B. Forman Co.
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|
| Department Store | |
| Industry | retailing |
| Fate | Acquired by McCurdy's |
| Successor |
Kaufmann's (1990–2006) Macy's (2006–present) The Bon-Ton |
| Founded | Rochester, New York, United States (1911) |
| Founder | Benjamin Forman |
| Defunct | 1994 |
|
Key people
|
Edward Forman |
| Products | clothing, merchandise, |
B. Forman Co. was a retail store in Rochester, New York specializing primarily in hign-end women's clothing. Once the largest store of its kind between New York and Chicago, the company, founded by Benjamin Forman in the first decade of the Twentiety Century, closed in 1994. B. Forman Co., along with McCurdy & Co., created Rochester's Midtown Plaza, one of the first enclosed Downtown malls in the United States.
Benjamin Forman, founder of B. Forman Co., was born August 29, 1874. His passport application of 1921 lists his birthplace as "Lemburg, Austria" and his father as Abraham Forman. His birthplace is likely the city currently known as Lviv, now located in the western part of Ukraine but in the 19th Century it was part of the Hapsburg Austrian Empire. Various United States Census reports lists his native language as Yiddish. His 1921 passport application lists him as having immigrated to the United States October 10, 1891.
According to shipping records, he was naturalized as a United States citizen May 1903.
According to a Democrat and Chronicle story in 2016, Forman moved from New York to Philadelphia, Ithaca and Syracuse before arriving in Rochester in 1902. Forman does not appear in the Rochester City Directory until 1904.
Vienna Tailors, described as "mammoth ladies' tailoring establishment" at 255 E. Main Street, Rochester, by the Democrat an Chronicle newspaper in 1902, had been founded by A. Edelberg who, upon retirement, turned the business over to Noah Kahn.
Benjamin Foreman was associated with the tailor shop at 255 East Main Street, Rochester, by 1903. An advertisement for "The Vienna Tailors" listed the proprietors as Lessen, Foreman and Rocker. The same advertisement warned: "Do not confound us with the persons who formerly ran a business here under our name. Don’t be deceived, there is but one place of our name in each city and that is conducted by the undersigned, who guarantee satisfaction or no sale." The 1903 Rochester City Directory lists the partners as M. Lessen, B. Forman and I. Rocker; Max Lessen is listed as living in Syracuse and Isadore Rocker as living in Ithaca.
This tailor shop was renamed B. Forman a year later. He moved his shop, "B. Forman's, Ladies' Tailor", to the second floor of 42 North Clinton Avenue April 1, 1906, next to the new Sibley, Lindsay & Curr department store.
Mr. Forman opened a new ready-to-wear store at 50 South Clinton Avenue in 1911. A store advertisement claimed that "every garment will be properly fitted by Mr. Forman personally. The same supervision that is exercised in the made-to-measure department will also be exercised in the ready-to-wear department." Later that year, Foreman purchased a building lot next door (46 South Clinton Street) and announced plans to construct a three story retail store, 38 feet fronting Clinton, and extending back to Cortland Street,197 feet deep. The new store, now called "B. Forman Co." opened August 22, 1912. The South Clinton block was until then primarily lined with residential houses.
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