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Also known as The Grand-Leader,
SBF's building covered the whole block
between Sixth, Seventh,
Washington Avenue and Lucas Street.
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After World War II, SBF added a ninth floor to the
older building along Sixth Street. |
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This view along Washington Avenue shows
both the newer, 1919 building and the older, 1906 part with the ninth floor added. |
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SBF's sixth floor was home to the highly-regarded
Missouri Room restaurant. |
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In 1965, Stix, Baer & Fuller built a parking garage on the corner
of Seventh Street and Washington Avenue, diagonally across from the store and connected by a pedestrian bridge. |
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The Grand-Leader since 1892
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601 Washington Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri
CEntral 1-9440
Basement
Parkway Shops • Basement Photo Studio
First Floor
Precious Jewelry • Fashion Jewelry • Watch Bar • Silver • 601 Shops • Handbags • Small Leather Goods • Belts • Gloves • Accessory Bars • Hosiery • Scarves • Headwear • DeMura Millinery • Umbrellas • Cosmetics • Avenue Blouses • Avenue Sweaters • Avenue Sportswear • Avenue Lingerie • Avenue Shoes • Stationery • Cameras • Coins and Stamps • Candy • Gourmet Shop • SBF Bakery • Calico Corner Lunch Counter
Store for Men Smoke Shop • Men's Furnishings • Men's Sportswear • Men's Shoes
Mezzanine
General Repair Center • Employment Office • Customer Lounge • Gift Wrap
Second Floor
Linens • Bath Shop • Fashion Fabrics • Necchi Sewing Circle • Art Needlework • Bridal Salon • Daytime Dresses • Girdles and Bras • Lingerie • Daywear • Sleepwear • Loungewear • Trendsetter Lingerie • Maternity Shop • Uniforms • Trim 'n Tie Shop (seasonal) • Shoe Salon • Etienne Aigner Boutique • The Shop for Pappagallo • The Other Place
Third Floor
Modernette Dresses • Modernette Coats • Modernette Suits • Modernette Hats • Blouse Bar • Women's World • Casual Dresses • Uniforms • Dress Salon • Knit Shop • Coat Salon • Leather Shop • Four Seasons Shop • Sport Shop • Swim Shop • Contempora • Individualist Dress Shop • Sports Individualist • Mis SBF Shop • Miss SBF Sport • Signature Dresses • Signature Sportswear • Lion Country • Evan Picone Shop • Status Jeans • The Ms. Shop • Designers' Salon • Fur Salon • French Room Millinery • Wig Salon
Young Flair Junior Sportswear • Junior Dresses • Junior Coats • Junior Shoes • Junior Lingerie • The Place for Young juniors
Fourth Floor
Credit Office • Cash Office
Store for Men Men's Casual Wear • New Breed Shop • Contemporary Man • Men's Clothing • Marbrooke Shop • Men's Tailored Separates • Men's Outerwear • Men's Rainwear • Luggage
Young St. Louisan Shops Infants' Wear • Infant Furniture • Toddlers' Wear • Little Boys' Wear • Boys' Wear • Boys' Furnishings • Campus Shop • Girls' Accessories • Little Girls' Wear • Girls' Wear • Stixteen Shop • Girls' Accessories • Children's Shoes • Young Adults' Shoes
Fifth Floor
Housewares • Small Appliances • The Cookin' Place • The Gourmet Shop • Major Appliances • Floor Care Center • Conservation Center • Paint Center • Kitchen, Bathroom Remodeling • Garden Shop • China • Glassware • Waterford Galleries • Bride's Registry • Pictures • Mirrors • Toy World • Cheshire Studio (portraits)
Draperies • Drapery Fabrics • Carpeting • Gift Shop • Lamps • Music Salon • Records • Books • Sporting Goods • Health Aids • SBF Optical
Missouri Room • Busy Bee Cafeteria
Seventh Floor
Furniture • Furniture Accessories • Sleep Shop • Williamsburg Craft House • Williamsburg Tavern • Santa's Country Cottage (seasonal)
Eighth Floor
Stock Rooms
Ninth Floor
Beauty Salon • Founders' Hall • Executive Offices
(700,000 s.f.)
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Westroads
Clayton Rd. and Brentwood Blvd.
Richmond Heights
August 20, 1955
250,000 s.f.
The Garden Room
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River Roads
Halls Ferry Rd. & Jennings Station Rd.
Jennings
August 7, 1961
280,000 s.f.
The Pavilion
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Crestwood
Hwy. 66 & Sappington Rd.
January 23, 1967
240,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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Ward Parkway
Ward Pkwy & W. 88th St.,
Kansas City
February 5, 1973
202,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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Jamestown (1973)
Old Jamestown Rd. & Lindbergh Rd,.
Florissant
223,000 s.f.
