one of many St. Louis retail companies that owned a resort along the Meramec River between the early 1900’s to 1940’s. In 1914, David May opened a new Famous-Barr department store in
downtown St. Louis Downtown St. Louis is the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri, the hub of tourism and entertainment, and the anchor of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The downtown is bounded by Cole Street to the north, the river front to the eas ...
, the first air-conditioned department store in the country. On October 8, 1948, Famous-Barr opened its first branch store in Clayton, Missouri at the intersection of Forsyth and Jackson. In 1955, Famous-Barr opened another branch store, at the
Northland Shopping Center Buzz Westfall Plaza on the Boulevard is a shopping center in Jennings, Missouri. Opened in 1955 as Northland Shopping Center, it initially featured a Famous-Barr department store as its anchor store. Extensive redevelopment of the property began in ...
in Jennings — a mall owned by Famous-Barr's corporate parent, the May Companies. The Northland store celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1980. In 1991, it took operational control of the L.S. Ayres division in Indiana, and in 1998 took on
The Jones Store 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. History The Jones Store Company was founded in 1887 as an ...
in Kansas City when May acquired that chain in the aftermath of the
Dillard's 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 ...
acquisition of
Mercantile Stores Co. Mercantile Stores Company Inc. until 1998, was a traditional department store retailer operating 102 fashion apparel stores and 16 home fashion stores in 17 states. The stores were operated under 13 different nameplates and varied in size, with t ...
Both chains retained their names, but shut down their headquarters. The Famous-Barr name was retired on September 9, 2006, when Federated converted most of Macy's regional department stores to the
Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
nameplate, with the exception of the Eastland Mall store in Evansville Indiana. The Eastland Mall store closed and became Dillard's instead due to the existing Lazarus store which already became Macy's in 2005. The downtown St. Louis store and headquarters were first shrunk and then closed in summer 2013; the remaining retail employees moved to other stores, while the headquarters staff moved to Earth City.


See also

*
Stix, Baer, Fuller __NOTOC__ 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. Founders and History Originally called the Grand-Leader, the original centr ...
, an earlier competing St. Louis department store *
List of defunct department stores of the United States This is a list of defunct department stores of the United States, from small-town one-unit stores to mega-chains, which have disappeared over the past 100 years. Many closed, while others were sold or merged with other department stores. De ...


References


External links


Official website
(Archive) {{Macy's history Defunct department stores based in Missouri Companies based in St. Louis Retail companies established in 1911 Macy's Retail companies disestablished in 2006 Defunct companies based in Missouri 1911 establishments in Missouri 2006 disestablishments in Missouri May Department Stores