Sanger-Harris
Akard and Pacific
Dallas, Texas (1857/1965)
DOWNTOWN STORE DIRECTORY (456,000 sq. ft.)
Lower Level
The Hasty Buffet • Pastry Shop • Candy • Stationery • Calculators • Luggage • Books • Records • Sport Shop • Cameras • Housewares • Decorative Housewares • Hardware • Appliances • Home Entertainment Center • Work Clothing • Auditorium • Stamp and Coin Center
Street Level
Fine Jewelry Salon • Costume Jewelry • Cosmetics • Health/Beauty • Handbags • Small leather Goods • Gloves • Hosiery • Umbrellas • Neckwear • Blouses • Sweaters • Sportswear Separates • Main Place • Millinery • Budget Lingerie • Casual Dresses • Junior Shops • Ladies’ Shoes • The Coffee Shop
Store for Men Men’s Furnishings • Men’s Shoes • Men’s Hats • Men’s Sports Furnishings • Men’s Sportswear • Men’s Clothing • Young Men’s Shop
Second Level
Sportswear • Gallery Dresses • Gallery Sportswear • The Woman’s World • Coat Shop • Suit Shop • The Four Seasons Shop • Daytime Dresses • Contempo Dresses • Miss Harris Shop • Miss Dallas Shop • Fur Salon • Bridal Salon • Shoe Salon • Millinery • Young Couture Shops • Young Elegant’s Shop • Custom Collection • Designer’s Circle • The Specialty Shop • Clubhouse • Anne Klein Collection • Specialty Shop Shoes • Beauty and Wig Salon • Better Lingerie • Sleepwear • Loungewear • The Body Shop • Maternity Shop
Young World Young Teen Shop • Young Texan Shop • Twixteen Shop • Children’s Shoes • Children’s’ Accessories • Girls’ Lingerie • Girls 3-6x • Girls 7-14 • Boys 4-7 • Boys 8-20 • Young Juniors • Infants’ Wear • Children’s Wear
Third Level
Bed Linens • Bath Linens • Silver • China • Glassware • Gift and Decorative Shops • Accessories • Lamps • Pictures and Mirrors • Sewing Machines • Fashion Fabrics • Art Needlework • Draperies • Curtains • Carnation Room Restaurant
Fourth Level
Living Room Furniture • Bedroom Furniture • Dining Room Furniture • Upholstered Furniture • Occasional Furniture • Bedding • Old World Galleries • Carpets and Rugs • Oriental Rug Shop • Optical Center
BRANCH STORES
33,000 sq. ft.
Zang and Beckley, Dallas, TX
103,000 sq. ft.
242,000 sq. ft.
Mesquite, TX
107,000 sq. ft.
Irving, TX
139,000 sq. ft.
Arlington, TX
164,000 sq. ft.
Town East Mall (1972)
Mesquite
160,000 sq. ft.
300,000 sq. ft.
152,000 sq. ft.
Hulen Mall (1977)
Ft. Worth, TX
199,000 sq. ft.
North Hills Mall (1978)
North Richland Hills
199,000 sq. ft.
Colin Creek Mall (1980)
Plano
199,000 sq. ft.
Tyler (1981)
4700 S. Broadway
98,000 sq. ft.
Just wanted to say what a fantastic site you have here. Sanger Harris ("Sanger Harris in the first place...") was our department store of choice growing up in Dallas, and I remember being amazed by the intricate tile mosaics above the entrances to all their stores. Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to seeing the page for Dallas' own Titche-Goettinger as well. You may want to consider Stripling & Cox and Leonard's, both of which were Fort Worth-based. Leonard's was bought by Dillard's in the early 1970s and Stripling's shut down a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThank you, James for your kind comments. I will take your suggestions, and at some point I may include moree information about Sanger Brothers and A. Harris, the two stores that merged to form Sanger-Harris.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed your enthusiasm for the mosaics which were a part of many of Sanger-Harris branch stores. Along with Wanamaker's organ, Field's Tiffany dome, and many others, this aspect of the store was important in making a unique impression upon customers like your family. In our somewhat more soulless society, you don't find much that is really unique, especially at one of today's Big Box stores.