February 4, 1974
The Garden Room
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Independence
Independence, Missouri
September 25, 1974
175,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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Oak Park Mall
Overland Park, Kansas
February 19, 1976
205,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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Chesterfield Mall
Hwy. 40 & Clarkston Rd.
September 3 1976
198,000 s.f.
The Garden Room
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Northwest Plaza
Lindbergh Blvd. & St. Charles Rock Rd.,
St. Ann
March 20, 1978
218,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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St. Clair Square
Lincoln Highway & N. Illinois St.
Fairview Heights, Illinois
April 23, 1979
173,000 sq. ft.
The Garden Room
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For all of its life, Stix, Baer & Fuller proudly carried the names of its founders Charles A Stix (1859-1916), Julius A. Baer (1860-1940), Sigmund P. Baer (1862-1929), and Aaron Fuller (1858-1936); in fact, the "Founders' Hall" on the store's ninth floor, added in 1946, was named in honor of these four men. The store remained a family operation until its purchase in 1962 by Associated Dry Goods Co.
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| The Founders of Stix, Baer & Fuller |
The two Baer brothers came to the United States from the town of Ihringen in the province of Baden, Germany, First came Julius in 1878, having borrowed the money to cross the Atlantic. He settled in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he took a job with a local dry goods merchant. Seeing the opportunity to go into business for himself, he repaid the money he borrowed to come to America and sent for his brother Sigmund, who arrived in 1879, The two opened the Baer Bros. store in little Magazine, Arkansas, and in 1885 went on to open the Boston Store in Fort Smith. They took on their sister Frieda's husband, Aaron Fuller, also a native of Baden, as a partner. Fuller had been employed by the large Boston Store (no relation to the eponymous Fort Smith store) in Chicago.
With their Fort Smith store established and making money, the partners considered expansion to either Texas or Tennessee, but Julius Baer made a visit to St. Louis, where a friend suggested they do business in the Gateway City. As a result of this visit, he met Charles A. Stix, a Cincinnati native who had relocated in St. Louis. The Bear Brothers and Fuller left the Boston Store in the hands of their employee Rudolf Ney, relocated to St. Louis, and, with Stix, founded the Grand-Leader - Stix, Baer & Fuller Dry Goods Co., which opened on September 1, 1892.
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| The first Grand-Leader of 1892 |
The Grand-Leader was located in the so-called Broadway Trades Palace, at 815-821 Broadway near Morgan Street. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the partners, at the time, were concerned that the quarters they had leased were too large for any business that they could imagine, but five years later, they were forced to find larger quarters for the Grand-Leader in a renovated warehouse on the northwest corner of Broadway and Washington Avenue that featured 6 elevators, electric lighting and a "French Room" for the display of the store's considerable stock of millinery. The prosperous business was incorporated in 1897 as well.
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| The adapted warehouse that housed the store from 1897-1906 |
St. Louis experienced a great economic boom as the result of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in Forest Park in 1904. Stix, Baer & Fuller bought the land under the aging Lindell Hotel, demolished it, and hired architects Mauran, Russell and Garden to design a new, eight-story store building of 500,000 square feet. In preparation for the building, the owners and architects conducted an exhaustive study of the most admired retail buildings in the United States, in particular that of Marshall Field & Company in Chicago, the work of architect Daniel Burrnham.
When the new Store, on Sixth Street between Washington Avenue and Lucas Street, opened on September 8, 1906, it was a revelation. Whereas the Marshall Field & Company store, so admired by the architects and clients,was a cool and restrained limestone palace, the Stix, Baer & Fuller store was a riot of color. The building's brown brick plasters rose uninterrupted to a deep and elaborate terra-cotta cornice, above a base of green marble trimmed in cast bronze. Red Brick spandrel panels served as infill above and below the windows, and further bronze ornament and terra cotta detail complimented the rich and multichromatic composition.
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| The $1 million home built for SBF in 1906 |
The interior of the $1,000,000.00, custom built store furthered the progressive and modern image, especially on the light and airy, twenty-one foot high main floor, with its uninterrupted vistas and elaborate central circular soda fountain, topped with a bronze statue of "plenty" surrounded by cupids and dolphins spouting water into a central pool. One hundred patrons could be accommodated at the soda fountain's counters.
By 1919, Stix, Baer & Fuller had outgrown even this colossus of a store. After occupying, bit-by-bit, adjacent properties on the same block, store management hired the same architects to add an eleven-story building, identical to the original 1906 building in detail, that would extend the Grand Leader over the whole block bounded by Washington Avenue, Sixth Street, Lucas Street, and Seventh Street. It was hoped to increase the height of the 1906 building to eleven stories as well, but due to structural issues, it was not possible to do so. After the expanded store opened in 1920, SBF took on the form it would have for the rest of its life.
