Sears Will Close Its Oldest Operating Store, Which Opened In Chicago In 1925

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Corporate cutbacks mean losing company history, and the next store on Sears Holdings’ closing list is historic: having opened in 1925, it’s the oldest still-operating store in the chain. The store, which is in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood, will begin its liquidation sale in two weeks, on May 19, and will ultimately close in August.

The store wasn’t the first department store location that Sears opened, but it was the first standalone location: the first store was part of the company’s headquarters complex. The store, in the Ravenswood neighborhood, opened at the end of 1925, the first year that the company began opening its first downtown department stores in Chicago. Other stores in Chicago from the same era that closed in 2013 remain standing but empty, and a local politician expressed worry to DNAinfo that the same could happen to this neighborhood store.

“We can’t have that hulking building sitting empty,” Alderman Ameya Pawar said, but at the same time he said that the distinctive architecturally significant building should have landmark designation instead of being torn down.

Sears to close historic Ravenswood store [Crain’s]
Store History – Chicago: Lawrence and 79th Street Stores [Sears Archives]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist