While researching Remembering Woolworth’s, I interviewed many former employees of the company who actually worked in the Woolworth Building, some of them for more than forty years. The types of memories most widely shared involved the building during the Christmas holidays. Reportedly, straight up until the mid-1990s, each floor occupied by Woolworth departments had beautiful Christmas trees, with several departments vying to have the most beautifully decorated tree of all. Of course, downstairs in the lobby, the “official” Woolworth tree rose a full story high, glittering for the enjoyment of tourists, set against the colorful background of stained glass and marble.
For almost as long as the building existed, there had been a special holiday tradition of organizing a seasonal choir. During December, Woolworth employees who worked in the building would join together joyously for a Christmas sing atop one of the mezzanines in the Grand Arcade. The employees would give up their lunch hours to entertain visitors and other employees, their voices ringing in cheer throughout the hallowed halls. People from all over the city hall area would bring their bag lunches, find a spot in the lobby, and listen. In 1996, this tradition was mysteriously terminated by current company executives.
Another strong wave of memories involves the months following the final demise of the F. W. Woolworth General Merchandise Division in the summer of 1997, the time when the last of the five-and-dime stores started to close across North America. Seemingly overnight, the busy offices with their hundreds of employees were suddenly empty of equipment and people. With over ninety percent of them left without jobs, a skeleton crew of employees was temporarily retained to tie up loose ends and work a hot-line for customer inquiries. One employee recalled how absolutely still everything was—it was almost like working in a mausoleum. The only noise generated came from the ringing phones. Some of the hot-line calls involved general inquires, but most were from former customers honestly upset about the closing of their favorite five-and-dime. One woman from the Midwest asked if there was any way to get a bottle of Blue Waltz perfume for her elderly mother. Apparently, her mother had been suffering from memory lapses and depression, and all she wanted was to go down to Woolworth’s for a bottle of the scent. Of course, Blue Waltz hadn’t been sold for decades, and so could not be secured for the ailing woman, but this story’s poignance reflects Woolworth’s place in the collective heart of the nation. Clearly, the memories of the old dimestores ran, and still run, deep and true.
TIME CAPSULE MEMORY
“Special Moments at the Woolworth Building”
I worked for the F. W. Woolworth Company for almost thirty years, and for a good part of that time I worked in the beautiful Woolworth Building itself. My bosses and co-workers were like a family to me, and I missed them terribly when my department, Region 2, was disbanded. My boss, Mr. Charles Green was a wonderful man; he was demanding but fair and had a great sense of humor. I remember that every year, the various Woolworth departments in the building would try to out-do each other when it came to the office Christmas tree. Mr. Green always wanted our department to have the biggest, best, most beautiful tree. He supported our efforts to make sure that happened, and there were always plenty of presents under the tree. During the holidays, some of the Woolworth Building employees would form a choir, and they would sing during lunch hour in the lobby downstairs. They sang so beautifully it made me cry. That tradition started a long time ago, and I am not really sure why the company made them stop.
After all the Woolworth’s five-and-dimes were closed down in 1997, our department was no longer needed. It was very quiet in the office, with everyone gone. I was one of the few employees left, and I was working the hot-line we set up to answer questions. People from all over the country called up to ask why the F. W. Woolworth stores were closing, and most of them were sad and upset. I tried my best to answer their questions; some of which were general questions, and others specific requests for items like the “Silent Secretary” which was one of the company’s longest, best-selling items. After work, or during my breaks, I would sometimes stroll down to the lobby, and think about all the different experiences that happened in that building. There was always a group of tourists gazing up at the beautiful artwork and architecture. I would proudly point to the stained-glass windows that were named “Labor & Commerce” and tell the visitors that Frank Woolworth had had the women’s face on the glass designed after his beloved mother. (That was the story that I was told.) I will never forget my experiences working in the Woolworth Building. I always thought I would retire with the F. W. Woolworth company, but I, too, had to find another job. —Olga Freeman, New York
For many people, especially those who patronized Woolworth’s during its heyday, it was more than a store, it was part of their lifestyle. And that is exactly what Frank Winfield Woolworth would have wanted.