After two world wars and a depression, Stix embraced the prosperity of the postwar era by adding escalators, a modern 9th floor (over the 1906 portion of the building), and expanding the lucas street parking garage it built in 1940 to 4 floors. Later, in the 1960s, an additional parking garage was built for the convenience of patrons was built on the northwest corner of Lucas and Seventh streets, with a diagonal bridge leading into the store's third floor. Around this time, the street floor was remodeled as well, incorporating "air curtain" doors into the store's elegant confines.
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| Detail of air curtain door on Washington Avenue |
After the death of the founders, management was contimued by Julius Baer's son Arthur B. Bear (1895-1970), and after his death by son J. Arthur Baer (1922-1993), who went by the nickname "Cubby." A somewhat unwelcome offer by discounter E. J. Korvette to purchase the assets of Stix, Baer & Fuller led to the sale of the store to Associated Dry Goods in 1962. The new ownership agreement allowed J. Arthur Baer to remain at the helm. and provided funds for the store's further expansion into the suburbs, and to Kansas city beginning in 1973. Later, ADG merged Springfield, Illinois' John Bressmer Co.'s 2 stores into the Stix operation.
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| SBF's leaders in the postwar era |
While the 1970s were times of great prosperity for SBF, deteriorating economic conditions and competition from discounters brought losses for the store, and Associated Dry Goods as well. In an attempt to shed losing divisions, ADG sold Stix to Dillards in 1984. The new owners downsized the great downtown store to three floors when the innovative St. Louis Center Mall was opened, but the ultimate failure of downtown shopping in the Gateway City led to the closure of the store once known as the Grand-Leader. Today, the building has been converted into residential condominiums called The Laurel.
Stix was an excellent store and a great counterpart to Famous Barr. They were eventually taken over by Dillard's; the Westroad store was demolished in '85 to make way for the Galleria.
ReplyDeleteThe Westroads store was not demolished. Dillard’s encased it in a new façade and expanded it as part of The Galleria.
DeleteI remember when a dog belonging to the Stix family was picked up by a Famous Barr delivery driver. The the next day thanked the driver but said "I'm happiest back under my own tree" (The Stix symbol)
ReplyDeleteAn SBF employee, downtown,(assistant buyer, men's furnishings)then Crestwood Plaza (area manager)Crestwood opened about 1966-67, and at that time DT store men's clothing, sportswear were located 4th floor as was the tea room, 7th floor was furniture & Williamsburg Tavern, 8th floor was stockroom, 11th floor employees cafeteria and lounge. Cubby Baer's office was high up, and he used to hold afternoon conference-brainstorming sessions with younger employees there. Escallators went up only to 7th floor, elevators rest of the way up. Coffee shop on the first floor. SBF was the best St Louis had to offer!
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, Stix was to "rebuild" their downtown store (gut? demolish? remodel?) their store for the 1980s opening of St. Louis Centre as a full flagship still (six levels of selling space, new offices above) but it fell through and it opened as a three-level Dillard's instead.
ReplyDeleteYes, in preparation for the St. Louis Centre Mall, SBF proposed a full scale remodel of their downtown store. As noted this would have maintained the downtown Stix as a full line flagship store.
DeleteThis plan was predicated on Associated Dry Goods (the parent co) and Stix receiving a number of tax breaks, and low interest loans.
The govt. of St. Louis balked at this, as it was felt enough incentives were already given for the mall itself. After the requests were declined, ADG sold the building and leased back 3 floors for a much more spartan, and smaller downtown Stix store. In 1984 Dillard's bought the Stix chain from ADG, and operated the small downtown store for a time, before downgrading it to a clearance
store and finally closing it for good in 2000.
St. Louis Centre opened strong, but it failed, and it now closed.
Ken
PS I worked for the ADG chain Hahne & Co., during this time, which is why I know all this. The 1983 ADG Annual Report has a synopsis of this as well.
I have several "pieces" of the RiverRoads Stix - somehow, a lot of things were left in there for years after it, and the mall, were closed and boarded up. I was inside there several times at length between 2003 and early 2007 just before demolition began. It was like walking into an eerie time capsule, shut off to the world for decades. Even much of the Pavilion Restaurant was intact, almost like a Twilight Zone.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see these items. What are they? LENO at retailofyesteryear.blogspot.com you can look there under my donate page (you do not have to donate these items its just the easist way to get a picture to me)
DeleteWe are living in a Twilight Zone, I fear.
ReplyDeleteThe Jamestown branch was the first real department store for me. My first visit there was in 1975 when I was 10. Four floors AND escalators!!! I miss the TV ads with the "rotating" SBF logo and flourish. Famous-Barr's ads didn't seem to have that same panache. Stix also had a location in suburban Kansas City at Independence Center with a GLASS ELEVATOR!!!! They acquired Bressmer's of Springfield, Illinois around 1980 with 2 locations: 613 E. Adams St. and White Oaks Mall.