My decision to keep all photographs in the black-and-white realm doesn't do justice to this great, artistic feature of Sanger Harris. Your comment, though, reminds us of a one-of-a-kind aspect of such a memorable store.
Don't know what made me Google Sanger Harris today, but nice to see these photos.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Red Bird Sanger Harris 1979 - 1981.
Don't you miss that kind/class of department store?
Peace to you.
Thanks again!
Dear Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI don't know what made you Google it either, but I am glad you did.
I do miss these stores. It was nice to visit another city, and see how different the stores were. Today, I am afraid, if you travel in the US, you just find more of the same thing. I also think this is bad, because stores like Sanger-Harris (or Field's in Chicago or Hudson's in Detroit) were really a part of their communities, a tie with the past, and a part of the local lifestyle with which we could identify in a small-scale way. We have really lost that, haven't we?
On a deeper level, even, those local stores were managed locally, ran locally, and really enriched their communities. People who owned and knew how to run a department store lived right in our communities, and made them unique and richer places. Today, these people are in Cincinnati or somewhere like that, and all we have are people who know how to run a cash register.
My goal with the Museum is to show how rich, worthwhile, and beautiful the heritage of these stores was. I am glad you showed up, and asked the question.
Peace be to you, too! (We could all use it, couldn't we?)
The Sanger-Harris at Akard & Pacific opened around 1965 and was the first store to use the mosaic and arch architecture. The old downtown Sanger's at Main/Elm/Lamar was the typical hodgepodge of old buildings acquired over the years. Those buildings are now El Centro Junior College.
ReplyDeleteIt was particularly sad to see the Valley View Sanger's close because I had the most "history" with that store. Over the years, however, we shopped at almost all of them.
Sanger Bros. had a rather dowdy reputation until Federated merged it with A. Harris--a much more upscale store.
Sanger-Harris also had branches at:
ReplyDeleteQuail Springs Mall - Oklahoma City, OK
Crossroads Mall - Oklahoma City, OK
Southroads Mall - Tulsa, OK
Woodland Hills Mall - Tulsa, OK
El Con Mall - Tucson, AZ
Foothills Mall - Tucson, AZ
Coronado Center - Albuquerque, NM
I shopped at the Sanger Harris in Oak Cliff Harris site by myself for the first time. My mother trusted me with a "charge card" and dropped me off to shop for a new dress. It must have been in the mid 1960's. I still have the dress and very fond memories of this store. It is now "Nolan Estes Plaza" and is owned by the Dallas Independent School District.
ReplyDeletewow every one is gone makes feel like you only dreamed you lived here back then , have been searching for old pictures of the old sears on ross ave and th eone in okacliff on Jefferson they are only a memory now ! I use to work at th eold anger harris build on main bacl when it was Tithes in 1975 gosh how I miss them old stores and th enice people tahnk you for sharing your pictures he brought back great memories of my family now gone granma teri west Texas
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Sanger-Harris in Plymouth Park (Irving) from about 1979-1983 or '84. I loved that store. The friendships, the customers, everything was great. I miss having the store to go and shop in. It was a special place with great memories. Kelly
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what year A. Harris merged with Sanger-Harris?
ReplyDeleteSanger Brothers (Sanger's) bought A. Harris & Co. in 1961, forming Sanger-Harris. The store operated both existing department stores in Downtown Dallas, at Lamar and Main (former Sanger's) and Main at Akard (Former A. Harris)until the new Sanger-Harris at Akard and Pacific was opened in 1965.
ReplyDeleteBAK
I believe Oak Cliff Harris Center was the only suburban location of A. Harris prior to the merger with Sanger's. It was built around the time that the "White flight" from Oak Cliff began and I don't remember it staying open for very long.
