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Bamberger's
Company typeDepartment store
IndustryRetail
Founded1893
FounderFelix Fuld
Louis M. Frank
Louis Bamberger
Defunct1986
FateRebranded as/replaced by Macy's
Headquarters131 Market Street Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
ProductsClothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, housewares
ParentMacy's (1929–1986)

Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania.[1] The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.[1]

History[edit]

19th century[edit]

Newark was known for manufacturing in the last half of the 19th century. By 1892, Newark was the fourth largest American city and it manufactured products from leather to jewelry along with it being a rail hub. It also had a large Jewish population.[2]

It was these factors that lead Felix Fuld, Louis M. Frank, and Louis Bamberger to found the store on Dec 13, 1892 on Market Street on the corner of Halsey Street in Newark, New Jersey, taking over the location of a bankrupt store Hill & Craig.[3][4] Fuld and Frank were Bamberger's brothers-in-law.[4]

20th century[edit]

A 1922 illustration of the Newark store, where Bamberger's launched WOR radio on the sixth floor to sell more radios

On October 16, 1912, the company opened its flagship store, designed by Jarvis Hunt, at 131 Market Street in downtown Newark.[1][3] The historic building once ranked among the nation's largest department stores; after an expansion in 1929 it was the nation's sixth largest.[3]

The massive building covered an entire city block, bounded by Market, Washington, Bank and Halsey Streets, encompassing 1.2 million square feet.[5] The phone exchange, 565, was devoted solely to Bamberger's,[6] with local direct-dial numbers for most of New Jersey's suburbs for telephone orders, known as "TeleService".[7][1] The building's loading dock was located well below ground on the fourth-basement level.[8] Two massive elevators carried fully loaded 33 ft trucks from Washington Street down to the loading docks.[8]

The store had over 200 departments over 9 floors, and 2 basement floors.[1] There was a restaurant on the 10th floor.[1] The layout of the store changed over time but one layout of floor departments can be seen here. Bamberger's had its own Newark Public Library branch and US Post Office branch.[3] It sold customized linens, engraved jewelry, furs and other speciality items.[3][9]

In June 1929, Bamberger's was purchased by R.H. Macy Co, but the name remained Bamberger's.[3] In the years immediately following World War II, the store was reorganized to become more "mainstream".[1] In 1955, the tenth-floor restaurant complex was leased to the private Downtown Club.[1] Dining service for customers continued at The Dinette, a counter style room on the first basement level and snack bars on the first and fourth floors.[1] Eventually the lower-level eatery was remodeled into a formal restaurant named the Garden State Tea Room.[1]

The 1960s and 1970s saw expansion throughout the state of New Jersey and into the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area, and by the 1980s there were branches opened in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area.[10] On October 5, 1986, the Bamberger's stores adopted the name Macy's New Jersey, and in 1988 Macy's New Jersey was consolidated with sister division Macy's New York to form Macy's Northeast (now Macy's, Inc.).[10][11]

As North Jersey's population grew, Bamberger's followed the suburban population aggressively. Suburban branch stores of L. Bamberger & Co. were built in other New Jersey locations: downtown Morristown, Plainfield, and at Princeton, New Jersey.[10] According to Greg Hatala, for nj.com, "With the post-World War II population shift towards the suburbs of major cities, Bamberger's built additional stores in locations such as East Brunswick, Garden State Plaza, Livingston Mall, Monmouth Mall, Nanuet Mall, Ocean County Mall, and Menlo Park Mall. In 1970, the East Brunswick location became an anchor store for the Brunswick Square Mall".[10]

Sales volume at the downtown Newark store was affected by the Newark civil unrest of 1967—sales space was decreased and Newark became a "value oriented" store.[1] Evening hours were eliminated downtown by 1979.[12]

In 1986, all Bamberger's stores were renamed Macy's, and the Newark store operated as Macy's until it was closed in 1992.[13]

The flagship store in Newark became 165 Halsey Street and serves the telecommunication, colocation, and computer support industries.[14]

WOR radio[edit]

WOR radio was established by Bamberger Broadcasting Service in 1922.[15] The broadcast studio was located on the sixth floor of its downtown headquarters[3] It was the first radio station on the East Coast to broadcast opera and a morning gym class in the 1920s.[3] Its FM station, W2XOR (then W71NY, now WEPN-FM) began broadcasting in 1940 or 1941.[16][17] On October 11, 1949, WOR-TV (channel 9) signed on the air, becoming the last of the New York metropolitan area VHF television stations to begin operations;[18] in the same year, Bamberger was re-incorporated to General Teleradio, in part due to General Tire and Rubber's increased investment in the station.[19] Transmission was from the WOR TV Tower in North Bergen, New Jersey, until 1953, and from the Empire State Building thereafter.[20] In 1952, General Tire acquired General Teleradio from Macy's, merging it with the Don Lee Network to form General Tire's broadcasting division.[21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lisicky, Michael J. (2016). Bambergers : New Jersey's greatest store. ISBN 978-1467136440. OCLC 952155150.
  2. ^ Palmer, Joanne. "Louis Bamberger's big store". Times of Israel (Jewish Standard). Times of Israel (Jewish Standard). Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Forgosh, Linda B. Louis Bamberger : department store innovator and philanthropist. ISBN 9781611689822. OCLC 946610770.
  4. ^ a b Helmreich, William, ed. (28 July 2017). The Enduring Community : the Jews of Newark and MetroWest. ISBN 9781351290029. OCLC 1000454404.
  5. ^ impressM. "An Enlightened Life of Selling and Giving". Charles Cummings. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  6. ^ Booker, Cory (2017). United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9781101965184.
  7. ^ "13 Nov 1977, 91 - The Record at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  8. ^ a b "Retrofitted Newark store is a model for Lazarus makeover". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  9. ^ "Bambergers in 1929: What Went On Inside the Store". www.oldnewark.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  10. ^ a b c d Hatala, Greg (2015-12-03). "Glimpse of History: Bamberger's on the Green in Morristown". nj.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  11. ^ Stores: The Bulletin of the N.R.D.G.A. National Retail Dry Goods Association. 1990.
  12. ^ "Downtown Newark Memories". newarkmemories.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  13. ^ "Bamberger's stores are gone but impact lives on". North Jersey. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  14. ^ "165 Halsey Street, Office Listings". Listings.165halsey.com. 2009-08-31. Archived from the original on 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  15. ^ "Bamberger's stores are gone but impact lives on". lohud.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  16. ^ "FM Broadcasting History - Various Articles". jeff560.tripod.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  17. ^ Berg, Jerome S. (2008-10-01). Listening on the Short Waves, 1945 to Today. McFarland. ISBN 9780786451999.
  18. ^ "WOR Official Opening is Tomorrow" (PDF). Broadcasting: The Newsweekly of Radio and Television. October 10, 1949. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  19. ^ Broadcasting. Broadcasting Publications Incorporated. 1970.
  20. ^ "WOR-TV North Bergen Transmitter News Articles". j-hawkins.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  21. ^ "WOR merger; General Tire gets MBS control." Broadcasting – Telecasting, January 21, 1952, pg. 25.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberger%27s