The surviving structure on Chestnut Street still sports an ornate canopy | Photo: Shadowbat
One of the biggest parking lots in Center City–not that long ago known as the “Disney Hole”–was the site of Gimbels, a grand department store of the late 19th and most of the 20th century. The site, long held by the real estate firm Goldenberg Group, was, according to the company’s plan, to be Market8, a casino and mixed use development. But last week the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded Philadelphia’s second casino license to Live! Hotel and Casino. The property remains in limbo.
Of the three big stores at Eighth and Market Streets–Gimbels, Strawbridge and Clothier and Lit Brothers–Gimbels held court at the southwest corner. Gimbels’ history began not in Philadelphia, but in rural Vincennes, Indiana, where Bavarian immigrant Adam Gimbel opened his first dry goods establishment in the 1840s after years of peddling goods along the Mississippi. A little over 40 years later, on September 29, 1887, five of Adam’s sons (the Gimbel brothers) opened a new store in Milwaukee. Adam Gimbel had “retired” in 1885 and moved to Philadelphia, though he continued to make trips to Milwaukee to check up on the business.
As Gimbels became successful in Milwaukee, the brothers began to prospect new markets. They considered Chicago and Saint Louis were considered, but both cities had well established stores of their own that the Gimbels would have to compete against. They decided Philadelphia, would be ideal–it would give the store immediate access to the East Coast market. Haines and Company–a dry goods store at Ninth and Market–was severely hammered by the Panic of 1893. Facing liquidation the following March, the owners agreed to sell the establishment to the Gimbel brothers for the grand sum of $1 million. On March 21, 1894, the store reopened as Gimbels Philadelphia.”Handsomely dressed women fought and scrambled to gain admittance to the store. Bonnets were crushed, clothing torn, and umbrellas twisted into almost unrecognizable shapes,” noted the Philadelphia Record. At least one window broke under pressure from the crowd.
Gimbels ornate clock at 9th and Chestnut | Photo: Shadowbat
The Gimbel brothers pivoted from Philadelphia to New York City, opening directly across from R.H. Macy and Co., touching off a rivalry that would be immortalized in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. The opened in Pittsburgh, too, and upgraded the original Milwaukee location.
The Philadelphia store was expanded along the south side of Market Street east to Eighth Street. A massive 12 story expansion filled the block fronting Chestnut Street by 1927, making Gimbel brothers the biggest department store in the world, boasting fifty acres of space (only the first seven floors were dedicated to sales, the rest were leased offices). Designed in the neoclassical style, the new wing featured an elaborate clock on the corner of 9th and Chestnut. The Chestnut Street expansion of Gimbels–and the clock–remain.
Philadelphia’s first escalators were introduced here in 1900. In 1902, Pure Foods moved in–selling groceries with strict sanitary standards. One of the city’s first radio stations, “WIP,” began broadcasting from the Gimbels building in March, 1922. A branch of Saks Fifth Avenue opened in the Chestnut Street building in 1952 (the two companies had merged back in 1923).
As we noted earlier today, Gimbels hosted the first ever Thanksgiving Day parade in 1920. Ellis Gimbel and several employees who had musical talent led a motorcade procession from City hall to the 9th and Market. The procession got bigger with every passing year and by the 1940s the parade had become both a tradition and sensation. Dignitaries and celebrities made their presence known alongside hundreds of children and their parents lining market Street to watch the WIP’s Toyland Parade. Drop boxes along the route allowed kids to deposit letters to Santa with the hopes that they would be read aloud on the air sometime before Christmas. Santa himself was the star of the show, riding in the back of a fire engine. As the parade concluded in front of Gimbels, Santa would ascend a hundred foot ladder through a window directly into Toyland, thus kicking off the Christmas shopping season.
Gimbels 1927 built Chestnut Street building looms over the parking lot that once housed the rest of the store | Photo: Shadowbat
During World War II, the cormer of Ninth and Market took on the nickname “Gimbels Freedom Corner” after the store set a city record in selling $18 million worth of war bonds and stamps. Due to management’s foresight in buying large quantities of merchandise with the certainty that the war would last a while, shoppers were able to buy at Gimbels what other stores had run out of, giving birth to the catchphrase “Gimbels has It!” In the meantime, 250 employees went off to fight on the Allied front.
The store reflected on the optimism felt after the war’s end, hosting the Better Philadelphia exhibition in September 1947. Showcasing what the city could be by 1980, the exhibit’s main attraction was an animated interactive model in which old buildings disappeared and were replaced by new skyscrapers and parks. Entire neighborhoods could be renewed at the touch of a button.
In the 1950s, the store expanded to Cheltanham, Upper Darby, Northeast Philadelphia, King of Prussia, and Moorestown, New Jersey. By the 1970s Gimbels Market Street store, consisting of multiple buildings cobbled together over the years, was now too big, too old, and too complex to function efficiently. Seeking to evolve with the city, Gimbels agreed to anchor the planned $200 million Gallery, which would be built across the street. The new Gimbels opened in August 11, 1977. A grey concrete box standing five stories tall, the new store was often compared to a tomb or a fortress.
