This Building was home to a Department Store for over 90 Years

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In 1899, brothers Henry and Harry S. Lasker demolished a small, two-story commercial structure, an even smaller one-story store, and a frame dwelling to build a new three-story brick commercial building at the northwest corner of Sixth and Main Streets, then the southern-most end of Little Rock's Main Street business district. The new building was "constructed especially" for Arkansas Carpet and Furniture Company, a firm that had been in business in Little Rock since about 1890. The firm's new accommodations boasted "all the modern improvements, such as passenger and freight elevators, steam heat, electric lights, etc."

Within a year or two, the Lasker brothers doubled the size of their building at Sixth and Main by adding a matching section to the north side of the structure. This new northern half, however, was divided into two storefronts, one initially occupied by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and the other by Jacobi & Company, "Milliners and Ladies' Outfitters." While Arkansas Carpet and Furniture Company remained in the south half of the building, the tenants in the north half changed around 1905. Pollock & Son Shoe Store replaced the A & P, and S. H. Kress & Company took over the milliner's space.

A front-page story in the Arkansas Gazette of June 18^th, 1911, heralded the beginning of a new era for the Lasker brothers' building and a first for Little Rock:

Little Rock's first full-fledged department store would be "strictly up to date in all its appointments. Every modern device, which will in any way conduce to the comfort and convenience of its patrons … " would be installed.

In September of 1912, the Arkansas Gazette reported that Leo Pfeifer, eldest of the Pfeifer brothers and president of their business, had been granted a permit by the city to remodel the building at the northwest corner of Sixth and Main Streets. The estimated cost of the work to be done was $40,000, and the project was scheduled to be completed within ninety days. The Gazette also noted that Mr. Pfeifer had just returned from a trip through the North and East, where he visited some of the country's largest department stores to gather information to use in making the new Pfeifer Brothers Department Store "one of the most modern in the South."

Leo Pfeifer later recalled that the new location had to be entirely remodeled in order to combine three storefronts into "one selling floor" and said that the full cost of the project, including fixtures, was $100,000-an amount that strained the Pfeifer brothers' finances for a few years after the store's opening. Regarding the remodeling project, Mr. Pfeifer wrote: "Had to lower corner building floor 8 inches to keep from having steps on side door. Architect (Thompson) said it could not be done. Secured Mat Bush, contractor, who did the job."

The architect to whom Mr. Pfeifer referred was Charles L. Thompson, who had been in practice in Little Rock since 1886 (and would not retire until 1938). Although the drawings have not been located, Thompson was responsible for designing the 1912 remodeling that converted the Lasker brothers' building into Pfeifer Brothers Department Store. An article in the Arkansas Gazette of September 15, 1912, said: "Charles L. Thompson is the architect for the building and the fixtures are being made by the most famous manufacturer in Michigan." This article also confirms Leo Pfeifer's recollections about some of the remodeling work: "The sidewalk will be level with the first floor in the corner building, and all floors will be put on one level and all partitions removed so as to allow one open room the full size of the building."

Though obviously a large undertaking, the remodeling was completed in only sixty days or so. On October 20^th, 1912, the Arkansas Gazette reported: "Construction work on the building is being pushed as rapidly as possible, shifts of workmen being employed both day and night. Merchandise already is being received and will be placed in the new store as soon as work progresses far enough for the fixtures to be installed."

The round-the-clock work paid off, and the new store opened to the public on Tuesday evening, November 26^th, 1912. The following day, the Arkansas Gazette reported:

Visitors were greeted at the store's Main Street entrance by a receiving line of dignitaries. Arkansas Governor George W. Donaghey, Governor-elect Joe T. Robinson, Little Rock Mayor Charles E. Taylor, and representatives of the Little Rock Board of Trade and the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce joined the Pfeifer brothers and the Lasker brothers in welcoming the crowd.

The attention the store received is an indication of just how new and different it was for Little Rock. Pfeifer Brothers Department Store was the city's first store to be physically organized into multiple departments, each carrying specific items, including men's, women's, and children's clothing, shoes, hats, toys, and a variety of household goods. However, Pfeifer Brothers was not the only department store in Little Rock for very long. In 1913, the Blass Department Store opened in a brand-new, seven-story building at Fourth and Main Streets. From then until the early 1960s, when both were purchased by what now is the Dillard Department Store chain, the Pfeifer Brothers and Blass Department Stores were rivals, considered Little Rock's "biggest and best" stores and always in competition for customers.

The opening of Pfeifer Brothers Department Store at Sixth and Main Streets continued a tradition that dated back to 1865, when Joseph Pfeifer-father of the Pfeifer brothers-opened his first store in Little Rock. Born in Germany, Joseph Pfeifer came to the United States in 1853 at the age of eighteen, reportedly with the equivalent of $5 in his pocket. After twelve years in New York City, he moved to Little Rock in 1865 and, in partnership with a G.F. Miller, opened his first store, Miller and Pfeifer. After a few years, Pfeifer went out on his own, and from then until 1912, the name "Joseph Pfeifer" continuously was attached to a store in Little Rock. He retired in 1909, transferring his interest in what was then called the Joseph Pfeifer Clothing Company (selling men's and boys' clothing) to his two eldest sons, Leo and Harry. During Joseph Pfeifer's long career in the retail trade, his business occupied eight different locations, all of them now gone.

