The Jones Store

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The Jones Store Co.
Type Department store
Founded 1887
Headquarters Kansas City, Missouri
Industry Retail
Products Clothing, shoes, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website None

The Jones Store Company was a American chain of department stores located in the Kansas City area formerly operated by Mercantile Stores Company and the St. Louis, Missouri-based May Co.

Contents

[edit] History

The store was founded in 1887 as an 800-foot store in Stafford, Kansas by J. Logan Jones. [1]

In 1895 Jones opened a store at 6th and Main in the River Market neighborhood. In 1902 Jones leased a massive 500,000 square foot seven-story building that took up an entire block at 12th Street and Main across the street Bernheimer Bros. & Co.

The building may have been the seven-story building mentioned in the song Kansas City in Oklahoma (musical) which has the lyrics:

Everything's up to date in Kansas City
They gone about as fer as they can go
They went an' built a skyscraper seven stories high
About as high as a buildin' orta grow.
Everything's like a dream in Kansas City
It's better than a magic lantern show.

Jones declared bankruptcy in 1910 and the store was taken over by New York interests.

In 1919 the new owners acquired the merchandise from Bernheimer Brothers. [2][3]

The downtown flagship store remained in business until January 1998 even as other large retailers had left downtown. The building was demolished in 2005.

The Jones Store became a division of Mercantile Stores Company in the early 1960s. It was acquired by May Department Stores in 1998 after the Dillard's acquisition of Mercantile, and integrated into the company's Famous-Barr division. On August 30, 2005, it became part of Federated with that company's acquisition of May. On February 1, 2006, The Jones Store Co. was assumed by the new Macy's Midwest division of Federated.

On September 9, 2006, The Jones Store Co. name was phased out in favor of the Macy's nameplate, marking the second entry for Macy's into Kansas City.

[edit] Former Locations

The Jones Store
The Jones Store

[edit] Missouri

[edit] Kansas

[edit] Nebraska

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Jones Store From Dry Goods to Department Store - kclibrary.org - Retrieved January 9, 2008
  2. ^ Crews overcome challenges to demolish Jones Store site - bizjournals.com - October 21, 2005
  3. ^ J. Logan Jones Kclibrary.org - Retrieved January 9, 2008

[edit] External links