ReplyDeleteThe first retail job I had was at Stix in River Roads in 1975. I was 19 and in college. I worked in the Avenue Shoes Department on the first floor for a gentleman named Robert Wright. He was a great inspiration for me, and always seemed to find "extra hours" for me to work as he knew my family situation(my father was dying from colon cancer). I am still in retail today, largely because of what I learned from Bob, especially on how to treat people with respect. (37 year veteran of the retail trade)
ReplyDeleteRecently acquired a beautiful set of Haviland French Limoge marked Stix Baer and Fuller. Regretfully there is no pattern marked. It is a dainty rose pattern on the edge connected with a small gold line bordered in black and has gold trimmed edges. There are six place settings and many serving pieces. I hope to find the name of this pattern and perhaps a couple more place settings. Vague I know, but I have searched in vain online at many sites. Maybe a former customer will recognize my description. Thanx.
ReplyDeleteI worked my way through college in the Stix Baer and Fuller tearoom at Westroads in Clayton. I started as a senior in high school in 1969. I have many happy memories there of good people and good food.
ReplyDeleteJill Frasure Henderson
We recently acquired a ladies medium size "mink" fur coat, with the label Stix, Baer and Fuller. It is in excellent shape and was wondering if there could be a value on it? Anyone have any ideas where we could search further? Thanks. will keep checking here for any answers. Nov '12
ReplyDeleteI think the Stix Westroads store is still standing. It was part of the small Westroads mall. The store has been greatly enlarged as a Dillards store as part of the also much-enlarged and renamed Galleria mall. In the original portion of the former Stix store, you can tell it is an older building although it's obviously been updated. For example, note the very narrow escalator going to the basement, which houses the childrens department. Escalators would not be built so narrow these days. I was just at the store shopping a few days ago.
ReplyDeletei work in the 8th foor bakery as a 18 year kid i remember i ate all the donuts i wanted
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother worked in the customer service department dealing with customer complaints for many years in the 1950s-60s. I remember going in the elevator with my grandfather to pick her up in her office. We always then went to the Orient Restaurant several blocks away (where they ate chow mien and I always had a turkey sandwich and chocolate milk — hey, I was only 5 or 6) Then we would go to to the movie...the movie houses werecso grand back then. I also remember going downtown at Christmas to see all the department stores ...Stix, Bear & Fuller, Scruggs Vandervoort & Barney and Famous Barr... all decked out for Christmas. I would always have my picture made with Santa at Stix.
ReplyDeleteHappy memories of going to Stix shopping downtown St. Louis. The stores were so special, nothing like clone stores today with no personality. As a kid, i remember them as gigantic and was always afraid I'd get lost. We would always shop there and Famous-Barr and think they were the most special, cool places on earth. If only we could go back.......
ReplyDeleteI began my professional career as a radio dispatcher with security in the downtown store in 1978. The security dispatch office was in the northwest corner of the first floor at the employee entrance. The security director was Craig Clark and the security manager of the downtown store at that time was Don Allen and then Jerry McDaniels. I was elevated to floor detective at the newly opened store in south county and was promoted to manager of security at Stix Westroads. Art Sherman was the store manager and my best friend Dan Reed was the mens sportswear manager. In between I worked the floor at Riveroads and Northwest Plaza. I have tremendously fond memories of Stix. It was a great place to work and my favorite assignment was the Westroads location due to the fact that I worked there the longest, met and became friends with some wonderful people, and I had actually grown up just west of there on Thorndell drive off of McKight Road in Richmond Heights. I was fortunate to know many fine people who worked for the company.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a SBF, Inc. sewing machine at a yard sale in St. Charles, MO. I'm looking for anyone who can tell me who the actual manufacturer was so I can find a manual.
ReplyDeletei also have a full length sbf mink and leather coat. have you found any info on yours
ReplyDeleteGreat memories of going to Stix at Westroads with my grandmother in the 70's. I remember big glass doors with the Stix logo on the big metal handles and a candy counter. In the 1980's I worked at Dillard's for a few years in the downtown location after St. Louis Centre opened.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember a nursery or daycare situation where mothers could drop off their children while they shopped? There was a boatlike plaything that we could get onto. It was either Stix or Famous but I think it was here.
ReplyDeleteAnna Annie Deal Brehm on facebook.
DeleteI loved the blue tiled fountain and garden in the atrium of the Stix at Westroads store. Felt very tropical in the midwestern winter.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the frozen fruit cocktail that was served with a chicken salad sandwich.
ReplyDeleteemail me if you do travel85@att.net
Thanks
My favorite!
DeleteDoes anyone remember the first African American to work the sales floor at Stix - Westroads? Well that was my mother.
ReplyDeleteI worked in the hair salon at Stix in Crestwood from 1967-1969. I was 18 and I met my wife there who was also 18. We married in 1970 and have been married 43 years. We were recently in St. Louis so we drove by the Crestwood Store. So sad to see the store sitting empty alone with the test of the mall. Hard to believe that once a thriving retail center closed. Alot of happy memories from there!
