Olds, Wortman & King
Encyclopedia
Olds, Wortman & King, also known as Olds & King, was a department store
in Portland
, Oregon
, United States
, established under a different name in 1851 and becoming Olds & King in 1878, on its third change of ownership. The store was renamed Olds, Wortman & King in 1901; Olds & King again in 1944; and Rhodes in 1960. Moving several times within the downtown Portland
area, the store settled at 10th & Morrison in 1910, in a large new building that remained in operation as a department store until 1974 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. Since 1976, the building has been known as the Galleria.
at Front and Oak streets in downtown Portland
; it was the city's first general merchandise store. Later in the 1850s, the store moved to Front & Taylor and was operated by brothers Robert and Finley McLaren, although Corbett continued to be a principal supplier of goods for the store. John Wilson purchased the store in 1856. Wilson's store moved in 1868, to Front Street near Morrison Street. In 1878, Wilson sold the shop to William Parker Olds, who had worked as a clerk there since 1869, and Olds' stepfather, Samuel Willard King, and the business became Olds & King, or Olds & King's. At that time, the store was located at 147 3rd Street. It moved again in 1881, 1887 and 1891, but never very far.
John Wortman joined the firm in 1890, and later Hardy C. Wortman also purchased into it, leading eventually to its renaming as Olds, Wortman & King at the beginning of 1901. The store's location since 1891 was 5th & Washington, but growth in business led the owners to begin planning in 1908 for a move to a larger building.
to occupy an entire city block
(200 by 200 ft (61 by 61 m) in downtown Portland). The site had previously been occupied by the mansion of Sylvester Pennoyer
, a former Oregon governor
(1886–1895) and Portland mayor
(1896–1898). The new store opened on July 30, 1910, with an estimated 25,000 people visiting on opening day. The old store was closed upon the opening of the new. The new location was criticized by some as being too far from the central business district, which generally extended a few blocks from the waterfront at that time, but within a few years the business district had expanded westwards.
The building's interior was designed by the Portland architectural firm of Doyle, Patterson & Beach
. The store included a 53 by 33 ft (16.2 by 10.1 m) atrium
in the center, topped by a large skylight and was equipped with other amenities that were considered very modern for the time, at least in a city the size of Portland. Among these were the elevator
s, six in total (in two banks of three), which rose and descended in exposed shafts facing the atrium, within ironwork cages. Each was controlled by an elevator operator
. Also considered novel and advanced at the time were the glass display case
s illuminated with "hidden electric lights" and a telephone-based credit
system that enabled instant verification of a customer's credit status, making purchasing on credit simpler and faster than previously. There was a tea room
with mahogany furniture, a nursery and children's playroom, and a roof garden
. A 1926 remodeling replaced the hardwood floors
in the main aisles with marble
.
The building's white exterior is lined with relatively simple terra cotta
designs. There are rusticated
columns at street level. Each of the roof's four corners is topped by a tall flagpole. The store had one entrance on each of its four sides, all but one in the center of the block.
store in San Francisco
, Schlesinger & Sons in Oakland
, and Rhodes Brothers
in Tacoma
). At that time, Olds, Wortman & King was one of the largest retail businesses in the city and was employing 1,200 people. In 1941, B.F. Schlesinger Company changed its name to Western Department Stores, Inc.. In 1944, the name of its Portland subsidiary was shortened again to Olds & King. A five-year remodeling in 1946–51, led by Portland architect Pietro Belluschi
, included replacement of the passenger elevators with more modern ones, installation of escalator
s and closure of the atrium (in 1949), among other changes.
Western opened a second Olds & King store in Portland's then-new Gateway Shopping Center (at NE 102nd Avenue and Halsey Street) in 1956, but in 1960 Western renamed all of its stores Rhodes Department Stores, consistent with its own name change to Rhodes Western
. The 13-store Rhodes chain was taken over by AMFAC Merchandising Corporation, parent of Liberty House
, in 1969. The Gateway Rhodes became a Liberty House store in late 1973. The downtown Rhodes store, the last in Portland to carry the Rhodes name, closed on February 2, 1974. The building remained vacant for some time.
