Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, originally established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. In 1903, the brothers would shift into the department store business, opening in the newly built Snell Building at Broadway and 11th Street in the heart of Tacoma's retail core. The store achieved great success, and by 1911, three floors were added to the building, eventually bringing it to 170,000 ft² (15793.52m²), including a tea room (opened in 1908) and a branch of the Tacoma Public Library. By 1920, even more room was needed and several buildings across the alley (Court C) were purchased and connected to the main store by a

sky bridge A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of encl ...

. Further additions included a discount annex in 1935, a new men's shop in 1937 and a special vault that could hold 5,000 coats. In 1957, the company opened its first suburban location at the Villa Plaza Shopping Center in

Lakewood, Washington Lakewood is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 63,612 at the 2020 census. It is the second-largest city in the county, behind Tacoma, and is a suburban bedroom community. Lakewood is adjacent to Joint Base ...

. Rhodes also operated a department store in University Village in Seattle in the 1960s. At one time there were signs on highways in Washington that said, "All roads lead to Rhodes," giving the number of miles to the Rhodes store in Tacoma.South Sound Photo Album: Rhodes Brothers Department Store downtown Tacoma
/ref> Liberty House and Rhodes Department Store Transition Logo

In the early 1950s, Rhodes was acquired by Western Department Stores, Inc., which also owned Kahn's of

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, and Olds & King of Portland. Western took on the Rhodes name, becoming Rhodes Western, and by 1960 all stores were brought under the Rhodes name. In 1969, Rhodes Western was acquired by

Amfac Amfac, Inc., formerly known as American Factors and originally H. Hackfeld & Co., was a land development company in Hawaii. Founded in 1898 as a retail and sugar business, it was considered one of the so-called Big Five companies in the Territo ...

which owned the Liberty House chain of department stores and took on that name. Liberty House opened a location in Tacoma Mall in 1973, where Rhodes Western had been considering opening a location before they were bought out. The downtown Tacoma Rhodes store was closed in December 1974, and the Lakewood and Tacoma Mall locations were sold to

Frederick & Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1890 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acqu ...

in 1979. Threatened with demolition, the downtown Tacoma location was bought and renovated by the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1888. The institution offers a variety of undergraduate degrees as well as five graduate programs in counseling, education, oc ...

in 1978 for use as a law school. After the building was vacated by the University of Puget Sound in 1999, it was purchased by the State of Washington and was renovated further in 2001. Now known as the Rhodes Center, the building is mostly vacant today, housing rentable conference space, several state offices and a law firm.

Rhodes Seattle

Albert Rhodes left Rhodes Brothers in 1907 and moved to Seattle, where he established the Rhodes Department Store. By 1926, it anchored the corner of Second Avenue and Union Streets in the downtown retail core. The store, which by then had several suburban branches, was purchased in 1968 by the

Pay 'n Save Pay 'n Save Corporation was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington, in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers, inc ...

corporation, who promptly shuttered its downtown store and re-branded the rest under a newly created moniker:

Lamonts Lamonts was a chain of department stores founded in Seattle, Washington. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of ...

. (See the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods web site, Seattle.gov, and its information on the Albert J. Rhodes mansion, designed by Ambrose J. Russell and

Frederick Heath (architect) Frederick Heath (April 15, 1861 – March 3, 1953) was an American architect responsible for numerous projects in Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma, Washington. He worked out of his own office and as a senior partner at architectural firms. He was i ...

References

External links

PDXhistory.com: Olds Wortman & King
{{Authority control Defunct department stores based in Washington State Defunct companies based in Tacoma, Washington Lakewood, Washington American companies established in 1892 Retail companies established in 1892 Retail companies disestablished in 1980 American companies disestablished in 1980