ReplyDeleteThe Westroads Stix, Baer & Fuller (now Dillard's) was/is in Richmond Heights, just South of Clayton city Limits. I stay away from any Richmond Heights Businesses as the City of Richmond Heights is so corrupt. It took 27 years to get bad sidewalks replaced when I lived in Richmond Heights up until last year.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad worked at Stix as display director 1962 to 1984 then as an event coordinator till he passed away in 1993. I have many memories going to work with him, watching the parades from his office window, and attending their Christmas parties. My parents loved getting the discount and only shopped at Stix's! I am and always will be part of the Stix family.
ReplyDeleteI worked in display at Stix starting around 1982. What was your dad’s name? Was it Ray?
DeleteI had the opportunity to work at Stix, Baer & Fuller in the late 60's & 70's.
ReplyDeleteMy first job was on the main floor in Avenue Sportswear & Ladies Blouses @ the Crestwood store.
After 2 years, I was sent to work in the Downtown Stix and worked as Head of Stock. After one year, I was sent back to Stix Crestwood, as Area Manager and supervised the ladies who taught me how to use the cash register.
It was one of the most exciting times in fashion. Pantsuits for women were introduced & we were then allowed to were pantsuits (with heels) to work! Shopper service was first class.
I also worked in Avenue Blouses--became the head of stock there as well back in 72? I started in college one summer working the stock room checking millinery and wigs and then was moved to the basement--Avenue Lingerie. After I was married I was moved up to Avenue Blouses. Small world! My dad worked in the Display Dept. for 44 years.
DeleteI remember going downtown during the Christmas season and how magical everything was. From the festive lights to the beautiful displays in the Stix, Baer & Fuller and Famous Barr windows. My grandparents brought us downtown each year to look at the displays, to sit on Santa's lap and to pick out our Christmas outfit. Such a special time. I was just telling my husband how much I miss the downtown of old.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother took me to Stix Westroads all the time in the 60's. Does anybody remember the gingerbread men they sold there?
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother worked on 2nd floor - Dolls in 1930s! She would talk about taking her break in the elaborate women's room which had large couches she could take a quick nap during lunch!
ReplyDeleteMy Dad worked for SBF for 36 years, and retired as V.P. of Operations and Services in 1977. Over the years he worked at Stix, he was a floor superintendent, an operations manager and worked his way up through the ranks to become a Vice President. People remember him as a kind, thoughtful, approachable employee and all around nice guy. In April 1978, sadly, my Dad passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). If anyone remembers Harvey Wallerstein, that was my Dad!
ReplyDeleteI worked there in 76. I worked due to a work program called DECA and I pushed a trash cart around emptying trash cans. I met a black woman who's job it was to wrap pieces to get mailed and she did it so perfectly.She always told be I had a bright future and it wasn't gonna be in emptying trash cans. I complained to school and they me a job at Sears in the data entry department. I was really happy to have met that lady
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember having babysitting available at either Stix or Famous in downtown STL a very long time ago? Someone just brought it up in a conversation, and I do not remember-please respond.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone remeber the small gardenand fountain in the atrium area in the first floor of the Westroads location? Reminded me of a mini botanical garden. Lovely during those St. louis winters.
ReplyDeleteMy first impression of Stix was the new store built in Kansas City, MO. at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center as an anchor store. Beautiful, tall arched columns graced the majority of the outside facades. Inside, the escalators surrounded a 3-story orange & yellow glass(?) modern chandelier. The interior changed after the store was bought out by Dillards. Dillards kept it as a first run department store until the mid-2000's when Dillards made this particular store the city's Clearance center for itself. In 2013 after Dillards closed this location, and moved its clearance center to another location, this building was demolished 100%. There is absolutely no hint that Stix, Baer, & Fuller was ever in Kansas City. We were all sad to see this beautiful, and still useful, building razed. Makes no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteI treasure a small glass candy dish with a figural brass lid purchased in 1940 by my mother-in-law. She worked at S,B and F as a clerk for 25 cents an hour. She was 16.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember or know about Helen "Browne" Browndyke who was an executive in the Training Department in 1942? I believe she graduated from University of Missouri in 1930 with a degree in personnel management and eventually married a Schluter.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Optical Department, 6th floor downtown.
ReplyDeleteI started working at Westroads in 1975 after 2 years of college. I ended up going Downtown as an Assistant Buyer in Sleepwear. The Stockroom had windows overlooking 7th and Washington. Someone had put an old couch so you could sit and look out and watch while taking a break or eating your lunch. I watched as they started to build the Mercantile Bank Tower. I ended up working at a Sales Manager at White Oaks in Springfield IL after Stix took over Bressmer's. Then I went to Jamestown where I managed China, Silver, Gifts, Candy, Stationary, Trim-a-Tree and Children's on the main floor. I left and went back to college and got my Accounting degree and ended up working for Mercantile Bank Downtown in Audit then Corporate Trust. My office at the Bank over looked what was Stix and was now Dillards and I use to look down right at the window I use to sit and eat my lunch watching the very building I was working in being built .... I left St Louis in 1995, but I have such memories.
