M. Goldwater & Sons, Phoenix, Arizona

After operating in several smaller locations, Goldwaters
took space in the so-called Noble Building in 1910.

After getting an earlier start in Prescott, Arizona,
Goldwaters settled into the same building as
Phoenix' renowned Dorris-Heyman furniture co.

"The Best, Always"

M. Goldwater & Sons
31 North First Street
Phoenix, Arizona

CRestwood 7-5511

Downstairs
Gift Shop • Collector's Gallery • Degrazia Shop • Bedding • Closet Shop • Bath Shop • Draperies • Luggage • China • Gourmet Shop

Street Floor
Jewelry • Costume Jewelry • Indian Jewelry • Silver • Hosiery • Boudoir Slippers • Toiletries • Perfumes •
Fashion Accessories • Belts • Gloves • Handbags • Small Leather Goods • Scarfs • Hat Bar • Shoe Salon • Notions • Stationery • Games • Candy • Linens • Shop for Men

Mezzanine
Children's Shop • Young Phoenician Shop • Hi Shop • Children's Toys • Antoine Salon • American Salon • Offices

Second Floor
Lingerie • Robes • Silhouette Shop • Uniforms • Desert Fashion Shop • Desert Sport Shop • Better Dresses • Custom Salon • Casual Shop • Coat Shop • Suit Shop • Urban Shop • Miss Phoenix Shop • Young Perfectionist Shop • Young Arizona Shop • Gold Room • Millinery Salon • Fur Salon • Bridal Salon
(40,000 s.f.)

Street Floor
Jewelry • Costume Jewelry • Indian Jewelry • Silver • Hosiery • Boudoir Slippers • Toiletries • Perfumes • Fashion Accessories • Belts • Gloves • Handbags • Small Leather Goods • Scarfs • Hat Bar • Shoe Salon • Notions • Lingerie • Robes • Silhouette Shop • Stationery • Games • Candy • Gift Shop • Collector's Gallery • Degrazia Shop • Linens • Bedding • Closet Shop • Bath Shop • Draperies • Luggage • China • Home Furnishings • Gourmet Shop
11 Park Central Mall Men's World • New Directions

Second Floor
Misses' Sportswear • Misses' Dresses • Women's Dresses • Better Dresses • Casual Shop • Coats Plus • Urban Shop • Miss Phoenix Shop • Clubhouse Sportswear • Contempora Sportswear • Now Shop • Gold Circle • Designer Room • Young Perfectionist Shop • Young Arizona Shop • Millinery Salon • Fur Salon • Bridal Salon • Children's Shop • Young Phoenician Shop • Hi Shop • Children's Toys • Antoine Salon • American Salon • Offices

Prescott
Cortez and Union Streets
September 18, 1937
20,000 s.f.

Park Central

W. Osborn Rd. at N. 2nd Ave.

November 8, 1956

117,000 s.f.

Scottsdale
Fashion Square
Scottsdale Road at Camelback
October 9,1961
100,000 s.f.

Metrocenter
Black Canyon Fwy. at North Peoria Ave.
October 21, 1973
106,000 s.f.

Coronado Center
Albuquerque, NM
February 16, 1976
113,000 sq. ft.

El Con Center
Tucson
3595 E. Broadway
August 14, 1978

115,000 sq. ft.

Fiesta Mall

Mesa
Alma School Road at Southern

13 August 1979
115,000 sq. ft.

If the story of Goldwaters sounds like the script of a western movie, it well should, for the founders of the store were true pioneers who braved the rigors of the developing American west to not just found a department store, but a civic and political dynasty as well.  That they were Jewish immigrants from the hostile environment of Russian-dominated Poland, seeking fortune in the American west, subject to Indian attacks, outlaw massacres and the rigors of operating out of tents and adobe huts, makes the story remarkable indeed.

Michael Goldwasser was born in Konin, Poland in 1821, but left for Paris in 1837 to avoid conscription in the Russian Army.  He trained as a tailor in Paris, but left there in 1848, a year of upheaval across Europe.  In London, he was able to work as a tailor and met his wife Sarah Nathan. They were married in 1850.  Michael left with his younger brother Joseph (1833-1883) in 1852 for San Francisco via New York and the isthmus of Panama. Shortly thereafter, Sarah and their children joined them in America.

On arrival in San Francisco, Michael sought a business opportunity in operating a saloon below a house of ill repute in Sonora, California, an effort that ended in failure. In spite of a move to Los Angeles, and Sarah's continued work as a tailor, debts from the Sonora business forced the couple to declare bankruptcy.  Furthermore, it was clear that Sarah did not like the rough-and-tumble life they had led since their arrival in California.  Accordingly, the couple moved to San Francisco to settle into a permanent homestead for the Goldwater family.