ReplyDeleteThe Sanger's stores with the arches and mosaics were quite dramatic when they were built, but look definitely dated now. At least that was architecture and not the featureless boxes that are built now. Department stores used to have their own personalities and that's what I miss most. Now that everything has been "Macy-ated" or otherwise homogenized, the stores and merchandise are the same in Dallas, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, etc. There's nothing special about shopping anymore because every store seems to be the same as every other store. No personality. Nothing to make them stand out from everyone else.
As Teri commented above, I, too, have memories of the Sears stores on Jefferson Ave. in Oak Cliff and the one at Ross & Henderson. We used to shop at the Ross Ave. location frequently and I remember the store always smelled like candy and popcorn.
Sanger Harris is now own by Dart Transit on 1401Pacific Downtown Dallas, TX. I have to pull up the history about building.
ReplyDeleteSangers never owned the land at Pacific and Akard -- and in the height of the real estate boom, they had offers to the space above the store. They had 100 year lease or something like it with I believe the Baptist church. The downtown building (Federated had letters for stores -- SH was "X") was X-0, and was used for indoor scenes in the early episodes of the TV show Dallas, as "Pam" (Victoria Principal) worked at "The Store."
ReplyDeleteX-1 was Highland Park; X-2 was Preston Center through X-13 which was Collin Creek.
If these memories interest you, I recommend you read Bill Bryson's Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid -- about when where you lived was unique.
Thank you for the fascinating information . . . especially the book recommendation
ReplyDeleteBAK
Wow... I worked in the Wohl Shoe Office in the Downtown Dallas store in 1979. Used to lunch in the Carnation Room. Great memories!
ReplyDeleteI loved Sangers (and Sanger-Harris). It was the first place I ever remember shopping with my mom when I was a little girl. I loved the downtown store, especially the Christmas room they had every year. It was in a large, separate room on the top floor, I believe. It was erected on a huge platform maybe 3-4 feet high. It had a train that ran all around the perimeter of the display, if memory serves me correctly. In the middle was a huge Christmas sort of town or display. It was a magical delight.
ReplyDeleteI later worked in Sanger's in Preston Center in the young men's department when I was in college at SMU. Working there was a treat for a college girl because I met so many cute guys. Even went out with one of them! And I was amazed by my ability to sell them lots of clothes because they didn't really know what they wanted or what went well together! I miss that store so much
Thank you for a walk down memory lane with Sanger-Harris. I loved that store. It really is too bad that there is nothing now to compare to the class and style of that store. They offered affordable luxury and style to the upper middle class shopper.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI bought a storage unit here in El Paso, Texas. I got two mink fur coats that have tags on them saying Sanger Harris. This website has taught me a little piece of history. No idea what to do with old fur coats, but still cool.
I remember the giant wagon wheel chandeliers in the downtown store. They would be considered ugly now. I think that store was built in the 60's. Right around the corner from the now-defunct Times Herald. The furniture department was over-the-top, really amazing antiques and furnishings. During the oil bust in the eighties it seemed that Neiman's and Sanger's were the same store. Neiman's brought more middle of the road merchandise in and oddly, Sanger's seemed to get better quality things. The best merchandised Sanger-Harris stores were Preston Center and Valley View. I as I recall the Big-Town Sanger's was originally a Neiman-Marcus, which closed quickly (Mesquite did not fit their market niche) and became a Sanger's store. I remember too that Sanger-Harris store designers did a great job with lighting in their stores. The in-store displays were as good or better than anything you'd see in New York or Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI just bought a fur jacket in perfect condition at a thrift shop. Probably Fox. The label says "The Fur Salon"Sanger Harris. I Google's Sanger Harris in an attempt to find out something about the jacket's value and I found your site. Did all of the branches of the store have fur salons? I am intrigued that the jacket has survived in such perfect condition and that it found its way to Southwest Virginia.
