"The Store with the Florida Flair" |
Jordan Marsh Company (1956)
1501 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, Florida
FRanklin 4-7251
FRanklin 4-7251
First Floor
Cosmetics • Fine Jewelry • Fashion Jewelry • Hosiery • Umbrellas • Handbags • Leathergoods • Gloves • Dress Accessories • Books • Stationery • JM World Wide Fine Food Shop • 1900 Ice Cream Parlor • Ladies’ Shoes• Pool & Patio Sportswear • T-riffic Shop • Gift Shop • Notions • Luggage • Sporting Goods • Men’s Clothing • Men’s Toiletries • Man’s Furnishings • Men’s Shoes • Men’s Sportswear • Gentry Shop • Young Men’s Shop • Connections • Boys’ Clothing and Furnishings
Second Floor
Lingerie • Corsetry • Private Lives • The Place for Young Juniors • Junior Dresses • Junior Sportswear • Junior Coats • Ten to Teen Shop • Jordan Hi Shop • The Shop for Pappagallo • Etienne Aigner Shop • Sportswear Center • Sun and Surf Shop • Town & Country Shop • Boulevard Shop • Mrs. Marsh Shop • Palm Terrace Shop • Better Sportswear • Four Corners • Better Coats • After Five Shop • Biscayne East Sportswear • Designer’s Room • French Salon (Millinery) • Designer Shoe Salon • Fur Salon • Coiffures Americana Beauty Salon • Portrait Studio
Third Floor
JM Young World Girls' Shop • Children’s World • Young World Accessories • Children’s Shoes • Ten to Teen Shop
Gulfstream Shops Gulfstream Sportswear • Gulfstream Dresses • Casual Dresses • Gulfstream Shoes • Gulfstream Lingerie • Gulfstream Corsetry
Gulfstream Restaurant • Captain’s Table • Pelican’s Roost Bar
Fourth Floor
China • Glassware • Silver • Housewares • Electrical Appliances • Appliances • Televisions • Sound Center • New Era Electronics • Hardware • Garden Center • Linens • Domestics • Fabric Center • Art Needlework • Toyland
Fifth Floor
Fifth Floor of Home Fashions Furniture • Bedding • Casual Furniture • Lamps • Draperies • Pictures • Mirrors • Art Gallery • New England House • Floor Coverings
(395,000 sq. ft.)
(395,000 sq. ft.)
Ft. Lauderdale
1959
Sunrise Boulevard
255,000 sq. ft.
Gulfstream Restaurant
|
Colonial Plaza
1962
Orlando
230,000 sq. ft.
Oakmont Restaurant
|
Melbourne
JM Sportswear Colony
Brevard Mall
October, 1965
Broward Mall
Plantation
1978
Coming in Due Course
When I was a kid growing up in Daytona Beach, jordan marsh was presented on tv as the consummate shopping experience in Central Fla. Then Burdines opened. It was a wonderful store. The one in Colonial Plaza in Orlando one walked thru as in Burdines Dadeland on the way to Belk-Lindsey. The Oak Room served me alcohol when I was 17. I would order a meal and a whiskey sour and was never carded. Although you could drink in Fla at age 18 then it was an empowering feeling. They were a wonderful store and I still feel their loss each time I pass the location of one of their stores......especially the old "main store" at 1501 Biscayne Blvd.
ReplyDeleteThe Jordan Marsh in the Pompano Fashion Square was small and only one level. But it had very fine merchandise and wonderful service. If you needed a better selection it was easy to get to the Fort Lauderdale store.
ReplyDeleteThe Jordan Marsh on Biscayne Blvd was the most fashionable store during its time. They had the best clothing and the best service. It operated like a suburban store and had on site parking. Later, it became part of a mall..and just wasn't the same.
ReplyDeleteI remember back in the early 70's visiting the Jordan Marsh in Miami and seeing two 80 year old twin sisters riding the up escalators ... both wearing mini skirts. Oh what a sight ...oh the memories!
ReplyDeleteThe first items od clothing I ever bought on my own (with my own money) was at the Jordan Marsh store in Pompano Fashion Square. A Levi navy blue corduroy jacket and Levi navy blue check sports shirt. I still own both (in back of my closet). I am a firm believer in donating my older clothes to the local clothing bank... but these two items remain with me (my personal archive).