Yet, Michael continued his adventures to the east.  Hearing of the gold strike in now-deserted La Paz, Arizona territory, in 1860 he packed wagons full of goods to sell to the newly-rich miners, first in Gila City, then in La Paz itself.  A store was established in Ehreberg, on the California border, a now-deserted location on the Colorado River that facilitated the shipment of merchandise by steamboat, and allowed Goldwater to engage in business supplying army posts in the Arizona Territory.

The Ehrenberg years were tumultuous to say the least, but the business grew in spite of hardships. With Dr. W.W. Jones, Michael Goldwater helped lay out the wagon road between Ehrenberg and Prescott, Arizona.  It was on this road that his brother Joe was seriously injured in an Indian ambush.  He wore the bullet that was retrieved from his body on a watch fob for many years. Robberies were common and Michael Goldwater was once held at gunpoint by bandits until he opened his safe for them.  Ehrenberg's days were numbered, though, by the time the Southern Pacific Railroad was completed, making river travel obsolete.

Goldwater focused on the young settlement of Phoenix, where he and his sons opened a store in 1872. When he did not find success there, a successor was opened to the north at Prescott in 1876.  Far from the adobe huts that served as Goldwaters' early stores, the Prescott location was considered the finest in the Arizona territory and supplied residents of the town with goods equal to anything they might find in San Francisco.  Michael Goldwater briefly served as mayor of Prescott, and was instrumental in the founding of a fire brigade after a blaze that damaged the Goldwater store.

Joseph Goldwater moved to Bisbee, Arizona in 1880, where the Goldwater & Castaneda store in that town was the site of the famous Bisbee Massacre in 1884. A gang led by John Heath robbed the store, which served as the de facto bank of the town, and killed 5 bystanders (including the sheriff and a pregnant woman) in the process. They were captured and sentenced to hang, but not before an outraged posse took Heath from the jail and lynched him.  The others were hanged by the law and are buried in the town's famous Boot Hill cemetery. 

At one time or another, there were Goldwaters stores in  La Paz, Ehrenberg, Prescott, Parker, Seymour, Lynx Creek, Phoenix, Bisbee, Fairbank, Contention, Tombstone, Benson and Critenden.  Many of these locations remain only in memory, as ghost towns.

By 1885, Michael Goldwater returned to San Francisco, where his wife had maintained the family home, uninterested in the Arizona business.  Well before his death in 1903, Michael left all aspects of the Goldwater enterprise in Arizona to his sons Morris (1852-1939), Baron (1866-1929), and later, Henry (1858-1931).  It was Morris that solidified the family's status as a political dynasty as well as a mercantile one.  In addition to serving as mayor in Prescott over a long term, he was instrumental in gaining statehood for Arizona in 1921.  His brother Baron wanted to remove the store to the larger and more promising town of Phoenix in 1896, against Morris' better  judgement.  As the story goes, a "game of casino" was won by Baron and that settled the matter on the spot.

The store duly opened in the same year, and outgrew its quarters by 1910, when Goldwaters took space in the newly-constructed Noble Building on First Street.  Here the store occupied two floors, a mezzanine, and a basement, of half of the building, the balance of which was occupied by the well-respected Dorris-Heymann furniture company.  In 1937, Goldwaters returned to Prescott (the older store had closed in 1926) with a modern new retail establishment in the center of town.

When Baron retired, his son Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) ran the store, but when he became an Arizona Senator in 1952, served as Goldwaters chairman of the board.  Barry's brother Robert assumed control of the business as president.

It was, though at the Phoenix location that Goldwaters offered Phoenicians "The Best Always" for many years, surviving two world wars and the depression.  Postwar prosperity came to Phoenix after the conflict, and the city grew and prospered far beyond its pioneer beginnings.  Branch development after the war began with a resort shop in the Arizona Biltmore hotel and a freestanding store in Scottsdale, that was so popular, it had to be enlarged by 1952.

Because ofthe city's outwardgrowth, downtown Phoenix suffered decline by the 1960s, and the construction of the Park Central shopping center so close to the center of the city hastened the fall of Phoenix' traditional retail core. Goldwaters store in Park Central opened toward the the end of 1956.  At 80,000 square feet in size, the Park Central store was twice the size of the downtown headquarters, and by the time it was almost doubled in size, the store, which displayed Barry Goldwater's prize collection of authentic Kachina Dolls, became the headquarters and the small, outmoded downtown store was shuttered by 1960.

Goldwaters later development included a large new branch in Scottsdale, and later in Mesa and Tucson, and as far away as Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1962, Goldwaters was purchased by Associated Dry Goods, and eventually the Goldwater name reached as far as Las Vegas.

As the department store industry faced decline and outside competition in the 1980s and 1990s, Associated Dry Goods was purchased by the May Company. Three years later, the Goldwaters name was retired in favor of the owner company's clumsy "Robinsons-May" brand and the saga of this great Arizona mercantile institution came to an end.