Sales continued to decline and Gimbels liquidated in June, 1986. Allied Department stores purchased most of the Philadelphia locations, which they would reopen under their New York City-area Stern’s brand. Stern’s failed too. As Gallery management made it difficult for Stern’s to break the lease, the Center City location was the last to close–in April, 1993. After serving as Strawbridge’s Clover discount division between August, 1995 and October, 1996, the store became the home to Kmart, which filled the first two floors between November 1997 and April 2014. Today sitting vacant, the store awaits redevelopment.
A 12 story addition to Gimbels increased the size of Gimbels making it the largest store in the world for a brief time | Photo: Shadowbat
Chicago based Urban Investment & Development Corporation acquired the original Philadelphia Gimbels with the intention of demolishing everything but the Chestnut Street expansion and building anew. Everything else was razed and replaced by a surface parking lot as multiple plans crashed and burned: headquarters for Cigna, headquarters for CoreStates Bank, a Sears store, and indoor Disney theme park, a Target store and movie theater, and finally the Market8 casino hotel which tried but failed to get the city’s second gaming license.
Given the flurry of new projects planned for the Market East corridor, it is likely that something will rise here soon. For anyone looking for a blank canvas to build a landmark project in the heart of Philadelphia: Gimbels Has it!
I still use some items I bought at Gimbels every day.
I had heard that it was the John Wanamaker store at 15th and Market that installed the first escalators in the country.
It was Lit Brothers, or Lits for short. Not Lits Brothers.
WHen I started my career, with the then Penn Central Railroad located at 6 Penn Center, one a week I would walk briskly to Gimbels for lunch. Had to be brisk and return almost on time (no one ever noticed).
Leary’s Bookstore occupied a small building on South 9th Street within the larger “Gimbel’s block.” Photos of Leary’s can be found by doing an image search on Google. I remember going there as a pre-teen in the mid-1960s while on a family vacation. I still have some of the original Hardy Boys books (probably dating from the 1930s) purchased there.
In that “cleft” between the buildings was the remnants of Ludlow Street. In the days before the Gimbels extension was built, that area was the heart of the used book market in Philadelphia. After the building went up, only Leary’s and one last book dealer remained. Leary’s closed in 1967, around the time I moved back to Philadelphia from New York. The building remained and was used by Gimbels as some sort of storage or maintenance building. The used book dealer hung on there until Gimbels moved to the Gallery and the old store was closed, then the old store, including the old Leary’s building, was torn down. End of an era.
I bought my used German teztbook for St Joe’s there. It was more of a stall along the truck entrance to Gimbels. Always had a Dickensesque quality to it.
It seems to me that Jefferson has it, as they occupy most of the existing building. I bet they have expansion plans waiting for the rest of the block. And if they don’t, HUP probably does.
Does anyone remember the Colonade Chinese Restaurant not far from Gimbels? After shopping, my Mom and I would eat lunch there.
I remember the Colonade back in the 1950s. There was another Colonade in the lower part of the Greenfield building on Walnut Street between 13th and Broad. Also remember H&H automat somewhere near that location.
Gimbels, like Wanamakers,had it’s own cadet corps, comprised of young employees, age 13 to 21. I hope the memorial plaque, inside the store, that was inscribed with the names of young former cadets who were lost in the “Great War” were saved before the building was razed. Old newspaper articles describe ceremonies and marching drills performed by the Gimbels cadets.
I worked for Gimbels and was there when the mall opened. Alot of excitement. The first time I ever saw escatators shut off due to over crowding. Gimbels lost it appeal when they moved across the street. I spoke to some customers that felt that Gimbels raised their prices and the athosphere was was not the same. I loved working for Gimbels.
Back in 1977, my mate worked for gimbals security. His name BobHamilton. It was normalforhimto work three shifts in a row, come home and back he went in 12 hours or less.
I was always curious why Gimbels hired the people, big to do res, from Lits when they drove that company, Lits in the ground? When Bob started at Gimbels, he was proud to work there. He was fired due to not clocking out to get his glasses. I smelled a suger packet in with sweet and low.
If anybody knows where Bob is, I would be thankful to know. I hope it’s not the Bob who passed away who worked at the Philadelphia mint. For both of them had wives called Ann.
Anybody recall Woolworths, W T Grant, and Ho say gui Chinese restaurant?.
I
Hi. Has anyone any memory of TOYLAND MR VULTURE?AND LUCIE???
Does anyone know when the old Gimbels complex on Market St was demolished? Also, the article needs to be updates because the Gallery, where Gimbels moved to in 1977, has been completely overhauled. Where Gimbels stood is no longer an area fit for a department store. Now, several stores take up the original footprint.
It is weird that The Chestnut Street Saks closed a full year before the branch on City Line Avenue had opened when at the same time the island of Miami Beach had two Saks Fifth Avenues from 1962 through 1980. Those must have been tough times in the City.
Does anyone remember the chocolate custard you could buy at Gimbel’s? We always bought some when we shopped there in the 1950’s.