ReplyDeletethe first clothing I ever bought on my own and with my own money was at Jordan Marsh in the Pompano Fashion Square. I bought a navy blue Levi corduroy jacket and a navy blue Levi check sport shirt. I still have them today (in the back of my closet). While i am a firm believer in and a donator to the local clothing bank...these items I kept!
ReplyDeleteDidn't many Jordan Marsh stores in eastern Florida become Maas Brothers before closing for good???
ReplyDeleteThe Fort Lauderdale store was in a shopping plaza called Sunrise Shopping Center. There was also a small Saks Fifth Avenue there. I am not sure if there were other stores in this center. In the 1980 the Galleria Mall was built surrounding these stores. The Saks was enlarged and the Jordan Marsh was updated. Other stores were added. There was one other dept store (maybe Burdine's???). Today there is Macy's, Neiman-Marcus and Dillards. What happened to the Saks Fifth Avenue?
ReplyDeleteLord and Taylor opened, then closed. Saks closed about 4 years ago and Neiman Marcus last year leaving the old Burdine's ( now Macy's) and Dillard's in the old Jordan Marsh space.
DeleteOK look up Malls of America and click onto Sunrise Center. There you will see a 1960's photo of the Sunrise Center. Clearly you will see a large Jordan Marsh. To the right you can barely see it, but it is a small Saks Fifth Avenue. The Jordan Marsh remained, and The Galleria was built around it. A new Saks opened and also Neiman-Marcus and Lord & Taylor and Burdine's(early 80's). Eventually Dillard's took over the JM building and Macy's took over the Burdine's building. Saks closed in 2009 and is empty.Lord & Taylor is also gone.
ReplyDeleteJORDAN MARSH was the store "with the Florida Flair"... wonderful is what it was!
ReplyDeleteMy sister "Georgeanna" did the windows, she was featured on the cover of Parade (Miami Heralds Sunday magazine). THAT'S when it was wonderful and fabulous!
ReplyDeleteJordan Marsh was so perfect. What has happened to our world.
ReplyDeleteJordan Marsh in Florida was a wonderful store (while the New ENgland store was not so good). JM is really missed/
ReplyDeleteI started working for JM in the Orlando store in 1970 in the Display Dept. Within a year I had been transferred to the Miami store as the Assistant Home Furnishings Coordinator. Those were the days when there was attention to detail and quality. Mr. Herbert Luegge was the Display Director with an office on the fifth floor with a window looking north on Biscayne Blvd. Many talented people worked for this wonderful man. Mr. William Ruben was the President of JM and was a talented merchant. Those days of quality in retail will sadly never return.
ReplyDeleteI used to be a buyer at Jordan Marsh Florida. I worked there for 18 years. So many great memories.
ReplyDeleteIn the end this wonderful store fell victim to the ravages of greed and lack of vision.
I worked there for 7 years, including three as a buyer. All those stores , gone, all those great people, gone, and all those jobs gone as well. I also miss our "enemys" at Burdines!
ReplyDeleteIn the early 1980's I moved to Florida from Detroit and worked in the store on Biscayne Blvd in Miami. This was the "corporate store" where the executive offices were. The buying offices were tucked behind the selling floors all over the store. I was the manager of the Designer Salon and then moved to the buying offices for Better Dresses. I wanted to work in retail to try and recapture the magic I experienced growing up in Detroit and going to the magnificent Hudson's downtown. But retail had already changed by the 1980's. The corporate types at Allied Stores had decided that Jordan Marsh was to become a "moderate" department store when everyone else in town was going upscale and designer. On the one hand they were trying to seem as if they were still upscale but they were selling low-end goods. What a disaster! They couldn't compete with Burdines, Lord & Taylor and the other retailers pouring into Florida. We could never get out dress orders approved in time because the execs didn't want to spend the money! By the time they were approved we had to accept the dresses no other company wanted to buy. I remember one time as a buyer visiting the Boca Raton store at Christmas. The Town Center mall was packed with people. Then you walked into Jordan Marsh and it was like a tomb. No customers, sale signs everywhere and old, stale Christmas decor that was used every year since who knows when. Who would want to shop there? The people that worked in the stores and corporate buying offices worked hard and were truly distressed at what was happening. But they had no choice about the direction the company was taking. Finally, Maas Brothers and Jordan Marsh were combined and the corporate offices in Miami were eliminated. Everything came out of Tampa. I went to Tampa but only stayed for 6 months. Bad decisions and bad management were the end of this grand old company.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in the JM in the Town Center Mall in Boca in the late 80s. It was a wonderful store and most a good share of the employees had been there since it opened. It was really sad to see it close because it was one of the best, if not the best, place I ever worked at. The sense of family was extraordinary and I really miss that store.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Biscayne store in the Ice Cream Parlor for a couple of years and then moved to the Bridal Department. It was great until they built the mall around the store and then there was a Bridal store in the mall with a much bigger selection of gowns. The mall was the "beginning of the end" for Jordan Marsh:(
ReplyDeleteI do miss those days and the wonderful people I met. I still remember the cheese bread and the incredible cheese cake!!
