Brandeis (department store)

Brandeis

The Brandeis Building in downtown Omaha
Former type	Entry-level luxury division
Industry	Retail
Fate	Acquired by Younkers
Founded	1881
Defunct	1987
Headquarters	Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Key people	Jonas Leopold Brandeis, founder

J.L. Brandeis & Sons, commonly referred to by Midwesterners as Brandeis, was a chain of department stores located in the Omaha, Nebraska area started by Jonas L. Brandeis in 1881. It was purchased by Younkers for $33.9 million in 1987, when the stores were converted to the Younkers name.

Jonas Leopold Brandeis's first retail store, called The Fair, was located at 506 South 13th Street. In 1888 he opened the Boston Store on the northwest corner of 16th and Douglas Streets. By 1905, work had begun on a grander Brandeis flagship store at 16th and Douglas Streets in Downtown Omaha. The store was completed in 1906. The eight-story building was designed by John Latenser, Sr., and contained retail space on the first three stories and the basement. Two additional stories were added later. The total cost of the original structure was $650,000. By the 1950s Brandeis took up the whole facility. The store strove to carry every item possible, including furniture.

The Brandeis building is constructed on a steel frame and is faced with Bedford limestone, brick and terra cotta. Design elements vary by floor to add architectural interest. A balustrade and a projecting cornice decorate the upper stories.

By the late 1950s, Brandeis was looking for a way to expand and to modernize. One way to do this was by creating malls, anchored by Brandeis. In 1959, Brandeis Investment Co. developed the Crossroads Shopping Center in Midtown Omaha. The mall was also anchored by Sears (which still remains today). Crossroads was the 9th enclosed shopping mall in the United States and became the place to be in Omaha. The simple mall design, connecting the three story anchors by an "arcade level", soon proved to be successful when Brandeis opened Southroads Mall in southern Omaha in 1966. Southroads was designed after Crossroads, but was anchored by Brandeis and JCPenney.

Brandeis acquired Gold and Company, a Lincoln-based department store in 1964. The Gold's flagship store, in downtown Lincoln, was the only store in the company but took up a large portion of the Lincoln market. Gold's kept their name but operated as a division of J.L.Brandeis until it was phased out of the chain and closed in 1981.