J. W. Robinson's

J. W. Robinson & Co. (colloquially Robinson's) was an American department store chain founded in 1883 by Joseph Winchester Robinson. Its flagship store and headquarters were located in Los Angeles, California, and operated in Southern California and Arizona. Robinson's and May Company California were merged and individually dissolved to form Robinsons-May in 1993.

19th century history

Joseph Winchester Robinson was a merchant from Waltham, Massachusetts who moved to Rosemead, California in 1882 to develop orange groves. Robinson found the quality of goods and service from local merchants lacking, and reentered the retail business, utilizing his contacts on the East Coast to deliver superior merchandise.

Robinson opened the 1440 sqft Boston Dry Goods Store in 1883 at the Allen Block at the southwest corner of Spring and Temple streets,[1] stating that his store offered "fine stocks and refined 'Boston' service." In 1891, J. W. Robinson died at the age of 44 and his father, Henry Winchester Robinson, came from Boston to Los Angeles to take over the business, and the "Boston Dry Goods Store" was renamed the "J. W. Robinson Company" in honor of its late founder.

20th century history

From 1880 to 1890, the population of Los Angeles doubled from 50,395 to 102,479 people. In January 1895 the J. W. Robinson Co., which by that time advertised simply as "The Boston Store", announced that after only eight years at Spring Street, more spacious quarters were necessary, and that a new four-story "Boston Dry Goods Store Building" was under construction at 239 S. Broadway (razed, currently site of a parking lot),[5] opposite the then City Hall. It was designed by Theodore Eisen and Sumner Hunt, designer of the Bradbury Building. On October 1, 1895, Robinson's opened the new store. The new building was promoted at the time as a sign that Los Angeles had come into its own as a "metropolitan center" and that it was no longer necessary to make "annual pilgrimages to San Francisco" to obtain a wide selection of fine merchandise.

The front was "Grecian" (Greek Revival) in style, of light cream brick and terra cotta. It featured an elaborate Corinthian-style cornice crowning the façade. Above it rose a high parapet broken by a high-relief entresol panel. All of this was surmounted by elaborate acroteria. 60-foot-long, 19.5-foot-high plate glass windows illuminated the ground floor. Just above the second floor the façade was Colonial style and above that Doric-style features. The building had passenger and freight elevators, and skylights illuminated through to the ground floor. The first/ground floor and part of the basement were devoted to retail with a central cashier's and wrapping desk, offices were also on the ground floor, receiving and shipping were also in the basement, while the two upper floors housed the main part of the manufacturing and wholesale departments, which moved down from Temple Street. The second floor housed various merchandise departments, areas to display delicate fabrics under gas light, a desk with stationery for customers to write, and the ladies' "parlors" (restrooms).[6][7] In 1908 the store opened up a 5-story extension at the back, fronting on Hill Street. The architect was Theodore Eisen.[8]

Flagship store construction

As Los Angeles continued to grow, so did Robinson's business and in 1914 it announced its construction of a new $1,000,000, (~$ in ) seven-story flagship store with over nine acres (400000 sqft) of floor space, along the south side of West Seventh Street stretching alone the complete block between Grand and Hope streets. Frederick Noonan and William J. Dodd were the architects.[9] The store opened on September 7, 1915.[10] The building was expanded to the south in 1923 at a cost of $900,000 (~$ in ), Dodd and Richard, architects, for a total of 623700 sqft.[11] In 1934, the building was remodeled for between $100,000 (~$ in )–200,000 to a "restrained Modernistic" exterior, shedding some its more exuberant Art Deco features and adding more parking facilities. Robinson's was the largest store of what became a new upscale Seventh Street shopping district to the southwest of the concentration of department stores along Broadway, with Ville de Paris (later B. H. Dyas), Coulter's, Haggarty's, and Desmond's opening stores nearby.[12]

former name	Boston Dry Goods Store J. W. Robinson Co.
type	Division
industry	Retail
genre	Department stores
founded	1883 in Los Angeles, California, United States
founder	Joseph Winchester Robinson
defunct	January 31, 1993
fate	Merged with May Company California
successor	Robinsons-May
hq location	Los Angeles, California, United States
parent	Associated Dry Goods (1957–1986) The May Department Stores Company (1986–1993)

19th century history

20th century history

Flagship store construction

Stores

Expansions

Japan

Robinson's Florida

See also

References

Acquisition by ADG and expansion

Acquisition by May and conversion to Robinsons-May