In 1975, Portland developers Bill Naito
and Sam Naito purchased the building and began converting it into a multi-level shopping center, which they named The Galleria. Opened in 1976, the Galleria was an indoor shopping arcade for dozens of small stores and restaurants, and has been described as downtown Portland
's first shopping mall
. Retail shops and restaurants occupied the first three floors, while floors 4 and 5 were leased to companies in the wholesale apparel business.
Three months after the Galleria's opening, The Oregonian
newspaper referred to the project as being possibly "the most exciting development in downtown [Portland] merchandising in several decades." In the mid-1970s, retailing was increasingly migrating from the city center to new suburban shopping malls, and fewer and fewer shoppers were coming to downtown, a trend that the Naitos hoped to slow or reverse through this project and others. The renovations included opening up the interior by restoring the 1949-closed central atrium
and adding a large central stairway. By 1977, when the reconfigured building reached full occupancy, 48 merchants were leasing space there. The "recycled landmark" was popular with shoppers from the very start and continued to thrive for several years. However, the opening of Pioneer Place
in 1990 was a significant blow to the Galleria and the beginning of its gradual decline as a multi-store shopping mall. Most retail use of the building has since been supplanted by various other uses.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1991, as the "Olds, Wortman and King Department Store". It is currently home to the Portland location of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (formerly the Western Culinary Institute), on the 5th floor, and a medical training program. The ground floor has a Brooks Brothers
store and a Le Cordon Bleu restaurant. A MAX light rail
station, Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station, was opened next to the building in 1986, across the street from its Morrison Street side. Since 2001, the Portland Streetcar
line has passed the Galleria's west side, on 10th Avenue.
In 2011, it was reported that Target Corporation
was considering remodeling the Galleria's second and third floors as a Target store, which would be that chain's first Portland store set in a dense, urban location rather than a suburban-style environment. This proposal was continuing to advance in October 2011, following the approval by the city's Historic Landmarks Commission of the proposed modifications to the building's interior.
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, established under a different name in 1851 and becoming Olds & King in 1878, on its third change of ownership. The store was renamed Olds, Wortman & King in 1901; Olds & King again in 1944; and Rhodes in 1960. Moving several times within the downtown Portland
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
area, the store settled at 10th & Morrison in 1910, in a large new building that remained in operation as a department store until 1974 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Since 1976, the building has been known as the Galleria.
History
The company traces its ancestry to a small store established in 1851 by Henry CorbettHenry W. Corbett
Henry Winslow Corbett was an American businessman and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of Massachusetts, he spend much of his early life in the state of New York before moving to the Oregon Territory where he continued his business interests in retail, and later transportation and banking...
at Front and Oak streets in downtown Portland
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
; it was the city's first general merchandise store. Later in the 1850s, the store moved to Front & Taylor and was operated by brothers Robert and Finley McLaren, although Corbett continued to be a principal supplier of goods for the store. John Wilson purchased the store in 1856. Wilson's store moved in 1868, to Front Street near Morrison Street. In 1878, Wilson sold the shop to William Parker Olds, who had worked as a clerk there since 1869, and Olds' stepfather, Samuel Willard King, and the business became Olds & King, or Olds & King's. At that time, the store was located at 147 3rd Street. It moved again in 1881, 1887 and 1891, but never very far.
John Wortman joined the firm in 1890, and later Hardy C. Wortman also purchased into it, leading eventually to its renaming as Olds, Wortman & King at the beginning of 1901. The store's location since 1891 was 5th & Washington, but growth in business led the owners to begin planning in 1908 for a move to a larger building.
