Foley’s opened their new 10-story site at Main and Lamar in Houston in 1947.
Forget the fact that the roomy ten-story departments store at Main and Lamar in downtown Houston has been Macy’s for several years now, it will always be Foley’s to those of us who grew up with the Foley’s name as the hub of local retail sales on everything from clothing to appliances. Operating in Houston from the early 1900s forward, Foley’s relocated from a smaller nearby location to their locally famous flagship downtown site in 1947, about nine years prior to the opening of the city’s first suburban mall at Gulfgate off the Gulf Freeway in 1956.
This coming Saturday, 03/09/13, the downtown “Macy’s” store opens its doors for the last time. Sometime, thereafter, the ten-story building will be demolished to make room for something else in one of the only time-honored traditions of the Houston developers’ mentality. This time, there don’t seem to be as many tears over demolition. The building worked great as Foley’s and Macy’s, but who else now needs a ten-story building with no windows beyond the first floor?
The place was also built with central AC, but no heating system. Heat was supposed to be supplied by the body warmth of a constantly heavy flow of retail customers. The place drops to crypt-level comfort on the temperature side with no one in the place on cold days.
You really had to be here in Houston prior to the development of our freeway system and the new suburban shopping malls at Gulfgate, Sharpstown, Northline, The Galleria, Northwest, Willowbrook, Greenspoint, and Almeda to get what the new 1957 downtown Foley’s store meant to local shoppers. It was the center of everything else and, like everything that had anything to do with serious shopping, almost everything was located downtown. Even kids hopped on busses to go shopping downtown back in those days.
Here’s a link to another article from today about the downtown store closing that should be able to also connect you to a two-part KUHF-FM spotlight clip on the old place’s history and upcoming last days.
My favorite Foley’s shopping experience story started in the summer of 1952 and stretched into the fall of the same year. As an incoming freshman at St. Thomas High School, I had ordered a red and white athletic jacket because I simply could wait to show my new school colors. Foley’s promised me that it would arrive in time for the first cool weather.
It didn’t.
By mid- October, I was still waiting, with all that was left of my little summer job money tied up at Foley’s, and nothing to show for it. I’d stop by Foley’s everyday after school to see if it had arrived, only to hear again the dreaded “not here yet” three words from the clerk at “will call.”
One day, I finally just exploded in a burst of immature excitement over the importance of my order and buying power to the Foley’s marketing plan.
“I’ve had enough,” I told the clerk at Foley’s. “If you can’t get my jacket here by the end of the week, I’m going to cancel my order and do everything I can from there to put Foley’s out of business by not buying anything else from this store for as long as I shall live.”
“Do what you have to do, young man,” said the smiling Foley’s lady.
I didn’t have to do anything. The next day the jacket came in. I guess I showed them.
Right?
Anyway, Saturday’s our last chance to personally check out another disappearing Houston landmark.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
March 8, 2013 at 4:41 pm |
Wow! Spend many a Saturday in that store. What a great place. It was built the year I was born and was the best of the best in my teen and young adult years. So long, Foley’s. We loved you dearly!