ReplyDeleteMy great-grandmother worked at SBF from 1918-1922 in lampshades while living at that time in St. Louis.
ReplyDeleteMy mother worked @ the downtown Stix, in the bakery department (1955-65). I remember well, the gingerbread men & the brownies. Every Saturday, after my free haircut @ Moler's barber school, I would visit her at work & get free sweet treats. Stix & Famous would compete for best window displays. It gave me something to look at, while I was freezing my butt off, waiting for a bus. I miss old downtown.
ReplyDeleteThis is very, very sad. I was there many times in my early youth, from 1964-1977. There used to be a display of Halloween art by local grade school students that fascinated me. My piano teacher had recitals in the basement auditorium. The model train selection in the basement of Woolworths was fascinating. The proportions of the exterior of the building were very pleasantly designed to my taste, and the designer architectural tiles in turquoise, white, and cobalt were something you will never see again in commercial architecture. The Stix toy store was incredible. There was a monorail train and a ferris wheel. Huge picture windows all around. Huge model boats, airplanes, and colorful medieval knights. We ate many times at the Heritage House cafeteria. My family took pictures of everything, but never the interior (we thought it would last forever) so my memory of the exact layout is fading. Now all of that past reality is destroyed, blasted, and gone---a floating world. I visited India recently. People live in a crack in the wall, but at least there is economic activity everywhere, which is more than I can say for North St. Louis, my old home.
ReplyDeleteI worked part-time in the late 1950's during the summers at Stix--we unloaded boxes of stock on the seventh [?] floor. An older woman employee named Becky accused me of throwing a mouton coat down the trash bin but I was always careful to check the boxes all the way to the bottom. A young fellow named Dennis and me had to deliver furs to the Third Floor and somehow he got in the truck with the furs which then had to be sealed with a numbered metal seal and confirmed upon delivery. As I pulled the closed cage truck he made marvelous bird sounds as if we were in South America--people looked around and I acted as I didn't now where it came from. We weren't reported so I guess no harm was done. Richard Murian
ReplyDeleteI have some napkin rings with Stix Baer and Fuller price tags on them. Never been used. Unique.
ReplyDeleteI have one of my Mother's hat boxes from SBF. It is white with blue butterflies. We always got dressed up to go "Downtown" to shop. We planned what day we would go and what we would wear, we always got dressed up and wore white gloves. Such great memories also of going Downtown to spend hours looking at the elaborate Christmas window displays.
DeleteMy mother had that hat box!!! I have the same memories, white gloves and all. I was there as a 6 or 7 year old, 1960 or '61
DeleteHi! I have a photo showing my grandmother and 2 other girls working in the Tube Room at SBF. Does this refer to the use of pneumatic tubes for messaging?? Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe tubes were used for messaging, but initially, and more importantly, before the days of cash registers, the tubes were used to send customers' money to the cash room, where change was made and returned to the sales station with the customer's receipt. The development of the pneumatic tube came as child-labor laws forbid department stores to hire teenage boys to run the cash back-and-forth to the cash room. It's interesting history and your grandmother was a part of it!
ReplyDelete- Bruce
They HAD to demolish the Ward Parkway Center location because the store and parking garage had severe and unfixable structural damage. Dillard's chose to not return to the mall afterwards despite the property having since gone a successful conversion into a hybrid strip/indoor mall.
ReplyDeleteReally??
DeleteI have wonderful and fond memories of Stix Westroads. The main dining room, on the north west corner of the second floor, had very high ceilings. During lunch beautiful models would present the latest fashions on several elevated platforms surrounding several large columns throughout dining room. I too vaguely remember a riverboat shaped "jungle gym" I think on the second floor east side near childrens clothing, and toy department. A second "fountain" type restaurant, smaller and open when the other was closed between lunch and dinner was located on the second floor in the south west corner. The book shop and religious items, rosaries, communion dresses, veils was located nearby the fountain. I darn near grew up in that store, I am 53
ReplyDeleteI modeled in that tearoom when I was about 10 years old--had to model a swimsuit, I nearly died! It was a beautiful restaurant, that's when shopping was a treat. This was back in the early 60's
DeleteAloha I have several original stix baer and fuller oils in frames I can not find artists signitures but they have the buyers name and address on the back can any ne help me out they are out door scenes of mountains trees and rivers and waterfalls. absolutely gorgeous. Rev. Joed
ReplyDeletePossibly Ted Blalock
DeleteI remember River Roads Mall at Stix, Baer & Fuller, after that in 1984 it was Dillard's
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this wonderful site! I lived in Crestwood from 1956-1960; went to Watson Elementary School and Lindbergh Junior High. I thought the Stix store downtown was the most fabulous thing I'd ever seen. Loved going there, especially at Christmas. Sigh...what a trip down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! I am working on updating the Stix, Baer & Fuller site with better pictures, a more accurate directory and a brief history essay.
