Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company, known informally as Sibley's, was a

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

-based

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...

chain with stores located exclusively in the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Its flagship store, at 228 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, also housed its headquarters and featured an elegant executive dining room on the top floor.

History

The Department Store Years

Rufus Sibley Rufus Adams Sibley (1841–1928) was an American businessman, best known as a founder of the Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company department store in Rochester, New York. Biography Sibley was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on December 3, 1841. After c ...

, Alexander Lindsay, and John Curr were employees at the Hogg, Brown & Taylor dry-goods store in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Wishing to go into business for themselves, they investigated potential sites and settled on the growing city of Rochester. Their first storefront, often called "the Boston store" by locals, opened in 1868. When the company opened a new 12-story, flagship store in the Granite Building, it was among the five largest department stores in the country at the time. Sibley Building southwest side

In 1905, after the disastrous 1904 "

Sibley fire The Sibley fire was a 1904 fire in Rochester, New York. The worst conflagration in the city's history at the time, the fire broke out shortly before 5 o'clock on February 26, 1904, in the basement of the Rochester Dry Goods company's store at 156 ...

" gutted the Granite Building and much of Rochester's dry goods district, Sibley's moved to its final location, the Sibley Building at the northeast corner of East Main Street and Clinton Avenue. By 1939, Sibley's was the largest department store between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. In 1962, competitors B. Forman Co. and

McCurdy's McCurdy's (formally McCurdy and Company) was a Rochester, New York-based department store. Founded in 1901, the company was acquired by May Department Stores in 1994, but as a result of an antitrust settlement due to both McCurdy's and May's K ...

collaborated to construct Midtown Plaza, right across Main Street from Sibley's. Sibley's was connected to the new mall by an enclosed third-floor walkway, part of the Rochester Skyway system. The company was acquired by the Associated Dry Goods Corporation in 1957, which, in turn, was acquired by

May Department Stores 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 c ...

in 1986. The Sibley's name was merged into May Company's

Kaufmann's Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Summary The store was owned in the early 20th century by Edgar J. Kaufmann, patron of the famous Fallingwater house. In the post-war years, the store became a regio ...

name in 1990. Most of its suburban locations, after converting to Kaufmann's, became part of

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 ...

by 2006.

Monroe Community College - Damon City Campus calls Sibley Building Home

In 1991 the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

's Monroe Community College, also known as MCC, opened its second campus at the Sibley Building. The downtown campus continued to operate here until the completion of a new downtown campus in 2017, which is now located at nearby Kodak Tower, the headquarters of the Kodak Company.

Today - Sibley Square

Now under a new name
Sibley Square
the iconic Sibley Building is undergoing a major overhaul, transforming the historic site into a combination of retail, commercial (offices), and upscale residential units. The renovations seek to combine the historic treasure of this architectural space while also creating a sleek, modern atmosphere for today's standards.

Developer

The curren
Sibley Square
project is being developed b
WinnCompanies
a Boston, Massachusetts-based award winning development firm.
WinnCompanies
was founded in 1971 by Arthur Winn.

Address Change

The current address o
Sibley Square
is:
250 East Main StreetRochester, NY 14604
ref name=":0" />

References

External links

DeadMalls.comSibley Square Official WebsiteWinn Companies
{{City of Rochester, NY Defunct department stores based in New York State Retail companies established in 1868 Retail companies disestablished in 1990 Companies based in Rochester, New York Defunct companies based in New York (state) 1868 establishments in New York (state)