Macy's Union Square

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Coordinates: 37°47′13″N 122°24′27″W / 37.78702°N 122.40738°W / 37.78702; -122.40738
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(Redirected from Macy's West)
Signage on oldest part of the store, O'Farrell and Stockton

Macy's Union Square (the location of the Macy's department store chain located on San Francisco's Union Square) is one of the retailer's largest and oldest locations, long the flagship of Macy's California, then Macy's West.

History[edit]

O'Connor, Moffat & Co.[edit]

Macy's San Francisco roots date back to 1866 and the founding of O'Connor, Moffat, Kean Co. at Second & Market Streets, eventually moving into several buildings on south Post Street, between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street, where it rebuilt after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and reopened in March 1909.[1]

In 1928, the company, by then known as O'Connor, Moffat & Co., commissioned Lewis P. Hobart to design a new eight-story store building at 101 Stockton Street at the northwest corner of O'Farrell Street, with a projected cost of $3,400,000 ($59.6 million in 2023).

The new 244,000 sq ft (22,700 m2) O'Connor, Moffatt & Co. store opened to the public on March 4, 1929,[2] clad in cream-colored terra-cotta that incorporated Neo-Gothic details, especially at the top of its façades.[3]

1945: Macy's San Francisco[edit]

R.H. Macy & Company, New York, New York acquired O'Connor Moffat in 1945[4] for a reported $2,175,000 in stock.[5] On October 16, 1947, the store was rebranded as Macy's.[6]

When announcing the merger, Macy's also announced the purchase of the six-story Brickell Building with 55 ft (17 m) of frontage on Geary Street facing Union Square, and took possession on January 1, 1946. At the time it was home to the Santa Fe Railroad ticket office (235 Geary) and the Frank More shoe store (233 Geary).[5] A corridor gave access to Macy's from Union Square.[3]

Macy's followed up with a major expansion of the store, incorporating 170 O'Farrell Street to the west, in 1948, commissioning the original architect of the 1928 building, Louis Parson Hobart.[7]

The new addition, costing a reported $6,500,000 (($82.4 million in 2023) opened in September 1949, matched the façades of the older store, except at the parapet, where the florid Gothic detail was not replicated. A polished-granite first floor united both new and old parts of the store. In the interior, the 1949 remodeling kept the original square fluted columns, but a drop ceiling and "modern" lighting obscured the elaborate gothic tracery of the older store's street-floor ceiling.[3]

Union Square side[edit]

Union Square side, former Brickell/ Bally/ Dohrmann's sites

In 1955, the Brickell Building was refurbished, after which Macy's customers could enter the store through the Blum's Confectionery,[3] a candy store that incorporated a café serving desserts and light meals.

Macy's acquired the 76,000-square-foot (7,100 m2) Dohrmann's home furnishings store, demolished it in 1967 and constructed a building on the site that was added to the main store.[8] The new front incorporated a clock tower worked into the façade design.[3]

Eventually the front of the Brickell Building was also redone so that it matched the 1968 addition on the Dohrmann's site. The floor elevation of the 1968 addition did not align with the main (1929/1948) building, so escalators at the street floor of the Union Square buildings connected down to the main floor and up to the second floor of the older portion of the store.[3]

in 1976, Macy's bought the 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2) building at 255 Geary,[9] for decades, home to Frank Werner shoes, sold in 1952 to Bally of Switzerland.[10]

Men's Store building[edit]

Men's Store (1984–2017)
I. Magnin Building, part of Macy's Union Square 1995-2018

In 1984, Macy's opened a separate 180,000 sq ft (17,000 m2) separate Men's Store in a building across Stockton Street from its Main Store. The building at 100-120 Stockton Street was built in 1974 and previously a branch of the Hawaii-based Liberty House (department store),[11] bringing the total area of the complex to 860,000 sq ft (80,000 m2).

I. Magnin building[edit]

In 1995, Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.), which owned both Macy's and I. Magnin specialty department stores, closed the I. Magnin chain. Macy's 1929/1948 building and its Union Square-facing buildings formed an "L" shape surrounding the I. Magnin Union Square store at the southwest corner of Stockton and Geary streets, built in 1946. In 1995, Federated decided to incorporate the 240,000 sq ft (22,000 m2) building as part of Macy's Union Square, which meant that Macy's then occupied the entire block facing Stockton street from O'Farrell Street on the south to Geary Street and Union Square on the north.

The entire complex including the Men's Store thus reached its peak size of approximately 1,100,000 sq ft (100,000 m2), one of the largest department store locations in the world at that time. This was at a time when most other downtown flagship stores in large U.S. cities other than New York and Chicago had already closed, such as May Co. in Los Angeles (1986), Bullock's and J.W. Robinson's in Los Angeles (1983), Rich's in Atlanta (1994), May Co. in Cleveland (1993), and Hudson's in Detroit (1983). Even Macy's Union Square's own local rival Emporium would close its flagship the next year, in 1996.

In the late 1990s Macy's began a multi-year project to rehabilitate the entire complex, remodeling of the 1929/1948 building and the Men's Store; expanding into the upper floors of the Magnin's building, and razing and replacing the two out-of-date buildings on Geary Street facing Union Square (on the Brickell and Dohrmann's sites), giving the store its current signature glass-fronted entry from the Square.

