Joske's
Joske's, founded by German immigrant Julius Joske[1] in 1867, was a department store chain originally based in San Antonio, Texas. In December 1928, Hahn Department Stores acquired the company along with the Titche-Goettinger department store of Dallas, and three years later Hahn became part of Allied Stores. Allied was taken over by Campeau in 1986, and Campeau in turn sold the Joske's chain in 1987 to Dillard's.[2] All Joske's stores were then quickly converted into Dillard's locations.
Origins
Joske's first store, located on Main Plaza in San Antonio and known as J. Joske, opened in 1867 and operated until 1873, when Joske sold it and went back to Berlin for his family. After returning to San Antonio the same year, Joske opened a new store on Austin Street called J. Joske and Sons. Joske moved the store to Alamo Plaza and changed its name to Joske Brothers.
Flagship store
In 1887 the store was moved across the street to the corner of Alamo and Commerce Streets, overlooking historic Alamo Plaza. New floors and elevators were added during a 1909 expansion. In 1936, the five-level store became the first fully air-conditioned store in Texas, and the store became known as "The Big Store."
The store was expanded and renovated again in 1939, sporting a new Art Deco facade as well as the first escalators installed in a Texas store. To make way for this expansion, the rooftop electric sign, the largest in Texas, where a cowboy was shown lassoing a steer came down. When Joske's wanted to expand again in 1945, nearby St. Joseph's Catholic Church refused to sell its land. Nevertheless, Joske's kept expanding, and St. Joseph's was eventually surrounded on three sides by the store and was jokingly called "St. Joske's." By 1953 the flagship store had been expanded several times. The 551,000 sq ft (51,200 m2) five-level store was the largest department store west of the Mississippi until its closure in 1987. The long-time slogan for the chain was "the biggest store in the biggest state."
At one time, a shopper could get a custom-made saddle in the downtown store. Departments included spurs and saddles; appliances; a travel agency; an Oriental rug gallery; a lending library; a bakery; gourmet foods; books, toys and even a large postage stamp collecting area. Joske's flagship store also featured the Camellia Room (for formal dining), the Chuck Wagon, and the Fountain Room (a coffee shop).
During the Christmas holidays, the flagship store was well known for its fourth-floor "Fantasyland";[3] its holiday-themed window displays, including a large window with a toy train set; and the 40-foot-tall Santa Claus[4] that sat atop the roof. "Rusty the Reinsteer" was the Joske's holiday mascot.
Expansion
Concentrating on keeping the downtown flagship store a destination location, Joske's of Texas (as the chain became known) did not expand to a suburban location until 1957, when it opened its second store in the Las Palmas Shopping Center in southwest San Antonio.
In January 1965, Joske's purchased rival Wolff and Marx with its downtown flagship and North Star Mall locations. Joske's stated that there would be no immediate changes in operation of Wolff and Marx, however, in less than a month the seven-story downtown Wolff and Marx store was closed because the store did not have escalators and the building had passed its useful life as a modern department store. Joske's sold the downtown Wolff and Marx building in 1968, and the building is now known as the Rand Building. The North Star Mall Wolff and Marx location was replaced in 1969 with a new five-level Joske's, its third San Antonio-area store.
The chain expanded into Houston in 1956 and into Austin in 1971.
Joske's purchased two mall locations in El Paso, and Phoenix, Arizona (Joske's first and only location outside Texas), from Liberty House in 1978.
In 1979 Allied's Titche-Goettinger's stores (more commonly known as Titche's) in Dallas were renamed Joske's.
In 1985 Allied Stores consolidated Joske's three Texas divisions—Dallas, Houston and San Antonio—into one central division based in downtown Dallas. The three independent operating and merchandising staffs in the separate divisions were consolidated into a single, larger unit, and Robert T. Mettler was named president and chief executive officer of the combined organization. The corporate office was located at its Downtown Dallas store at Main and St. Paul streets, occupying the top three floors of the seven-story building. At the time, Allied's Joske's division had 6,200 employees, including 800 at its corporate offices, and 27 stores.
Civil Rights Problems
During the Civil Rights movement, Joske's of Texas, the largest department store in San Antonio, declared that it would remain only open to whites and hired guards to keep African Americans out of the store. It claimed that it would only integrate when all the other stores in the area had done so. However, after a number of protests and violent incidents at the store in question, Joske's was forced by pressure from African American and typically Caucasian churches to open its doors to people regardless of race or ethnicity.[5] [6]
End of an era
In 1987 after Allied's acquisition by Campeau, the then 27-store Joske's chain was sold to Dillard's, a then 115-store chain based in Little Rock, Arkansas, ending over 100 years of Texas-based retailing.
The San Antonio Conservation Society requested that Dillard's keep the Joske's name on the downtown San Antonio flagship store. The society wrote a letter to then Dillard's President William E. Dillard II urging that the store name be retained.
After the acquisition, the massive flagship store was divided up, with Dillard's occupying only a portion of the five-level building. The remaining area of the building was converted into lease space and a retail atrium for Rivercenter (which was under construction at the time of the buyout) and an AMC movie theater. Even with the division of the building into other uses, portions of the structure, including the old "bargain basement," remain unoccupied to this day. A redevelopment plan was revealed in October 2006,[7] in which the Joske's facade along Commerce Street would be restored, bringing back the windows and brick that were covered in one of Joske's own renovations before Rivercenter was built, and tenants would be added for the 200,000 sq ft (20,000 m2) of retail space currently vacant on two upper floors. San Antonio's Historic and Design Review Commission approved the redevelopment plan on October 4, 2006.[8]
It was reported in June 2008 that the historic Joske's building was purchased by the Rivercenter property owners from Dillard's, with plans to revitalize the landmark property as part of the property's redevelopment. Dillard's closed its doors in August 2008, and the building currently sits empty, awaiting redevelopment.[9][10][11]
References
- ↑ "Julius Joske biography". Texas State German Contests. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
- ↑ Hansard, Donna Steph (1987-04-14). "Dillard to buy out Joske's". The Dallas Morning News.
- ↑ Huddleston, Scott (2004-11-28). "Then & Now: New memories". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ↑ Allen, Paula (2004-12-19). "Santa rode Joske's Christmas wave". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ↑ Goldberg, Robert A. (August 1983). "Racial Changes on the Southern Periphery: The Case of San Antonio, Texas 1960-1965". The Journal of Southern History (49): 349–374.
- ↑ "Joske's Protests". Retrieved 2012-12-13.
- ↑ Dorsett, Amy (2006-10-04). "Redevelopment plans afoot for downtown mall". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ↑ "Mall makeover plan gets tentative approval". San Antonio Express-News. 2006-10-05. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ↑ "New use for downtown Joske's". San Antonio Express-News. 2008-06-06. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
- ↑ "Old Joske's building sold, downtown Dillard's to close". San Antonio Express-News. 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ↑ Silva, Tricia Lynn (2008-06-05). "Historic Joske's building purchased by Rivercenter Mall owners". San Antonio Business Journal. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
External links
- The Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association) The history of Joske's
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