Landmark store
In 1909–1910, the company built its large new store in the block bounded by Morrison, Alder, 10th and 9th streets in downtown. The new building was five stories tall, plus a basement, and was the first store in the NorthwestNorthwestern United States
The Northwestern United States comprise the northwestern states up to the western Great Plains regions of the United States, and consistently include the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, to which part of southeast Alaska is also sometimes included...
to occupy an entire city block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
(200 by 200 ft (61 by 61 m) in downtown Portland). The site had previously been occupied by the mansion of Sylvester Pennoyer
Sylvester Pennoyer
Sylvester Pennoyer was an American educator, attorney, and politician in Oregon. He was born in New York, attended Harvard Law School, and moved to Oregon at age 25. A Democrat, he served two terms as the eighth Governor of Oregon from 1886 to 1895. He joined the Populist cause in the early 1890s...
, a former Oregon governor
Governor of Oregon
The Governor of Oregon is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. territorial governments....
(1886–1895) and Portland mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
(1896–1898). The new store opened on July 30, 1910, with an estimated 25,000 people visiting on opening day. The old store was closed upon the opening of the new. The new location was criticized by some as being too far from the central business district, which generally extended a few blocks from the waterfront at that time, but within a few years the business district had expanded westwards.
The building's interior was designed by the Portland architectural firm of Doyle, Patterson & Beach
A. E. Doyle
Albert Ernest Doyle was a prolific architect in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. He is most often credited for his works as A.E. Doyle....
. The store included a 53 by 33 ft (16.2 by 10.1 m) atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
in the center, topped by a large skylight and was equipped with other amenities that were considered very modern for the time, at least in a city the size of Portland. Among these were the elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s, six in total (in two banks of three), which rose and descended in exposed shafts facing the atrium, within ironwork cages. Each was controlled by an elevator operator
Elevator operator
An elevator operator is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator...
. Also considered novel and advanced at the time were the glass display case
Display case
A display case is a cabinet with one or often more transparent glass sides and/or top, used to display objects for viewing, for example in an exhibition, museum, house, in retail, or a restaurant. Often labels are included with the displayed objects, providing information...
s illuminated with "hidden electric lights" and a telephone-based credit
Credit (finance)
Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...
system that enabled instant verification of a customer's credit status, making purchasing on credit simpler and faster than previously. There was a tea room
Tea house
A tea house or tearoom is a venue centered on drinking tea. Its function varies widely depending on the culture, and some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses or parlors that all qualify under the English language term "tea house" or "tea room."-Asia:In Central Asia this term...
with mahogany furniture, a nursery and children's playroom, and a roof garden
Roof garden
A roof garden is any garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, and recreational opportunities....
. A 1926 remodeling replaced the hardwood floors
Wood flooring
Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Bamboo flooring is often considered a wood floor, although it is made from a grass rather than a timber....
in the main aisles with marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
.
The building's white exterior is lined with relatively simple terra cotta
Architectural terracotta
Terracotta, in its unglazed form, became fashionable as an architectural ceramic construction material in England in the 1860s, and in the United States in the 1870s. It was generally used to supplement brick and tiles of similar colour in late Victorian buildings.It had been used before this in...
designs. There are rusticated
Rustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
columns at street level. Each of the roof's four corners is topped by a tall flagpole. The store had one entrance on each of its four sides, all but one in the center of the block.
Ownership changes, second store
The company was bought in 1925 by the B.F. Schlesinger Company (which also owned The City of ParisCity of Paris Dry Goods Co.
The City of Paris Dry Goods Company was one of San Francisco's most important department stores from 1850 to 1976, located diagonally opposite Union Square. During mid 20th century it opened a few branches in other cities of the Bay Area...
store in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, Schlesinger & Sons in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, and Rhodes Brothers
Rhodes Brothers
Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in Tacoma, Washington, established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. The store greatly expanded through the years, including having a tea room, a branch library and a separate budget store...
in Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
). At that time, Olds, Wortman & King was one of the largest retail businesses in the city and was employing 1,200 people. In 1941, B.F. Schlesinger Company changed its name to Western Department Stores, Inc.. In 1944, the name of its Portland subsidiary was shortened again to Olds & King. A five-year remodeling in 1946–51, led by Portland architect Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi was an American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over one thousand buildings....