After their father's retirement, Leo and Harry Pfeifer began laying expansion plans: "The Messrs. Pfeifer concluded that they had gone the limit in the men's and boys' end for a city of the size of Little Rock … [T]hey decided that there were great prospects for a large business [and] leased the building situated on the northwest corner of Sixth and Main … "

All four Pfeifer brothers organized the corporation, called Pfeifer Brothers, that operated the new department store. Leo Pfeifer was president and general manager, Harry W. Pfeifer was vice-president, Albert Pfeifer was secretary, and Preston Pfeifer was treasurer. The two younger brothers, Albert and Preston, also operated another business, Albert Pfeifer & Brother Jewelry, which became the jewelry department of Pfeifer Brothers Department Store in 1923. By that time, however, Albert Pfeifer had left the corporation, and Preston Pfeifer, youngest of the four brothers, was secretary-treasurer. In 1929, Preston moved up to become president, and Leo Pfeifer assumed the new position of chairman of the board. Harry Pfeifer remained vice-president, and two members of the next generation stepped into officer positions: Leo Pfeifer's son-in-law, Sam Strauss, became secretary, and Harry Pfeifer's son, Harry, Jr., was named treasurer.

Through the 1910s and 20s, the business of Pfeifer Brothers Department Store grew and expanded. (In 1913, the store was described as taking "front rank among the business enterprises of Little Rock and Arkansas.") Even after the 1929 stock market crash, business remained steady for a while, enough so that construction of a new building for the department store was announced early in 1931. The new four-story building was to be designed by Thompson, Sanders and Ginocchio (Charles L. Thompson and the architects with whom he then was in partnership, Theo Sanders and Frank Ginocchio) and would be located about one block south of the existing store. The firm of Charles E. Swanson Associates of Chicago was engaged as "interior architects."

The Depression ultimately thwarted plans for the new department store building, and Pfeifer Brothers did not attempt major construction again until 1939. In that year, the old building's first-floor facade and interior were extensively updated, prompting an open house on Monday evening, October 9th:

The remodeling was commemorated in a twelve-page special section in the Arkansas Gazette of October 8^th, 1939. One article's title, "Store Front Streamlined in Stone, Chromium", summed up the thoroughly "moderne" character of the work that was done.

In the following two decades, as the business of Pfeifers Brothers Department Store continued to grow, expansion came in the form of additional buildings. In 1947, an "Appliance Home Center" opened in an already-existing building at 601 Main Street, diagonally across the intersection of Sixth and Main Streets from the flagship store. At about the same time, prompted by the acquisition of a store in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the corporation's name was changed to "Pfeifers of Arkansas." At 514 Main Street, next door to the main store, a three-story annex building was constructed in 1954. (The annex was constructed by the Pfeifers but owned by another family, the Kahns.) A new "Tire Center" opened at 901 Main Street in 1962.

Yet another generation of the Pfeifer family (Leo Pfeifer's grandson and grandson-in-law) entered the business in the 1950s, but the beginning of the next decade brought the deaths of Leo, Harry, and Preston Pfeifer. Leo and Harry both died in 1960; Preston's death came in 1961. A long and important chapter in the history of Little Rock's business community ended in September of 1963, when Pfeifers of Arkansas was sold to a group of investors headed by William Dillard. The same fate soon befell Pfeifers' long-time competitor, the Blass Department Store, which Dillard purchased in February of 1964. Dillard, a native of Nashville, Arkansas, was in the beginning stages of a strategy of acquiring established department stores that continues today and has resulted in one of the largest department store chains in the country, Dillard Department Stores.

Under Dillard's ownership, the store at Sixth and Main Streets operated for another seventeen years before closing its doors in February of 1990. The following year, the building's owners-descendants of the Lasker brothers-transferred title to an organization that lost the property in 1995 for failure to pay improvement district taxes. The vacant building subsequently was acquired by the present owner, who removed the false facade in 1996 and converted the ground floor to office space pending, a thorough rehabilitation of the entire structure.

Today, the Pfeifer Brothers Department Store building survives as the only Pfeifer flagship store in existence. All of the buildings where Joseph Pfeifer once operated businesses are gone. Buildings that housed specific Pfeifer departments, the former Home Center at 601 Main, the Pfeifer Annex at 514 Main, and the former Tire Center at 901 Main, remain standing but do not encompass the full fifty-one years of retail history associated with the building at 522-24 Main Street, where Pfeifer Brothers became Little Rock's first department store in 1912 and remained one of only two such stores until being purchased in 1963.

