The Emporium

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The Emporium was a mid-to-high end department store chain headquartered in San Francisco, California.

[edit] History

The Emporium was a department store founded in 1896 in San Francisco, California. It was founded by Adolph Feiss as a co-operative of individually-owned shops in a building owned by the Parrott estate. Then in 1897, through the efforts of Frederick W. Dohrmann, a German immigrant who arrived in California in the 1860s and had made a reputation in the general merchandise and flour milling industries in the Bay Area, a merger was orchestrated with the Golden Rule Bazaar, founded in the 1870s by the Davis Brothers.^[1]

In 1898, Mr. Dohrmann's son, A. B. C. Dohrman became officially involved in day-to-day affairs and along with others, was instrumental in the reorganization of the new Emporium and was president of the company at the time of the elder Dorhmann's death in 1914. In 1927, the Emporium merged with the Oakland-based department store, H.C. Capwell, forming a new holding company, Emporium-Capwell Co., but retaining their respective identities. (Capwell founded his Oakland store in 1889 under the name The Lace House and changed it to his own name two years later.)

In the years after World War II, as the population of the Bay Area increased tremendously and spread out far beyond the urban cores of Oakland and San Francisco, several suburban branches of The Emporium were opened in newly developed shopping malls, mainly in San Mateo, Marin and Santa Clara counties. Capwell's focused its postwar suburban expansion closer to Oakland, opening branch stores in southern Alameda County and the El Cerrito Plaza of Contra Costa County.

Broadway-Hale Stores, later Carter Hawley Hale Stores, acquired Emporium-Capwell Co. in 1969, and consolidated its San Francisco Bay Area operation under the (still separate) Emporium and Capwell names, finally merging them in 1979 under the Emporium-Capwell name, later dropping that unwieldy moniker in favor of Emporium in 1990. In 1991 Emporium assumed operation of the Sacramento-based Weinstock's department store chain, which had a similar merchandising structure.

Finally in 1995 the chain and its parent (by then renamed Broadway Stores) were acquired by Federated Department Stores, which merged the Broadway, Emporium and Weinstock's stores with its own Macy's California and Bullock's stores to form Macy's West, renaming all the retained stores as Macy's. The Emporium location at Stanford Shopping Center was reopened by Federated's Bloomingdale's division in 1996, while after a decade of negotiation, bureacratic red tape and intense physical reconstruction, the original Emporium Capwell flagship on Market Street re-opened on September 28, 2006 as an expansion of the adjoining Westfield San Francisco Centre which features a new Bloomingdale's (see below), the second-largest in the chain after its Manhattan flagship.

[edit] San Francisco and Oakland stores

The ornate, majestic flagship location at 835 Market Street, between 4th and 5th Streets, was a destination for generations of Northern California shoppers. It was designed by San Francisco architect Albert Pissis, one of the first Americans to be trained at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. It withstood the 1906 earthquake, but was destroyed by the subsequent fire and rebuilt in 1908. Many additions and renovations were added in the decades following.^[2][3]

In the late 1980s, the flagship Market Street store was connected to the new San Francisco Shopping Centre (now known as Westfield San Francisco Centre), a nine-story indoor mall anchored by a flagship Nordstrom location. The Emporium location closed permanently in February 1996, and after some controversy regarding the historical preservation of the building's facade and other elements, was carefully redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises and The Westfield Group as an expansion of the existing San Francisco Centre with a West Coast flagship location of New York-based Bloomingdale's, which opened with fanfare on September 28, 2006.^[4] The previously much-altered interior has been gutted and rebuilt to meet seismic standards (critical, of course, in San Francisco) and conform to modern retail configurations. The Emporium's historic domed glass roof was restored and is the centerpiece of the new facility.

The newly expanded downtown mall has a total area of 1.5 million square feet, boasts the largest Bloomingdale's location outside of New York City, features a nine theater Century Theatres cineplex, and an upscale Bristol Farms specialty foods store.^[5][6]

The original H.C. Capwell's flagship location (now a flagship Sears store) is located at Broadway and 20th Streets in downtown Oakland and opened in August of 1929. The landmark structure suffer minor structural damage during the 1989 earthquake and was closed for repairs, but reopened early 1990. It had been a landmark shopping destination for East Bay residents for decades. Emporium closed its doors in February 1996 and, in March, Sears assumed possession. ^[7][8]