ReplyDeleteAds from the 1970s state that Sanger-Harris Fur Salons were located Downtown, Preston Center, Six Flags Arlington, Town East, Valley View, and Hulen Mall.
ReplyDeleteIt is a testimonial to the value of fur garments, that if of good quality, and well-cared for, they can last and last.
Bruce
Trivia Note: On the TV show "Dallas" while Sue Ellen worked in "the Store" which we all knew was suppose to be Neiman-Marcus (surprisingly, she was a salesperson one week and the next week was a Buyer...that happens everyday); the interior scenes of "the Store" were actually shot in Sanger-Harris, not NM.
ReplyDeleteI have been rooting around in my attic and found the A. Harris & Company Employee Annual Picnic at Kid Springs Dallas Texas picture date July 21, 1921. It is framed and in perfect condition. I believe my wife's grandmother worked at the store which was located at Elm and Lamar downtown Dallas which is now El Centro College. As you know when Sanger Bros bought A. Harris Co and then built the Sanger Harris dept. store on Pacific Ave and after it closed the company I worked for, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, bought the building around 1994 and turned it into their headquarters building. I worked in the remodeled building from 1996 to when I retired in Dec. 2010. It still had the old elevators and escalators which were in constant maintenance. In there a way I could post the picture on the website for all the see? Thanks Richard Jarrett
ReplyDeleteHello, Richard!
ReplyDeleteHow very interesting. In the future, I will be expanding the Sanger-Harris exhibit to show the Sanger Brothers and A. Harris stores before they became Sanger-Harris. If you'd like to scan the picture, and send to bakgraphics@comcast.net, I'd be happy to post it.
Bruce
I have found a old small banjo it has a decal with pleasure in capital letters then portland meter&franks oregon its all wood neck and body just was wondering if you could let me know something about it please
ReplyDeleteI worked at Downtown Sangers in 1968 and then transfered to Preston Center. I loved the people and class the stores had. I remember Jo Butler. I have alot of fond memories from there.
ReplyDeleteI found a womans hat today at a local thrift store and it is marked "Sanger of Dallas" What years would this hat been a part of .
ReplyDeleteThanks
John
It was actually Pam that worked at "The Store" not Sue Ellen, but it's in one of the early seasons of Dallas (available on DVD BTW) that Sue Ellen was shown shopping for baby clothes, later walking down Pacific in front of the store. The bags she was carrying clearly showed the Sanger Harris logo on them--at the time, the store used a manila folder-colored bag with a chocolate-brown print of the arches and the Sanger Harris logo. Another scene showed Sue Ellen bringing the bags into an apartment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, YouTube videos have surfaced with 2 rare Sanger Harris TV ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeGAbCkSr2Q (starting at :42)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXP0tvoxRtI
John (sangerharristribute@hotmail.com)
Great website! Finding this page brought many wonderful and sweet memories...I was an in-store staff illustrator that drew merchandise for the all newspapers that carried Sangers advertising. Although I'm not gay, it was my very first time working with gay men who were supportive and creative. One memory I'll NEVER forget was a layout artist who was about 65 years old, gay and flamboyant, but a wonderful guy. One morning he was showing some old photos...Army paratroopers, black faced, heavy equipped, ready for a jump. Eisenhower was speaking to them. I asked how/why he had these photos? he said "that's me!". Sure enough, there he was! You could see him quite clearly...a member of the 101st Airborne Paratroopers getting ready to jump into France on D-Day! My perception of gays was changed forever that day. My Sangers experience is one I will never forget.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Sanger Harris from 1974 til a couple of months after they were bought out in the mid 1980's. Sorry don't remember the year 85 or 86 maybe. I started work downtown Dallas and later transfered and promoted out to the Valley View store. I started as stockboy two levels underground and rose to an assistant department manager with inventory control etc.