The rags-to-riches story of the merchant Woolworth is only part of the whole story. Most Americans do not not realize that F. W. Woolworth Co. was an international retail marvel. Just as thousands of United States’ main streets were dotted with the familiar red-and-gold Woolworth signs, so too were countless streets in cities and villages across Canada, Europe, and South America.
PART TWO
REMEMBERING WOOLWORTH’S … AROUND THE WORLD
This American Weekly illustration by R. F. Schabelitz, depicts a disgruntled Frank Woolworth pointing out the high-brow antics of “titled European fortune-hunters” who were seeking his daughter Jessy’s attentions in 1909.
Chapter Six
Woolworth’s International
“I think a good penny and six pence store run by a real live Yankee would create a sensation here.”
—F. W. Woolworth, writing from London, 5 March 1890
The Woolworth story is often hailed as a prime example of an American rags-to-riches tale. Frank Winfield Woolworth, along with other self-made men of his time, such as John Jacob Astor, Henry Ford, and Thomas Alva Edison, are the kind of entrepreneurs who Americans proudly point to and boast: “See, look what can happen in this land of unlimited opportunity!”
To a great extent, this is an American tale. Frank was a self-professed, “dirt-poor, home-grown Yankee” with big dreams who used the resources of his native country to help make those dreams-come-true.
But Frank Woolworth’s experiences in the United States represent only one part of this success story. His variety stores also enjoyed unprecedented international acclaim. Indeed, a large part of the Woolworth tale unfolded thousands of miles away, far from Frank’s sixty-story “Cathedral of Commerce” in New York City. During the 1970s, for example, the F. W. Woolworth Co. operated over five thousand flourishing general and specialty merchandise stores worldwide, more than twenty-five percent of them located throughout the United Kingdom, formerly known as the British Isles. According to Woolworth historian, John P. Nichols, “At year’s close 1971, that 62-year-old mercantile Goliath [F. W. Woolworth LTD of England] operated 1,108 British Woolworths and five British Woolcos in England, the West Indies, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Africa.” Further, along with its scores of stores located in the U.S. mainland and into the remotest provinces of Canada, the F. W. Woolworth worth Co. once operated flourishing Red-Fronts in Cuba, Germany, Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the Virgin Islands. Amazingly, in 1997, just a few months before the company announced that it would be doing away with its entire Red-Front Division, the total number of establishments it owned or controlled had topped 7,000, a respectable percentage of which were still foreign holdings.
Frank and his partners actually set the seeds for this global expansion by branching out into Canada during the 1880s. For the next thirty years the Woolworth team steadfastly moved beyond North America’s borders to create “three-and-sixpence” shops in the British Isles and sprawling warehouses in France and Germany. After Frank passed on in 1919, his successor. Hubert Parson, established the first “25-and-50 phennig” stores in Germany. Several years later, after World War II, Parson orche
strated the massive rebuilding of F. W. Woolworth variety stores in battle-torn Europe. In 1929, the F. W. Woolworth Co. opened stores in Cuba, being one of the first American retailers to infiltrate that highly popular resort country. Another surge of international expansion was initiated during the reign of Woolworth president, Robert C. Kirkwood, who, beginning in 1958, led North America’s Woolworth’s into the age of shopping malls, self-service, and modern merchandising, while simultaneously devoting his energies into increased presence of the famed Red-Fronts in South American countries.
When Kirkland retired from the presidency, the company’s annual sales had surpassed the $3 billion mark, and executives started focusing on newly acquired and newly formed subsidiaries, including Woolco, Kinney Shoes, Richman Brothers, the Norvell Company, and later. Footlocker and the San Francisco Music Box Company. As these and other retail concepts caught on, foreign branches of these were established, enhancing the strong presence their five-and-dimes already enjoyed. (Red-Fronts in island resorts did especially well, and until the bitter end, the Virgin Islands were bringing in over 20 million dollars in annual revenues.)
