Sakowitz Department store was before my time, but I know my mom loved it!
Sakowitz comes into the conversation at least once per month with my mom. She loved this store. after going through the pictures, I can see why! The elegance, the glamour, the quality! I can only say I went to Sakowitz when my mom was pregnant with me. But I never saw it with my own eyeballs. But I occasionally see the fabric she bought from there. As she stores it away for safe keeping.
Sakowitz was a men’s clothing store which grew into a small chain of family-owned high-end department stores based in Houston, Texas. It operated from 1902 until 1990. Sakowitz was responsible for launching many of the now-famous European fashion designers in America - among them Andre’ Courreges, Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche, Zandra Rhoades, Givenchy, and Erminegildo Zegna. The Sakowitz catalogues were mailed to all fifty states and abroad.
Leebe Shaikovich, was an Ashkenazi Jewish man from Korostyshiv, Volhynia, today part of Ukraine, but at that time part of the Russian Empire. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1886, where his name was changed upon arrival to Louis Sakowitz. In Galveston, Texas, Louis began a peddler business, taking orders and delivering clothes on a bicycle to the many merchant seamen. Then, he and his son Samuel opened a small store near the wharves, while brothers Simon and Tobias worked elsewhere around town, for the time being. But in 1902 they opened the Sakowitz Brothers gentlemen’s haberdashery in Galveston at 2113 Market Street, then expanded into booming Houston in 1911 at 308 Main Street, which Simon ran while Tobias ran the then-larger Galveston operation. The location in Galveston was closed in 1917 and consolidated into the Houston store.
By 1929, the original Houston store on 308 Main Street had relocated to the Gulf Building at 720 Main Street by noted Houston architect Alfred C. Finn.
In 1951, Sakowitz moved again to a five story, modernist store at 1111 Main Street (Dallas and Main) also designed by Finn. This was the first time that Sakowitz truly “ran a department store”, as it now directly managed the women’s (and several other) departments, which prior to then had been franchised to other operators.
The store, whose exterior has been kept but whose interior has been turned into a parking garage, contained:
8,073 feet of polished and antique mirrors
10,872 incandescent and fluorescent lamps
32 public telephones
205 store telephones
254,000 sq ft (23,597 m2) of space
The landmark Sky Terrace restaurant
2 “Red Reminder” phones. Phones at the store’s entrances that can be used to call any department in case a patron overlooked an item while shopping.
By 1985, Sakowitz stores all together totaled 1,100,000 sq ft (102,193 m2) in area. That year, an overextended Sakowitz filed for bankruptcy, and as part of the plan, they closed or sold off all the stores outside Greater Houston, as well as the 225,000 sq ft (20,903 m2) downtown Houston store and the Gulf gate Mall location. Four profitable stores remained, all in suburban Houston: Post Oak, Town & Country, and two smaller stores at Clear View (NASA Road) and Champions.
Starting in 1976 originally Evans Fur Company leased Sakowitz’ fur salons with Jerry Gronauer as manager. In 1986, Gronauer left Evans and started leasing the salon space from Sakowitz himself, and with his son, and the Gronauer’s continue to operate in a store near the old Post Oak Sakowitz store.
What I am seeing with these photos is that the space was never crammed full of stuff that they wanted patrons to see. There was an elegance to the old and often forgotten department stores. There was simplicity to this department store. The buyers weren’t cramming items to purchase down our throats at every turn. They selected what you saw and instead of feeling rushed to pick something just because it was on sale. The fact that they had a department full of fabric - I think Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom would keel over before they allowed that to happen. Especially when sewing isn’t very popular with the current generations. They would rather replace instead of repair, because many don’t know how to sew on a button. But imagine if we could revitalize the love of sewing? Department stores may even add some bolts of fabric ; )
This article makes me hungry for a place that only once existed. I want to go shopping where I am presented with options that are exquisitely made, in rooms that finely decorated, where the lights are glowingly lit, and the items are set just so, to entice and excite you with spending your money. The ways of yester year make me long for a time that no longer exists with all the hubbub around. Rushing off here and there and never just resting where we are. Many are too stuck in the rush of things, that they can’t see that they need rest. Even when shopping.
Even the Children’s department looks as if they sold children’s imagination instead of the electronic punch lines. Sure, it looks outdated, but for the modern world, I prefer vintage over characterless shopping.
We may not be figuring out why these stores closed. Many were due to crappy economies and money problems. But I am establishing that we are exploring each and every local department store and why it was so thrilling to shop there. Maybe we’ll get on to something, reforming our expectations of shopping to that of a slower pace and a higher quality and uniqueness.
Remember, to dress with intent!
Cheers, Lauryn