ReplyDeleteSanger Harris was a big part of me growing professionally and personally. Believe me I was really terrible (or rude) some of the years. Maybe even "stuck up". I Still have items from Sanger Harris at home and even a Key id tag from A. Harris that was found while cleaning out a small storage area once. I even graduated from the El Centro College where it orginally started. I miss the old friends, but you do grow apart as time passes.
Burl 'Blu' Law
This is amazing. I started working at Sanger-Harris Plymouth Park(Irving) in December of 1986 part-time. Went through both mergers Sanger-Harris to Foley's to Macy's still working part-time while holding down a full-time job. I just retired from Macy's this month (still part-time)after 25 years I finally gave it up.
ReplyDeleteAnyone Remember the Sanger Harris Wearhouse sales????
ReplyDeleteI bought a two piece sectional sofa in 1981 or 1982 from Sangar Harris in Tyler Texas. It was brown with removeable cushions with a low profile. It was our first "real" piece of furniture and cost a small fortune to a newly wed couple ($2000). It is 30 years old and we still have it. Quality product to say the least. I would love to know who manafactured it. I cannot find a name on it anywhere. Does anyone out there know? Maybe someone who worked for Sangar Harris in the furniture division could give me a clue. I miss that store.
ReplyDeleteI worked at X2 for one year..opened..X11..grew up at Sangers..I got my degree in Poli Sci..but if not for the DGM I worked for that one year.. when I had given up on life ..she gave me a compass. Go back to school and come back.. Randi Imari? from Macys..that came to Preston center..Thanks..
ReplyDeleteThe Sanger-Harris at Plymouth Park in Irving was the greatest. I walked by it every day going to and from Crockett Junior High. A very sad day when it closed. An even sadder day when it was torn down. Makes you wonder how much longer Plymouth Park Shopping Center will be around. I believe the first phase was built about 1956. As a little kid, I would sneak over to the shopping center on a Saturday morning to go to Playthings and M. E. Moses.
ReplyDeleteAAAHHH but you forgot about the one in Tucson AZ....
ReplyDeleteI also spent a lot of time at the Plymouth Park score with my mom (much to my chagrin). I lived just a few streets down, on the other side of Lively Elementary. When I was 4 or 5, I remember the store staff having to shut down the escalator (hit the emergency button) when I started getting pulled up the escalator while messing around.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Plymouth Park shopping center, one of my favorite memories was the Chateau theater there. The Plymouth Park center felt like a smalltown Texas town square. It was a pretty cool setup. It seems a lot different now when I roll through town.
Recently, I acquired a Fur coat that I know nothing about except what the 2 labels say...which are as
ReplyDeletefollows:
The collar - 'The Fur Salon
Sanger-Harris
Dallas'
The label on the inside of the left side of coat -
'ESTEVEZ
FURS'
And also, there is the name JOAN on the lining.
Could you give me some more information on this
Fur and what it's value might be?
Thank you so much, Kim
I today googled Sanger-Harris, dont know why but I did, guess I Was going down memory lane. I am in London now, but lived in Dallas many many years ago. I remember Sangers very well. Loved that store. What happened to stores these days? Sangers was my first credit card too! I remember being in high school and Sangers helped us students out by letting us come help them do inventory at Town East mall to help raise money. I miss those days. Well, shame times have changed but there you go. I recently went on a trip to Dallas and TOwn east itself is NOT the same, it lost it's class, same with Valley View! What happend dallas???? I bet I still have my Sangers card somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI am a building engineer in the old Preston Center location and would love to talk to someone about the history of the building.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful site! I remember as a child growing up in Dallas shopping downtown at the department stores: Sanger Bros., A. Harris, and Titche's. Beautiful stores, with luncheon counters, tea rooms, bargain basements. We 'dressed up' to go downtown and rode the city bus. Shopping was a special event, not an everyday activity.