By the early 1980s, the F. W. Woolworth Co.’s interest in the international retail market began to shift. Political and import complications in Spain and Mexico proved problematic, and the British holdings were not performing as well as before. In a landmark move in 1982, American Woolworth’s sold off all of its remaining interest in the United Kingdom’s Red-Fronts. Beginning in 1993, the Canadian Red-Fronts started to close, along with the first wave of U.S. dimestores. The last Red-Fronts in the United States were being shuttered in 1997, and finally, in September 1998, F. W. Woolworth LTD, Germany, was sold. After the dust had settled, the company (now the Venator Group) still owned thousands of specialty stores, such as Lady Footlocker and Champs, but by selling off the German five-and-dimes, the company had also severed America’s proprietary ties with any Red-Fronts anywhere in the world.
However, the historical connection between Frank W. Woolworth and “Woolworth’s International” can never be severed. His nineteenth-century buying expeditions in England and Germany forever altered the scope of international import, export, and shopping habits. Here in America, the sudden availability of previously unseen items, such as hand-painted German holiday ornaments and “angel hair,” directly influenced the way millions of Americans decorated their homes and Christmas trees during the Christmas season. Equally important, the presence of so many Red-Fronts overseas helped to make “Woolworth’s” the household name it is today.
The aforementioned accomplishments were a direct result of Frank Woolworth’s original foresight to bring his concept of “good merchandise at fair prices” to millions of people outside of the United State’s borders. In turn, hundreds of thousands of foreign suppliers, managers, and wage earners also benefited greatly.
In spite of all this global fanfare, the actual tale of “Woolworth’s International” began in a humble way, across the Canadian border, just a train ride from Frank’s home town in northern New York state.
Woolworth’s In Canada
Woolworth’s of Canada holds special significance in the expansive and rich history of the F. W. Woolworth Company. The Red-Fronts were nearly as popular in Canada as they were in the United States. However, the origin of F. W. Woolworth’s Limited of Canada is rather unique.
The first city-based “Woolworth’s” was founded in Montreal in 1896, but the name on the original masthead was not Woolworth, it was Charlton. One year later, the very first five-and-dime opened in Toronto, the masthead reading neither Woolworth or Charlton, but Knox. By 1911, Canada had thirty-one successful five-and-dimes operating in its country, dotting busy thoroughfares in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and British Columbia. These stores were still being influenced by men with the names Charlton and Knox, yet by then their mastheads all said “F. W. Woolworth”.
The reason for the name discrepancy is that the Woolworth stores in Canada were actually “founded” by two of Frank Woolworth’s dimestore protégés, Seymour Knox and Earle Charlton. Later, during the famous $60 million merger of 1911, the Canadian holdings of Knox and Charlton were added to those of Frank Woolworth’s to help form the mammoth F. W. Woolworth Co. Although the Woolworth name would become the best known in Canada, it is important to recognize the vital importance Knox and Charlton played in the history of that country’s favorite five-and-dime.
Charlton & Knox: Canada’s Dimestore Pioneers
Back in 1884, Mr. Woolworth was still struggling along in Pennsylvania. His Lancaster store was doing exceedingly well, as was his store in Scranton, which he’d recently sold to his brother Charles. However, Frank wanted to expand to a full-blown chain of five-and-dimes, and knew he could not do it alone; he needed partners. He had a meeting with his cousin, Seymour Knox, who showed great enthusiasm for a partnership agreement. Together, they opened a store in Reading, Pennsylvania, which fared well, and another in Newark, New Jersey, which did not fare as well. During this period, Frank taught his cousin all he knew about the five-and-dime business.
Seymour Horace Knox, 1861-1915.
Seymour Knox, a farmer’s son from Russell, New York, was an ambitious man, as determined as his cousin Frank to make a name and a grand success for himself. After several partnership ventures with Woolworth, Knox decided to branch out on his own. The two cousins agreed they would share suppliers but not geographical territory. In 1887, Seymour Knox then teamed up with his cousin Edwin Merton McBrier to open a store in Lockport, New York, and later, in 1890, he joined forces with Connecticut-born traveling salesman, Earle P. Charlton. Together, the team of “Knox & Charlton” opened a string of five-and-tens across New England.