The Dadeland store was built where we used to have Safety Town. That was a place for kids to learn basic bicycle and pedestrian safety rules. It was sooo much fun! Even though I was very very young when I attended, I resented Jordan March forever! Stupid. They had some beautiful things, but they were expensive and a bit snobby.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Luegge Hine 09 August 2013 11:50
ReplyDeleteIt was Great reading all the reviews written here about Jordan Marsh. My Father was Herbert Luegge. He devoted his entire life to this company he believed in. He had excellent associates that work with him. I miss my Dad and Jordan Marsh. And Barbara I am sorry about you losing your Safety Town. It could of been worse -- it could of been a Walmart.
Went to merritt Island Mall in Florida 1981/got the impression this was a great american store/
ReplyDeleteAmerica had great stores and this was one of them.
As a Canadian I'm sorry this piece of history for you Floridians is now gone.
I will always miss the name and Merritt Island location in Beautiful Florida
Hi I worked at the downtown Miami Jordan Marsh for 14yrs ladies shoes
ReplyDeleteI remember you...I worked in the buying offices... a blast from the past!
DeleteI have a Jordan Marsh Florida fur shawl with collar and am trying to find out what kind of fur it is. It is gorgeous! The fur is light tan, any ideas? Is there any place I can post a picture?
ReplyDeleteI started work at Jordan Marsh in 1959, just out of high school. I worked in the credit department. Started out authorizing purchases and then moving on to the billing department and creating the billing statements. I have fond memories of working there.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1975 I attended a convention in Orlando. What I wanted most of all to do in Florida was sample a Key Lime Pie. None of the hotels were serving it and I almost gave up trying to find it. Finally we went to a shopping mall in Altamonte Springs with a Burdines, a Robinson's of Florida (not to be confused with the grand dame of my childhood, J. W. Robinson in L.A. and Pasadena) and a Jordan-Marsh. Only Robinson's Florida and Jordan-Marsh had tearooms and the tearoom in Jordan-Marsh had Key Lime Pie! I got to taste Key Lime Pie at last!! The pie was good...Jordan-Marsh not so much...only two floors...plain, pedestrian décor. Sorry Florida!
ReplyDeleteI started with Jordan Marsh in 1976 and went through the management training program, became the Men's furnishing manager in the Biscayne Blvd store, them moved to the Pompano Beach location as the Men's Clothing Manager. D.M.M Dan Demicell liked the way I merchandised the department and promoted me to asst Manager, and I went on to be the Men's Clothing Manager by replacing Larry Altman. After Mr. Rubin was removed and replaced by Mr. Frederick the place took a dive. I left and opened Macy's in Aventura Mall, along with quite a few others in the early 80's. I have many great memory's of that time!
ReplyDeleteThe Dadeland JM opened in 1966, four years after Burdines and the rest of the mall
ReplyDeleteMy father , Richard Danvers, was the operations manager at all of those stores at different times between the years 1967 to 1985. He was hard and tough tough to work for, but his standards of retail and operations management were impeccable. My first job was on the teen board at JM N. Miami, and I was a salesgirl at Hollywood mall JM for many years while I was in school. This chain of stores was a huge part of my life, and my father's. I'm happy to see that people still remember what a great chain it was.
