The Siegel-Cooper Company was a

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

that opened in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in 1887 and expanded into

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1896. At the time of its opening, the New York store was the largest in the world.

First store in Chicago

Siegel-Cooper began as a discount department store on State Street in the Loop. It was founded by

Henry Siegel Henry Siegel (March 17, 1852 – August 25, 1930) was an American businessman and co-founder of the Siegel-Cooper Company. Early life Siegel was born on March 17, 1852, to a German Jews, Jewish family in Eubigheim, Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1 ...

, Frank H. Cooper and Isaac Keim in 1887. Four years later, the store moved into the eight-story Second Leiter Building at State and Van Buren Street, designed by

William Le Baron Jenney William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer known for building the first skyscraper in 1884. In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking th ...

, where it stayed until 1930, after a 1914-15 reorganization into Associated Dry Goods Corp., but keeping the Siegel-Cooper name in Chicago. The building was then occupied from 1931 to 1986 by

Sears, Roebuck & Company Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwal ...

. It continues in use, most recently in the 21st century as a

college campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a cor ...

Second store in New York City

In September 1896,Abelson, Elaine S. "Siegel-Cooper" in , p.1182 the company opened a store in New York City, a huge emporium in the Ladies' Mile Shopping District, joining the other major department stores in the neighborhood. Their steel-framed building, the first department store in New York to be so constructed, was the largest store in the world at the time, and was designed in Beaux-Arts style by DeLemos & Cordes, who would go on to design the R. H. Macy's store in

Herald Square Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...

, which then took the title of largest. The six-story building of the former Siegel-Cooper store is located at 616-632

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks b ...

between West 18th and 19th Streets, and was built between 1895 and 1897, then expanded in 1899., pp.90-92 The steel-framed construction of the "Big Store", as it was called at the time, enabled the building to have large interior spaces with uninterrupted selling floors, and allowed for skylit courts. Siegel-Cooper took full advantage of the novelty – to New York City – of steel-framing by advertising the building as "the only and absolutely fire-proof and perfectly safe store in New York City." The store offered a wide variety of dry goods in its 18 acres (7 ha.), as well as other amenities such as a grocery department, barber shop, theatre, telegraph office, art gallery, photo studio, bank, dental office, a 350-person restaurant, and a conservatory which sold live plants. The main floor featured a copy of

Daniel Chester French Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculpture, sculptor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include ''The Minute Man'', an 1874 statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and his Statue of Abr ...

's statue '' The Republic'' inside a marble-enclosed fountain. This was a popular meeting place, giving rise to the phrase "Meet me at the fountain," which the store used as a slogan, along with "A City in Itself" and "Everything Under the Sun". At its peak, the store employed over 3,000 people, mostly girls and women, and offered its employees an infirmary, a parlor and a gymnasium. The company also published a newspaper for its workers, called ''Thought and Work''.

Third store in Boston

In 1905, The Henry Siegel Company opened a large store in Boston, at 600 Washington Street. The Boston store was converted into an office building and a movie theater in 1915. The light court on Washington Street was infilled in the 1970s, and the theater closed in the 1990s. The building was further modified to create a new entrance to the

MBTA Orange Line The Orange Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south on the surface from Oak Grove station in Malden, Massachusetts through Malden and M ...

Chinatown station in 2004. The building is now home to

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

offices and small retailers. The fate of the disused theater is undecided.

Decline, closing and renewal

In 1902, Henry Siegel sold the company to one of his major stockholders, Captain Joseph B. Greenhut and his son Benedict J. Greenhut, who merged the store with B. Altman across the street in New York City, creating a mega-store which was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1913–14

J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * '' Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Pa ...

was involved in combining the company with other retailers as the Associated Dry Goods Corp. Siegel-Cooper declared bankruptcy in 1915, and the New York store closed in 1917, becoming a military hospital during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, pp.191-192 and then a warehouse. The Chicago store closed around 1930, and that building was taken over by

Sears, Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwal ...

as their flagship store in 1931. In the 21st century, it is the Chicago campus of Robert Morris University Illinois. After decades of miscellaneous use as a warehouse, the NBC Television scene shop and the location "The Door", a social services center, the New York building become one of the first of the great dry-goods emporia in the Ladies' Mile to be renovated and re-opened for retail use. Calling itself "The Anchor of the Avenue", the building's retail tenants as of August, 2021 included Bed, Bath & Beyond, T.J. Maxx, and

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

References

External links