ReplyDelete-Bruce
I worked at Stix for 12 years till the Dillards take over. I was asst Cosmetic Buyer then a full time Buyer. Does any one remember the lunch area in the early days that was for men only???
ReplyDeleteYes! Every December my mother would take us out of school to go downtown to Stix to see Santa and go Christmas shopping. We would have lunch in the tearoom--somehow I remember light colored chairs filled with chattering women--but there was another section, all red and dark wood to the rear. Men in suits would file past our table on the way to that area, to be seated.
DeleteI just picked up two large wooded frames ( White/ cream in color) with the Stix Baer& fuller marking with full black backing. I was going to finish the frames they are so pretty. The pictures in are of Ruth in the bible and other of samarian woman woman at the well. Does any one know where I can find info before I take them apart.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the location(street name) of the Stix family home, and is it still standing? I believe a relative of mine worked for them as a maid?
ReplyDeleteThere were a number of families with the name "Stix" in St. Louis. (Some, maybe most, were not direct kin of Charles A. Stix, of SBF.)
DeleteOne family's home (Ernest W. Stix, Sr., m. Erma Kingsbacher) later became (and is today) Stix International House of Washington University in St. Louis. That house is 6470 Forsyth, Clayton, on the edge of the "Hilltop" campus of WUSTL. It is in a row of houses (mansions) that include: the Chancellor's official residence; the Whittemore House (faculty club); Stix International House; and the house that became the school of music.
My mother, Velva, worked in the bakery from 1958-65. It was on the 8th floor. I had to take customer elevator to 7th floor, then a service elevator to 8th. I remember the brownies & the gingerbread men. I also remember the Christmas programs held in the auditorium(?). Free of charge. The Stix & Famous-Barr window displays were awesome. ..something to watch while waiting for a bus in freezing weather.
ReplyDeleteI think i have one of the dining room table, and yes
ReplyDeleteMy dad worked in the Display Dept. for 44 years--ending up as one of the executives before he "retired" when Dillard's took over. He started dressing windows and I remember his desk being behind the corner window so that at Christmas time we could watch the big, moving Santa from behind. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteI remember taking marketing classes in Davis-Shaughnessy Hall in the School of Business at Saint Louis University. One of classrooms had a plaque on the wall thanking Stix, Baer & Fuller for helping pay for renovations to the building. As I was in school after Stix sold out to Dillards, it seemed like one of those neat "frozen in time" things St. Louis has become famous for.
ReplyDeleteThe Baer family donated the money to the Boy Scouts to buy the property for the S - F Scout Ranch near Farmington, MO. Pronounced "S bar F" in homage to the initials of the department store SBF. My Scout troop took an annual week long camping trip there every summer. Later, one of my first jobs was working at the Chesterfield store part time in The New Breed shop for young men. Then went on to manage men's furnishings at Chesterfield, then Area Sales manager for women's accessories, costume jewelry, hosery, and handbags at South County and eventually the flagship store at Westroads. I was there during the transition to Dillard's ownership in 1984, which really did breath new life in to the struggling chain, and I stayed about two years after that. I'm glad I got to be a part of St Louis history for those five years. SBF was a really cool store, even at the bitter end.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if William (Bill) Shamski was an executive during the 1950's?
ReplyDeleteYes. An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch lists him as VP in 1950; appointed Executive VP of service and operations in 1966, retired in 1973. Mr Shamski passed away in 1985
ReplyDeleteMy father built many of these stores. He was an Industrial Engineer...worked for Stix until 1970 and went to federated for Sanger Harris. I still have film footage of River Roads being built, as well as newspaper clippings. Am proud of his work. Robert Oberlin passes away 2 years ago. He was 92.
ReplyDeleteMy father, an industrial engineer, built many of the SBF stores. I have 8mm film of ground breaking at River Roads. As well, a few news articles with such stories as the renovation of a restaurant (tea room), etc. with his name. In 1968, he left SBF and went to work for Federated Stores, first in Dallas(Sanger Harris) and then NY (Abraham/Strauss). My dad, Robert Oberlin, passed away a couple of years ago at 92. I would like to share/exchange any photos, articles, etc. that you might have, as well. please note....I tried to "publish" an earlier comment but not sure it went through, so my apologies if this is redundant. Thanks, Lin Oberlin Hetherington
ReplyDeleteHello, Lynn! I love your father's story!. I just returned from vacation overseas, but contracted Rotavirus and am ill. So it has taken a while to sort theough my emails. Please email me at bakgraphics@comcast. net, and I will be happy to share anything I have with you.
Delete- Bruce
I wish someone would post the SBF jingle on YouTube!
ReplyDeleteIs there a monetary value of a framed blue stix baer and fuller blue shopping bag?