ReplyDeleteGreat info and images here! Does anyone know who the architect of the archway storefronts was? Also, do you have an up-to-date list of how many of them remain standing? Thanks,
ReplyDeletechrisgreenla@gmail.com
I have two ceramic parrots made by Modglins of California. One has a price sticker from A. Harris and Company--$5.50. I didn't connect that with Sanger Harris until I saw this site. Such and interesting website.
ReplyDeleteI remember in mid to late 60s Sangers spent several months renovating an old Morris Store Bldg. In the Pleasant Grove Shopping Center on Buckner Blvd. It was only open a very short while. Any info? Thanks Al
ReplyDeleteI did a search from 1960-1969 of the Dallas Morning News and there wasn't any apparent reference to such a location.
ReplyDeleteBruce
My grandmother, Edna Merrill, worked at the Oak Cliff location behind the jewelry counter when it was A. Harris and then Sanger Harris. She is 103 now and sadly her health has deteriorated just in the last few weeks. I remember my grandfather and I going to pick her up in the evenings when she got off late. All my wedding crystal and china came from that store. It was sad when
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid in the early 70's, my dad worked for the Tyler paper. Nobody made a fortune working there, but they did have quite a few perks. One was that every year they would buy a family season pass to Six Flags and they had standing reservations at the Lamplighter Inn on I-30 near Big Town (don't think I'd want to stay there these days, but it was a nice place back then). We would get the passes one summer weekend every year and go to Dallas for vacation and school shopping at Town East and Big Town. One distinct memory I have of the Big Town Sanger Harris store was a track that ran around the top of a little in-store boutique(young ladies wear, I think). It contained a conveyor of some sort from which hung various garments that traveled around and around that section of the store. Mom and dad don't remember it, but as a little kid destined to be an electrical engineer I thought it was intriguing. Does anyone else remember this, or better yet have pictures that could be posted here? Cool info here, thanks for the memories!
ReplyDeleteI, too, grew up in Irving and Euless. I loved Plymouth Park and l loved going to Sanger Harris. The store was elegant. I remember a candy area that my sister and I headed to first everytime mom took us shopping. The salesladies knew my mother by name. How often does that happen now? As my sister and I grew older, we were trusted with mom's charge card. She had cards to many other stores, but only shopped at Sanger Harris. Time goes by and things change. Does anyone remember Cooper's Toyland, Chubby's Restaurant, or E. M. Kahn's?
ReplyDeleteI grew up in New Mexico and every summer I would fly to Dallas to stay with my God parents in Irving... My God mother and I would shop, shop, shop at the Plymouth Park store. We would come home loaded with bags and then have to model all of our beautiful buys for my God father.. Nothing more fun for a 5-10 year old girl!! I wish stores still had character like Sanger Harris did... Even today's Neiman's isn't the same... Theonly thing I find comparbale is Bendel's in NYC
ReplyDeleteI just took some pictures from the Valley View mall Mosaic and the artist signature is Brenda J, Stubel, I am trying to find who she was. Anyone has an idea? a known artist of the time?
ReplyDeleteI remember when Sanger-Harris opened it's two stores in Tulsa. They were very beautiful. The Woodland Hills Mall store is now a Macy's. It still has the arches at the entrance, but the mosaic has been covered over. The Southroads Mall store is now a supermarket, and the exterior has been completely remodeled.
ReplyDeleteI spent my childhood in Dallas until 1968 and fondly remember Sangers. I'm sorry I had no appreciation for such style until decades later. The Sanger Brothers (Phillip, Isaac, Lehman, and Samuel) knew how to run an operation with people in mind. Too bad that some current businesses don't run that way.
ReplyDeleteIf the Sanger Brothers lived in our time, they could teach some current people a thing or two.
I remember as a young girl shopping at the Oak Cliff Sanger Harris with my mom. If I'm not mistaken, as a little girl I took a modeling class that they offered to little girls and at the end of the session, got to model on a little runway.
ReplyDelete