The Age of the Downtown Department Store

[WmNussbaum]

The bar in the Robt. Meyer was the Marlin Bar, but dammit I can't remember the name of the greasy spoon on floor 2 of the Schultz Bldg. I think is was just a man's name, like "Larry's," or some such.

[Jaxson]

I seem to think that the renovation of Hemming Park into Hemming Plaza was the final nail in the coffin for the struggling downtown stores as the renovation created inconveniences from which the suburban stores further reaped the benefits. 
I also would like to think that, in hindsight, department stores realize that they were cannibalizing their own stores by following sprawl out into the suburbs and exburbs of a city. 

[Timkin]

I was quite young when we would go with my Mother and Grandmother, shopping at these various department Stores.  I'm pretty sure I have no recollection of Cohen's being in the St.James building.. Pretty sure by that time it was at Roosevelt Mall and other locations. 

What I vividly remember is Woolworth's, Ivey's and Sears.. And Christmas time was just amazing. The beautiful window displays, decorations , ornaments and lights,     Downtown may have been declining by that time, but it was still quite alive.

A very vivid memory of the Downtown Sears was the Candy counter at the front entrance of the Store.. Seemed like every kind of candy , known to man was there ( wasn't really but seemed so as a child), the Escalators,  the basement, and the beautiful displays of merchandise everywhere in the store.  I remember rows of new bicycles in that area of the store and asking a clerk if they had any One-dollar Bicycles.. She chucked and said no honey, I'm afraid not . 

This is one of those things in Jacksonville's history that I will always wonder..... Why some thought it was for the better to create the suburban sprawl,  Build stores/malls in outlying areas, and do all of it in the name of progress. Progress for who is the question. 

The result was the death of the Downtown Jacksonville Shopping district, perhaps forever, as we know it .

[BackinJax05]

^^ After the shopping district went, the rest of downtown quickly followed. What was left was then imploded, bulldozed, or wrecking balled.

[ronchamblin]

I remember Cohen Brothers and the other department stores in the forties and fifties.  Yes, I am old.  And if you are lucky, you too will be old.

Back then we had no choice but to come downtown to shop.  There were no department stores in the outlying areas where we lived.  There were the little feed stores, which had some general supplies.  And there were the general stores, having many things one would need.  These were the convenience stores of the day.  The gas stations, where the attendant always pumped your gas, had only a candy machine, a coke machine, and the pin-up girl hidden on the wall around the corner.  Before Playboy and the current Internet porno, those pin-ups were exciting for us young boys…. getting a glimpse of a real naughty pin-up.     

I think occasionally about the mad rush to the suburbs of all that was in the core.  It was of course, necessary for the competition department stores to open in the outlying areas.  But why was it necessary.  And was it really necessary? 

Instead of simply building malls and inviting department stores to open in the malls, what if the city, the powers within the government, had been wise enough and creative enough to gradually build a transportation infrastructure which would have allowed all of the outlying areas to have easy transport to the city and back to their homes….. to their jobs and back….. to shopping and back?

If this had been done, “theoretically” the department stores would still be in the city core, and none would be in the suburbs.  But since the growing population in the Duval County borders would overwhelm only one large Cohen Brothers or Pennys, the original old city core would have had to expand so that other department stores could have opened up in the core area.  The result would have been that the core would have expanded, all the while maintaining a density as seen in New York or other mega-cities.  If this thought experiment would have actually evolved in reality, a vibrant city core would now exist, perhaps from five points in the west to Regency in the east, from Trout River in the north to San Marco in the south..... a truly large city, having an efficient and effective mass transit.  Is this what we would have wanted?  Sounds like it.

This mega-city could have been accomplished by building a transportation infrastructure which might have included subways and streetcars and trains, and even a river ferry or two. 

The outlying areas would have had no malls, only small stores for convenience.  People would get around much as in New York or other large cities…. by mass transit. 

