G. Fox and Company
Connecticut's department store
|
|
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Filene's |
| Successor |
Filene's (1993-2006) Macy's (2006-present) |
| Founded | 1847 |
| Defunct | 1993 |
| Headquarters | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Parent | The May Department Stores Company (1965-1993) |
| Website | None |
G. Fox & Co. was a large department store that originated in Hartford, Connecticut. The store was also the largest privately held department store in the nation when it was sold in 1965 to the May Department Stores Company. In 1992 May Department stores phased out the G. Fox & Co. name converting them into the Boston-based department store Filene's. In 2005, the May Company was merged with Federated Department Stores which converted the store and all of the other regional chains to Macy's.
G. Fox & Co. was established in 1847 by Gerson Fox and his brother, Isaac Fox, and was named I. & G. Fox Co. The first G. Fox store was a single-room storefront opened in Hartford, Connecticut. When Isaac sold his interest to his brother, Gerson renamed the company G. Fox and Company. Gerson's son, Moses, joined the business in 1863, and took over the store in 1880, upon Gerson's death. The early Fox store was famous for home delivery - by wheelbarrow. The store had grown to five floors when it burned to the ground in January 1917. Moses Fox, 66 at the time, announced that work would begin immediately on an 11-story replacement structure. The new flagship store was located at 960 Main Street in downtown Hartford. History has it that the original store and offices, destroyed by fire, were rebuilt because the store's customers rallied and paid approximately 95% of all outstanding bills - voluntarily. Encouraged by the response, Moses Fox had the new store designed by New York architect Cass Gilbert, as an 11-story behemoth, initially dubbed "Fox's folly" in reference to its sheer scale. The new store opened in 1918. The fire served as impetus for Beatrice Fox Auerbach, Moses's daughter, and her husband, George Samuel Auerbach, to return to Hartford from Salt Lake City to help with the business. George died in 1927 and Beatrice then began working alongside her father.
In 1938, Gerson's granddaughter, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, took control of the company upon her father's (Moses Fox) death, and helped transform it into a dominant retail store in the southern New England area for most of the twentieth century. Not long after taking over in 1938 after Moses' death, Beatrice Auerbach embarked on a major renovation that added elegant art deco interior details and a signature marquee above the display windows and entrances along Main Street. Mrs. Auerbach became one of the most prominent executives in American retailing and gained much respect in the Hartford area for her civic and philanthropic efforts, which included endowment to the University of Hartford that named Auerbach Hall in her honor.
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Wikipedia