[edit] Former Emporium and Emporium-Capwell locations

[edit] California

• San Francisco MSA
  • Market Street (flagship), San Francisco (opened 1896, store rebuilt 1908 from Earthquake, closed 1996, gutted and rebuilt from 2004-2006 as part of an expansion to Westfield San Francisco Centre with only the Market Street facade and interior rotunda remaining. Bloomingdales opened in a section of the new building.)^[9]
  • Stonestown Shopping Center (now Stonestown), San Francisco (opened 1952 as Emporium, became Macy's 1996)
  • Sunvalley Shopping Center, Concord (opened 1981 as Emporium-Capwell, became Macy's Men's/Home 1996)
  • El Cerrito Plaza, El Cerrito (opened 1958 as Capwell's, closed 1996, demolished 2000)
  • Solano Mall (now Westfield Solano), Fairfield (opened 1983 as Emporium Capwell, closed 1996, sold to Sears)
  • Fremont Fashion Square, Fremont (opened 1968 as Capwell's, moved to NewPark Mall in 1987 and subsequently converted to an Emporium Capwell clearance center, closed 1996. Now used as offices and clinics for Washington Hospital)
  • Southland Mall, Hayward (opened 1983 as Emporium-Capwell, became Macy's 1996)
  • Hayward (freestanding), Hayward (opened 1957 as Capwell's, closed 1983 (moved to Southland Mall), currently houses administrative HQ for Mervyn's)^[10]
  • NewPark Mall, Newark (opened 1987 as Emporium-Capwell, closed 1996, now Target)
  • Oakland (former Capwell's Flagship), Oakland (opened 1929, closed 1996/sold to Sears)
  • Stoneridge Shopping Center, Pleasanton (opened 1980 as Emporium-Capwell, became Macy's Men's/Home 1996)
  • Hilltop Mall, Richmond (opened 1976 as Capwell's, closed 1996, replaced existing Macy's 1999)
  • Tanforan Park Shopping Center (now The Shops at Tanforan), San Bruno (opened 1972 as Emporium, closed 1996, now Target)
  • Hillsdale Shopping Center, San Mateo (opened 1962 as Emporium, closed 1996, sold to Sears)
  • The Mall at Northgate, San Rafael (opened 1964 as Emporium, became Macy's 1996)
  • Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa (opened 1966 as Emporium, became Macy's 1996, replacing existing store)
  • Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek (opened 1954 as Capwell's, became Macy's 1996)
• San José MSA
  • Vallco Fashion Park (Now Cupertino Square), Cupertino (opened 1984 as Emporium-Capwell, closed 1996, reopened 1997 as Macy's)
  • Mountain View (freestanding), Mountain View (opened 1970, closed 1996, demolished 2005)
  • Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto (opened 1956 as Emporium, closed 1996, reopened as Bloomingdale's 1996)
  • Almaden Plaza, San José (opened 1968, closed 1996, remodeled and divided up into four stores - Barnes & Noble and Circuit City occupy the first floor, while Bed Bath & Beyond and Diddam's occupy the second floor)
  • Eastridge Mall, San José (opened 1978, closed 1996, demolished 2002 for mall reconsruction)
  • Valley Fair (now Westfield Valley Fair), San José (opened 1957 as Emporium at Stevens Creek, became Macy's Men's/Home 1996)
• Salinas-Monterey MSA
  • Northridge Mall, Salinas (opened 1972 as Emporium, became Macy's 1996)

[edit] Former Weinstocks' locations

[edit] California

• Fresno Fashion Fair, Fresno (opened 1970, closed 1996/sold to Gottschalk's)
• Vintage Faire Mall, Modesto (opened 1977, became Macy's Men's/Home 1996)
• Sacramento MSA
  • Arden Fair, Sacramento (opened 1961, became Macy's 1996)
  • Country Club Plaza, Sacramento (opened 1961, became Macy's 1996)
  • Downtown Plaza (now Westfield Downtown Plaza), Sacramento (opened 1979, became Macy's Men's/Home 1996)
  • Florin Mall, Sacramento (opened 1967, closed 1996, demolished 2006)
  • Sunrise Mall, Citrus Heights (opened 1972, became Macy's Men's/Home/Kids 1996)
• Weberstown Mall, Stockton (opened 1966, closed 1996, demolished/replaced by Dillard's)

[edit] Nevada

• Park Lane Mall, Reno (opened 1967, closed 1996/sold to Gottschalk's)

[edit] Utah

• Salt Lake City MSA
  • The Fashion Place, Murray (opened 1972, closed 1993, sold to Dillard's, reopened 1994)
  • Crossroads Plaza, Salt Lake City (closed 1993, sold to and reopened as Mervyn's, closed 2006)
  • Ogden City Mall, Ogden (closed 1993, became ZCMI, mall demolished)

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Text of 2002 court filing relating to redevelopment of flagship location; provides brief historical notes