Closing of Men's Store and ex-Magnin building[edit]

In 2018, Macy's proceeded to sell both of its most recent additions: the former Magnin's building that had been incorporated into the main complex, and the separate Men's Store (former Liberty House) building. The complex, now reduced back to its pre-1984 size, still boasts about 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) of retail space.[12]

Closure[edit]

On February 27, 2024, it was announced that Macy's be closing this location as part of a plan to close 150 stores nationwide by the end of 2026. Macy's stated that the location would remain open until the property would be sold to a new owner. More than 400 employees will be impacted as part of the closure.[13]

Table of buildings and additions[edit]

Opened/
Added 		Sold Building Address Area
added
sq ft 		Total
area
sq ft 		Total
area
sq m
1929 open O'Connor, Moffat & Co. building
(Macy's Main Building) 		101 Stockton
corrner of O'Farrell 		244,000 244,000 22,700
1948 open Addition to main store, west along O'Farrell plus Brickell Building on Geary 160‑170 O'Farrell,
233-235 Geary 		244,000 (approx.)[14] 488,000 (approx.) 45,300 (approx.)
1967 open Dohrmann's building (76,000 sq ft (76,000 sq ft)) razed; new building on its site added to Macy's main store. 281 Geary
on Union Square 		640,000[15] 59,000
1976 open Bought and expanded into former Frank Werner/Bally Building[9] 255 Geary
on Union Square 		40,000 680,000[11] 63,000
Sep 30, 1984 Sep 20, 2017[16] Separate Men's Store
in the old Liberty House store[11] 		100-120 Stockton 180,000[11] 860,000 80,000
1995*[17] 2018*[12] Expansion into former I. Magnin Building[17] 135 Stockton
corner of Geary
on Union Square 		240,000[12] 1,100,000 100,000
1998 2024[18] Reconstruction of 1967/1976 bldgs. on Union Square (263,640 sq ft)[19] (235)-255-281 Geary
on Union Square 		ca. 1,100,000 ca. 100,000
Total current floor area of complex after closing of ex-Magnin and Men's buildings: 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2)

*announced

Gallery[edit]

  • Aerial view of Union Square side at Yuletide
    Aerial view of Union Square side at Yuletide
  • The entrance facing Union Square decorated for Yuletide by day…
    The entrance facing Union Square decorated for Yuletide by day…
  • …and at night
    …and at night
  • View of roof
    View of roof
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Macy's Union Square, San Francisco.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Great Department Store Reopens Downtown with Dazzling Display". San Francisco Call. March 16, 1909.
  2. ^ "Big New Store Opened Today for Business". San Francisco Bulletin. 4 March 1929. p. 18. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Macy's California, San Francisco, California". The Department Store Museum. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  4. ^ "MACY GETS STORE IN SAN FRANCISCO; Arranges to Acquire O'Connor, Moffatt & Co. Through an Exchange of Stock EXPANSION ALSO PLANNED Land Adjoining the West Coast Establishment Is Bought or Leased as Part of Deal More Land Acquired Deal Based on Long Study". The New York Times. 1945-07-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Big S.F. Store Sold to Macy's". The San Francisco Examiner. 6 July 1945. p. 1. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  6. ^ "MACY'S HISTORY – Macy's Press Room". www.macyspressroom.com. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Encyclopedia of San Francisco". 2005-04-05. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Old Dohrmann's Front Now New Door at Macy's". San Francisco Examiner. October 29, 1968.
  9. ^ a b "Macy's…purchased Bally Building…255 Geary…40,000 sq ft". The San Francisco Examiner. 13 April 1976. p. 49. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Werner Shoe Stores sold". The San Francisco Examiner. 29 April 1952. p. 10. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d Itow, Laurie (25 September 1984). "Macy's giant men's store". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 62. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  12. ^ a b c Ma, Annie (27 February 2018). "Macy's to sell former I. Magnin building at Union Square". SFGate. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  13. ^ "Iconic SF Union Square Macy's to close amid mass shuttering of locations, supervisor says". ABC7 News. February 28, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  14. ^ "Work on $6,500,000 Addition to Macy Store Here". The San Francisco Examiner. 19 October 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  15. ^ Calculated as follows: in 1984, Macy's reported that its Main Building was 680,000 sq. ft. in area, counting the 40,000 sq. ft. 1976 expansion into the Werner/Bally building. The resulting 640,000 sq. ft. (pre-1976) represents an approximate 152,000 sq. ft. increase versus 1948 (488,000 sq. ft.) and includes expansion into the Dohrmann's building replacement, updates to the Brickell Building and other expansions between 1949 and 1975.
  16. ^ Li, Roland (20 October 2018). "Macy's opens slimmed-down men's store in SF's Union Square". Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  17. ^ a b Trager, Louis (19 June 1995). "Macy's moving into Magnin spot". SFGate. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  18. ^ Graff, Amy. "SF's Union Square Macy's store is among those slated to close". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-02-27.
  19. ^ "Macy's To Shutter Its Union Square Men's Store: SFist". SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2023.

37°47′13″N 122°24′27″W / 37.78702°N 122.40738°W / 37.78702; -122.40738

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