, included replacement of the passenger elevators with more modern ones, installation of escalator
Escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
s and closure of the atrium (in 1949), among other changes.
Western opened a second Olds & King store in Portland's then-new Gateway Shopping Center (at NE 102nd Avenue and Halsey Street) in 1956, but in 1960 Western renamed all of its stores Rhodes Department Stores, consistent with its own name change to Rhodes Western
Rhodes Brothers
Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in Tacoma, Washington, established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. The store greatly expanded through the years, including having a tea room, a branch library and a separate budget store...
. The 13-store Rhodes chain was taken over by AMFAC Merchandising Corporation, parent of Liberty House
Liberty House
Liberty House, headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, was a department store and specialty store chain with locations throughout the Hawaiian Islands and on Guam, as well as several locations on the mainland U.S.-History:...
, in 1969. The Gateway Rhodes became a Liberty House store in late 1973. The downtown Rhodes store, the last in Portland to carry the Rhodes name, closed on February 2, 1974. The building remained vacant for some time.
The Galleria
Bill Naito
William Sumio Naito , better known as Bill Naito, was a noted businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, U.S...
and Sam Naito purchased the building and began converting it into a multi-level shopping center, which they named The Galleria. Opened in 1976, the Galleria was an indoor shopping arcade for dozens of small stores and restaurants, and has been described as downtown Portland
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
's first shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
. Retail shops and restaurants occupied the first three floors, while floors 4 and 5 were leased to companies in the wholesale apparel business.
Three months after the Galleria's opening, The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
newspaper referred to the project as being possibly "the most exciting development in downtown [Portland] merchandising in several decades." In the mid-1970s, retailing was increasingly migrating from the city center to new suburban shopping malls, and fewer and fewer shoppers were coming to downtown, a trend that the Naitos hoped to slow or reverse through this project and others. The renovations included opening up the interior by restoring the 1949-closed central atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
and adding a large central stairway. By 1977, when the reconfigured building reached full occupancy, 48 merchants were leasing space there. The "recycled landmark" was popular with shoppers from the very start and continued to thrive for several years. However, the opening of Pioneer Place
Pioneer Place
Pioneer Place is an upscale, urban shopping mall in downtown Portland, Oregon. It consists of four blocks of retail, dining, parking, and an office tower named Pioneer Tower. The mall itself is spread out between four buildings, interconnected by skywalks or underground mall sections...
in 1990 was a significant blow to the Galleria and the beginning of its gradual decline as a multi-store shopping mall. Most retail use of the building has since been supplanted by various other uses.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1991, as the "Olds, Wortman and King Department Store". It is currently home to the Portland location of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (formerly the Western Culinary Institute), on the 5th floor, and a medical training program. The ground floor has a Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers is the oldest men's clothier chain in the United States. Founded in 1818 as a family business, the privately owned company is now owned by Retail Brand Alliance, also features clothing for women, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.-History:On April 7,...
store and a Le Cordon Bleu restaurant. A MAX light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
station, Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station, was opened next to the building in 1986, across the street from its Morrison Street side. Since 2001, the Portland Streetcar
Portland Streetcar
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. It is currently a single line that is almost long and serves some 12,000 daily riders, but a second line is expected to open in 2012.As with the heavier-duty MAX...
line has passed the Galleria's west side, on 10th Avenue.
In 2011, it was reported that Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
was considering remodeling the Galleria's second and third floors as a Target store, which would be that chain's first Portland store set in a dense, urban location rather than a suburban-style environment. This proposal was continuing to advance in October 2011, following the approval by the city's Historic Landmarks Commission of the proposed modifications to the building's interior.