Earle Perry Charlton, 1863-1930.
They set up their stores exactly the way Knox had been taught by Frank Woolworth, and soon, both men were prospering. In 1896, Mr. Charlton decided that he, too, wanted to work independently. Over the next year, he expanded into the uncharted territory of America’s Pacific coast and into Montreal, Canada. Hence, Earle Charlton introduced Montreal to the five-and-ten concept, probably late in 1896, or early 1897. As far west as Vancouver, British Columbia, Charlton’s venturesome nature was rewarded. Seymour Knox quickly followed suit, opening Toronto’s first dimestore on April 30, 1897. Knox had a tendency to remain in the Ontario region, but Charlton ventured forth into the Province of Quebec, and beyond.
There is some discrepancy in Woolworth Company records as to which of these two men first ventured to Canada. Records dating before 1949 credit Charlton, while those afterward credit Knox. The two men established their stores within such a limited time frame that is safe to say that they were cofounders of the dimestore expansion into Canada. From the beginning, the Canadians readily accepted the idea of a discount variety store. This allowed for speedy and profitable expansion.
When the five-and-dimes first debuted at the close of the nineteenth century, Canada was still primarily an agricultural nation, and the types of items stocked in Knox and Charlton’s earliest stores reflected this. As Canada become more industrialized, the same lines of items that were carried in the United States were then being offered in Canada.
Doll display from one store in Quebec, c. 1960.
By 1954, the year of its 57th Woolworth Anniversary, there were 170 Red-Fronts located in every single province except Newfoundland. By 1960, that number had jumped to 250, including a site in Newfoundland.
For most of its long history, F. W. Woolworth Co., Limited, Canada, was managed and staffed by Canadians. It was, however, wholly-owned by the United States’ parent company, which always had one or two representatives on its board of directors to represent Canadian interests. Until 1912, the division’s principal office was in Montreal, but they were moved to 357 Bay Street Toronto in 1916. During the 1950s its headquarters were moved to lavish offices at 33 Adelaide Street.
During the 1920s, about sixty-five percent of the goods sold in Canada were manufactu
red in Canada, with twenty-five percent being imported from the United States, and ten percent from England.
On May 9, 1945, the board of directors approved a resolution to change the Canadian division from a limited public company to a private company. This meant that no further transfer of capital stocks were to be issued except via special approval, and that the shareholders were temporarily limited to only fifty!
Along with the substantial revenues generated by the Canadian subsidiary, F. W. Woolworth Co., Ltd., Canada was also noted for the wealth of talented manpower it generated for the parent company. For example, Charles C. W. Deyo, president of the Woolworth Co. from 1936 to 1946, started out in the five-and-ten business in London, Ontario. R. D. Campbell, who eventually became managing director of the Canadian division, started as a stockboy in the Windsor, Ontario, store back in 1916. 1. W. Keffer, a Canadian by birth, started in Hamilton, Ontario, stocking shelves in 1912; he eventually managed both the German and Canadian divisions.
During a Newcommen Society address in 1960, Woolworth President Kirkwood had this to say about F. W. Woolworth, Ltd., Canada: “While all Woolworth family ties are very close, we are particularly proud of our Canadian operation and grateful to our friends in Canada who have made it so outstanding successful. In our opinion, the future of the great country and our business there was never brighter.”
As part of a massive restructuring strategy in 1993, 240 Canadian Red-Fronts were closed down, affecting 3,000 employees. One year later, F. W. Woolworth, Ltd., Canada (by then known as Woolworth Canada, Inc.) again made headlines when, after eighteen years, the company closed down all 82 of its Kinney Shoe stores. January 1997 brought another shake-up, when the American discount giant, Wal-Mart purchased the remaining Canadian Woolco stores.
Remembering Woolworth’s Page 13