ReplyDeleteI worked with MR. Danvers at the Dadeland store. It was 1976-80. He was a great guy. Learned a lot from him. I was the Children’s Dept manager. I loved that job. Worked hard and long hours but loved it. Learned a lot while working there.
DeleteBob Kopp....Food and Bev Director/ Gulfstream Restaurants 1980's
ReplyDeleteI started at JM-Dadeland as a salesperson at age 16 in 1974, I trained as a salesperson at a time when salespeople were MORE than just cashiers - we always kept busy, knew our merchandise, approached customers, offered assistance etc.
ReplyDeleteThen went through Executive Training at 19 and was hired by Store Manager Mr. Pridgen as Dept Manager for Men's Sportswear at Omni location. Then went on to Asst Buyer for Infants - and finished at the Warehouse ("Locator" Manager) while completing my college education (since the warehouse was closer to FIU than the Omni!)
I remember many of the people named in the comments above (Mr. Danvers - tough but kind; Bill Ruben, Dan Demicell, Bob Kite, Sherry Troutman, Mark Ozer, Bob Colavito, Mindy and Maria from Infants, etc.) - and many more whose names I can't recall. As a young woman in management in a men's department in the flagship store, it was tough - but I learned a lot of valuable lessons that served me well as I moved out of retailing and into higher education.
Loved Jordan Marsh and LOVED retailing - but hated the hours, especially at the holidays.
I worked as a stock boy between 1976-1978 at the Ft Lauderdale store while I attended the community college. I enjoyed everyone who worked there and loved to work for the store. Peter September , 2015
ReplyDeleteI was on the Jordan Marsh Teen Board between '82 & '84, does anyone know where I can go or who to contact to see if there are any photos or video's of the fashion shows?
ReplyDeleteMe too! Trying to find pics from our shows!
DeleteI worked at the Jordan Marsh at the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale from summer 1985 to January 1986. Met my husband there and we are still married 30 years later! I was out of high school and worked there while going to school to be an Esthetician. Sad to see that store go, it was so NICE!!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever eat at The Parlor next to the Gulfstream restaurant? No one seems to remember it. I wish I could find a picture or postcard.
DeleteI started at Jordan Marsh at the Pompano Fashion Square in the jewelry dept. I was 19 years old. (I think it was 1978 79?) after a little time I was promoted to Head of Sales and then promoted as the Managaer of the Lingerie Dept and then was promoted to a Asst Buyer of Day wear Lingerie. I was 21 years old and buying for 17 stores/ Jr Lingerie. I worked hard & I am grateful for the opportunity at such a young age. It served me well as I learned to be professional & how to run a dfepartment...it was great! and I met a GF that I am still friends with to this day!!
ReplyDeletejeannie mills if u r out there, it's ronnie... i'll never forget my baby shower u n joicie threw for me when dev was born... i miss u n wish i knew where u r today! ronnie visionrke@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThe Dadeland store actually opened in 1966.
ReplyDeleteI worked as the Department manager of major appliances,draperies,furniture and then men's accessories in Hollywood from 1974 to 1975 and Assistant buyer of Men's accessories in Miami from 1975 to 76 under Bob Kite.Dan Demicell,John Spicola,Sherry Troutman,John Balina, Joe Soto Paul Ewert Fred Leipsner and Bruce Shop off were some of the great people I worked with.
ReplyDeleteI've been going through cookbooks by the recently deceased Maida Heatter of Miami Beach. She writes that in the early 1970's she made brownies that were then sold at Jordan Marsh. The brownies were each wrapped in cellophane and then packaged in white boxes with clear plastic tops. She says that she included the handwritten recipe in each box. Does anyone remember these brownies?
ReplyDeleteI remember my mother taking us to Jordan Marsh in Boston and had cookies and milk in a special area of Jordan Marsh. Am I dreaming this or did they have a place for children to have cookies and milk?
ReplyDeleteI worked at colonial plaza JM
ReplyDeleteSo was I! I’m trying to find them too. The one I recall most was Barbizon My Madoiselle show. May have been 79.. but I think 80. Dadeland store
ReplyDeleteI was on the Jordon Marsh Teen Board and was the Fiorucci girl. Worked in cosmetics and became the youngest Asst. Mgr. in the women’s department.
ReplyDelete