ReplyDeleteI can remember a few words to that jigle, a soft womans voice........."Shopping is? and (rhyme........at stix baer and fuller...Westroads advertised heavy back in the day. Try radio archives KMOX(v) AM and FM. I recall westroads removing the fuller name from storefront before final sale of store. Anyone else. Is anyone writing a book about this iconic store, would consider sharing memories...
ReplyDeleteRe:Keith Hyman post SBF jingle. I am not making a YouTube video but here is the jingle I remember. "Look for the latest, the most up to date is at Stix, Baer & Fuller. Stix, Baer & Fuller's the store - It's alive and exciting, up to the minute - That's Stix, and everything in it". Hope this helps you out.
ReplyDeleteHello I have located some napkin rings with the tags still inside them. They are from SBF. They seem to be silver with gold and the pattern is a clover on three of them, the other on has a type of circle on it. I wonder if these are of any value.
ReplyDeleteAre there any photographs of the monorail train that was in the toy department at Stix Baer and Fuller in the 1960s?
ReplyDeleteI have a old Japanese painting that has styx bayer and fuller art galleries on the back and a number, where can I find out about it
ReplyDeleteMy memory of Stix is my mother would tell me when I was a kid that it was called Stix, Baer & Emptier at Christmas! LOL
ReplyDeleteI have a custom made hat
ReplyDeleteDid anyone work there in 1972?
ReplyDeleteSome of my fondest memories of living in East St Louis was taking the bus into St Louis to have lunch at the Forum (Is that still there?), go to Stix, Bayer, and Fuller, or maybe see a moxie at the Fox Theater.
ReplyDeleteI have a big hat box from Stix with several hats inside. It was my mother’s and I always thought the hat box was interesting and so indicative of a long ago era.
ReplyDeleteMy first job was at Stix Baer & Fuller downtown a week after I graduated in June 1974. I worked on the 10th floor in the Benefits department for 6 1/2 years. So many memories!
ReplyDeleteI am fascinated by the four-floor SBF mall stores that were built in the mid 70's. One at Jamestown and one at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas. Several other three-story SBF mall stores went up in a similar time, but these were impressive. Anyone have any stories or rationale why this was done? The sq ft. seems to be about the same as the other stores.
ReplyDeleteThis in response to anonymous ,2013; you must be Ray Pape’s son, a very talented display Director. He was a great guy along with Sammy, John Moore, Doug and I can’t remember the rest. I was in special events from 1978 - 1987, just a wonderful time with a great group of people. Stix had beautiful merchandise and Famous Barr was where you went to buy an alarm clock.
ReplyDeleteI just purchased a dresser and matching chest of drawers and trying to get the history on them and the year they were produced, really curious as to how old they are!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a Beautician (I think that was the preferred title back then, rather than "Hair Dresser" label of today) in the Beauty Salon at Stix at Jamestown. It was a very classy store. My mom matched the image of the store perfectly. She would care for her clients in a very nice "salon". She would take her lunch each day in the restaurant there (we can't remember the name of it, but it was very nice with full glass windows looking out, with full white linen table cloth dining and service). She was dressed up (and so was everyone else), unlike today's society that just goes out in sweatpants (and even works in them). I miss the standards of a cultured society, not only in how we look when we go out, but how we communicated with respect, back then, to everyone. All children were kept under control, and all adults watched out for all children. The Stix stores had the fancy salon where my Mom worked, and large fancy candy counters, with popcorn and gourmet candies and snacks, furniture, fine jewelry, appliances, electronics, beds, and just everything! It was so fun to go there. She also worked at the Northwest Plaza salon after Jamestown went out of business. Our whole family misses the grand department stores and wish Dillards would bring them back. I would bet my own money that I could put the old style store in Chesterfield and it would the "the hub" of shopping because I would have all the departments, entertainment, and gourmet snacks and candies, and fun media lounge areas for those waiting for shoppers to shop, etc. The current generation needs to see what a "department store" actually was. They don't know. Just like anything else, they will think it's a new grand idea and it would be very successful. It just takes someone to spring it on them, like it's new, and they will flock to it!
ReplyDeleteHello! You hit the nail on the head. When it comes to stores like Stix, we really have lost a part of our culture. I personally get sick when think about having to shop - because currently, they have made it a chore when it once was a pleasure, as you describe. We literally don't have the options that we once had, and even "expensive stores" don't have the breadth of merchandise or personable service (not to mention style) that the great department stores had. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
DeleteFigured that this might be a place to determine the worth of a branded vintage ST LOUIS STIX, BAER & FULLER wooden ironing board. It is in excellent condition, and I purchased it at a garage sale in Florida. I have it listed in Daytona Craigslist currently for $170... ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED, as I can not find anything like it anywhere on line. LINK TO IT- https://daytona.craigslist.org/atq/d/port-orange-vintage-wood-ironing-board/7521388904.html
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