And here we are, trying to build something approximating the large city, by avoiding the main ingredient of one, which is a good transportation infrastructure……  allowing people in the outlying areas to come into the core to the future department stores, and other similar stores, which will return only when the infill is vibrant enough to support them. 

[BackinJax05]

Excellent ideas. The problem is, they make sense - something that doesnt go over very well in Jacksonville

As for the naughty pin-ups, they're still exciting. Unlike today's stuff, pin-ups leave something for the imagination.

Sometimes I wonder what the Mathews Bridge would be like if a streetcar line had been built with it. The line running along the Arlington Expressway to Regency Mall.

Oh well.

[Debbie Thompson]

And sometimes I dream about what downtown would be like if Martin Stein had never built Regency Square. :-)

[thelakelander]

Does anyone know or remember what colors were synonymous with May Cohens stores?

[Timkin]

Does anyone know or remember what colors were synonymous with May Cohens stores?

I remember the May Cohens logo vividly..  I believe my Sister still has one of my Grandmother's Catalogs from the store... Will see if she does and bring it to you Lake.

[thelakelander]

Do you remember the colors used?  I found these logos at http://departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.com/2011/12/may-cohens-jacksonville-florida.html

[Ocklawaha]

If you have sharp eyes you will spot the logo atop the old store. A large Old Antique English or Germanic lettering style with a large C and B, spelling out in red, 'Cohen Brothers.'

Every day, my mother Pauline Mann, would board the '70 Naval Air' bus of the old city coach company a block up from Ortega Village, at a Shell Station if memory serves me right. Her immediate supervisor popped into my head a couple of days ago, a sweet southron lady named Mrs. Walker. My mom worked in the basement, it was a true wonderland in the style of the little New York luggage shops that seem to stack every possible thing in plain sight. Rich woodwork on the walls and counter tops was always polished. They had a large toy department, and actually had quite the model railroad store in hobbies. I recall looking a steam engines that were on display, I think it's where I first came face to face with actual scale model railroads, rather then tinplate toys. Mom always laughed that they would have playing cards for .25 cents a deck but they were slow movers, then when they had a 'sale' they marked them '2 for .50 Cents' and they couldn't keep them on the shelves.

Y'all might also note in the photo above how the downtown sidewalks were nearly completely covered with a series of awnings and roof overhangs.

[thelakelander]

What was the color scheme of the store's interior?  Was it simply white walls and lighting?

[BackinJax05]

^^Back in the 80s, May Cohens at Regency was tacky brown & white earth tones. Cant remember downtown, though.

[roninvirginia]

Dr. Sloat, DDS. Had his office downtown. My mom would take the lucky "victim" in for their appointment. If we were good we would first go to Woolworths for a BLT at the lunch counter. Then we would walk through Cohen's. it was a fascinating place. I remember getting my Davy Crockett" coonskin cap there.
Yes, Sears was the official Boy Scout uniform supplier. I got my Cub Scout uniform there, then later on, my Explorer Scout uniform.

[fishman]

I have very fond memories of shopping downtown at May Cohens with my Mother in the early, mid and late 1960's. My favorite store was May Cohens. I used to enjoy going downtown at Christmastime and seeing all of the Christmas lights, and going down in the basement to see Santa Claus. I also enjoyed going to the May Cohens bakery and eating their delicious sugar cookies. Even in the 1960's, my Mom would still wear her hat and gloves when she would go shopping downtown. My family enjoyed saltwater fishing, and my  brother espeically enjoyed offshore fishing, so during Christmastime I would go down in the basement of May Cohens in the sporting goods section, and buy my brother "Sea Witch" lures for just 1.00 each (probably 5.00 to 10.00 each now). Man, I really miss May Cohens downtown. It is kind of depressing going down there now, because now it is City Hall and those good old days are over with. It is really depresssing going down there now, kind of like a ghost town where some of those old department stores used to be.