Steiger's

Steiger's

Menswear and furniture departments in the Springfield flagship store, 1953
Industry	Retail
Founded	1896(1896)
Defunct	1995(1995)
Fate	Acquired byMay Department Stores
Successor	Macy's
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Parent	May Department Stores(1994-1995)

Steiger'swas a department store company ofNew Englandin the 19th and 20th centuries. Founded inHolyoke, Massachusettsin 1896, its flagship store for much of the company's history was inSpringfield, Massachusetts.At the time of its purchase byMay Department Stores,Steiger's was described as the last family-owned chain of department stores in New England.

History

Albert Steiger (1860–1938) was born inRavensburg,Germany, on May 12, 1860, the eldest child of Jacob and Mary (née Felerabend) Steiger. His grandfather, John Ulrich Steiger, was a Swiss-born manufacturer ofmuslinwho emigrated to the United States following the death of his wife and set up a bedspread manufacturing business inHuntington.In 1869 Albert Steiger and his parents would move to the United States as well, joining the family firm. Two years later however, John Steiger died, and by 1873 Albert Steiger's father and uncle had as well. At the age of 13 Steiger became the breadwinner in his family, looking after a widowed mother and two younger sisters. For the better part of 20 years he supported himself and his family by purchasing dry goods from a Mr. Darwin Gillett ofWestfield,reselling and delivering these goods to theHilltownsat a profit.

The Steiger Building, erected in 1899, was the first building specifically built as a department store in Holyoke.

In 1894, at the age of 34, Steiger left Massachusetts and relocated toPort Chester, New York,north of New York City, where he opened his first dry goods store for a short time.In 1896, he would return to Western Massachusetts and found his namesake department store inHolyoke, Massachusettsunder the nameThe Albert Steiger Company,which quickly became a mainstay in that city.The Holyoke store, built in 1899, was a four-storybeaux artsbuilding designed byGeorge P. B. Alderman,on High Street across fromCity Hall.The former department store building is still in use as offices today.

Classic logo

Around the turn of the 20th century, Albert Steiger opened a series of stores inFall River, Massachusetts,New Bedford, Massachusetts,andSpringfield, Massachusetts.A store inHartford, Connecticutfollowed in 1918.By his death in 1938, Steiger's branches in western New York and New England brought in an estimated gross revenue of $25,000,000, equivalent to more than $450 million dollars in 2020 USD.

Mid to late 20th century

Two of Steiger's Department Stores, Springfield, Mass. (1906 / 1960)

The five-story art decodowntown Springfield store was the chain's flagship during the mid-to-late 20th century.In contrast to Springfield's other main store, traditional full-service department storeForbes & Wallace,Steiger's concentrated more on being a high-end clothing store.Several generations of the Steiger family carried on this business.Albert Steiger's grandson, Albert E. Steiger Jr., was president of the company from 1959 to 1992,his younger brother Ralph A. Steiger was appointed treasurer and vice president since 1947 and CEO from 1992 to 1995.

Elegant and spacious: Steiger's flagship store, Springfield, Mass. 1953.

Over time, the freestanding downtown stores were closed and replaced with rented outlets in malls. The Hartford store was sold in 1962, leaving just the Springfield and Holyoke locations as traditional downtown department stores.Mall outlets were opened in the Longmeadow Shops (1961), Springfield Plaza (1964), Friendly Shops atWestfield, Massachusetts(1965), Eastfield Mall (1967),EnfieldSquare Mall (1972),Hampshire MallinHadley, Massachusetts(1978), andHolyoke Mall at Ingleside(1979).

Final phase

Steiger's was taken over byThe May Department Stores Companyin 1994 and the company and brand ceased to exist.The Eastfield Mall store, for instance, was replaced by aFilene's,then in 2006 by aMacy'sbefore being closed in 2016.The downtown Springfield store closed in 1995 and the building was torn down soon after. A park now occupies the site.

See also

• Forbes & Wallace,another defunct department store with a flagship location in Springfield, Massachusetts

Excursus

Direct Swiss/German relatives of Albert Steiger (1860-1938):

Ulrich Steiger,brother of Albert Steiger's fatherJacob– co-founder ofSteiger & Deschler,a major textile company inUlm,Krumbach,andRavensburg,in Germany

Walther Steiger,cousin of Albert – constructor and founder of theSteiger automobile companyinBurgriedennear Ulm, in Germany.

External links

• Albert Steiger Co,The Department Store Museum
• "Claiming and Quantifying Space",a chapter ofFrom Main to High: Consumers, Class, and the Spatial Reorientation of an Industrial City,whose subject is Holyoke, Massachusetts. The linked chapter discusses (among other subjects) Steiger's role in the city