In addition, the Pfeifer Brothers Department Store building is one of only four buildings on Little Rock's Main Street that date from 1900 or before and still retain much of their original exterior fabric. The other three are the Fulk Building (1900) at 300 Main Street, the Taylor Building (1900) at 304 Main Street, and the Stone Building (1882) at 409 Main Street. The upper stories of the Fulk and Taylor Buildings, both three-story structures, have remained intact over the years, although the ground floors have been altered. A false facade recently was removed from the second story of the Stone Building, a very modest structure currently in poor condition. All other Main Street buildings dating from the turn of the 20^th Century or before either were extensively remodeled during the early 1900s or have mid-century false facades. The Pfeifer Brothers Department Store building, then, is important as a rare survivor of the first century of Main Street's development.

Building Description

Occupying two city lots at the northwest corner of Sixth and Main Streets in Little Rock's central business district, Pfeifer Brothers Department Store is a three-story commercial building supported by brick exterior bearing walls and interior cast-iron beams and columns. The building has a full basement and a built-up, single-slope roof. The upper two stories of its street elevations are trimmed in terra cotta. Built at the turn of the 20^th Century, the Pfeifer Brothers building shows hints of the Romanesque Revival style in the arches above the Main Street elevation's third-story windows.

Detailed Description

Completely filling two city lots, the three-story Pfeifer Brothers Department Store building stretches 100 feet along Main Street and 140 feet along Sixth Street to the alley. The upper two stories of the Main Street (east) elevation retain their original fenestration, previously hidden behind a false facade added circa 1960 and removed in 1996. Twelve double-hung windows span the width of each story. Brick pilasters separate the windows, rising to the tops of the third-story windows. The pilasters have terra cotta capitals molded in an egg-and-dart pattern. Terra cotta arches with an acanthus leaf pattern spring from the capitals, enclosing a semi-circular area above each third-story window. Additional terra cotta detailing is contained within the semi-circles. Centered above each pair of third-story windows is a decorative vent opening. The building's original cornice was "shaved off' when the false facade was installed. Originally, seven corbels rose through the cornice line, directly above the second- and third-story pilasters. Modillions decorated the cornice between corbels. Now, only remnants of the corbels and modillions exist.

The upper stories of the Sixth Street, or south, elevation are similar to the Main Street elevation in having bands of double-hung windows, fourteen per floor, all now visible again after removal of the false facade. This side of the building, however, always had less decorative detail. The wall surface of the second story is entirely plain. At the third-story level, the wall area around each window is slightly recessed, creating the appearance of pilasters between the windows. A line of brick corbeling runs between the pilasters, above the windows.

The upper edge of the south elevation steps down in three sections that decrease in height from east to west (reflecting the slope of the roof). The section containing the five eastern-most windows is the same height as the Main Street elevation. The center section, with four windows, steps down about a foot; and the west section, with five windows, is yet another foot or so lower. The original decorative cornice wrapped around the corner of the building but continued only across the east (tallest) section of the south elevation. Like the cornice of the Main Street elevation, it was "shaved off' when the false facade was installed. The upper edges of the center and west sections of the south elevation did not have the same decorative cornice, but above each window in these two sections, small recessed panels of brick create a pattern of squares between brick corbels. Four of the corbels originally rose through the cornice line, but the upper portions of these corbels now are gone.

The rear (west) elevation of the building, along the alley, originally was fully fenestrated on the upper two stories with rows of double-hung windows in arched openings. The first floor of this elevation contained both windows and service entrances. All of these openings have been filled in with concrete block, with the exception of double wooden doors located near the north end of the elevation. Two original cast-iron columns, made in Dayton, Ohio, remain visible just north of the center of the rear elevation.

The building's north elevation is not visible because it shares its north wall with the three-story "Pfeifer Annex" building, constructed in 1954.

Now in-filled with aluminum-frame windows and artificial stucco, the first floors of both the Main and Sixth Street elevations originally contained display windows and doorways. The locations and designs of these openings, however, changed periodically during the history of the building, as it was remodeled to suit the needs of new tenants or to reflect changing architectural fashion.

The building was constructed in two phases. The south half came first, erected in 1899 for a furniture company. Within a year or two, the north half was added, but it was divided into two storefronts, one occupied by a grocery store (later a shoe store) and the other by a millinery shop (later a five-and-dime). The building underwent its first large remodeling in 1912 to become Pfeifer Brothers Department Store. At that time, the three original storefronts were combined, and a central entrance was created on Main Street. In addition, the Sixth Street elevation, which originally only had display windows at its eastern end, was opened up with display windows extending all the way across the elevation to the alley at its west end. At the same time, an entrance was added to the Sixth Street elevation.

In 1939, Pfeifer Brothers carried out another remodeling, completely altering the interior first-floor plan with the installation of streamlined, chrome-trimmed fixtures and modernizing the exterior with a "new battery of windows é enhanced by é restrained borders of blue-green marble stone with chromium borders é " New "Herculite doors" were said to be "the talk of Little Rock." The exterior remodeling primarily affected the first floor of the Main Street elevation, with the new marble facade wrapping only a few feet (the width of one window) around the corner onto the Sixth Street elevation. Either during this remodeling or sometime before, the rest of the exterior was painted a light color.

The final major exterior alteration of the building came about 1960, when a false facade was installed, obscuring all of the second and third stories on both the Main and Sixth Street elevations, as well as the ground floor on the Sixth Street side. This false facade was removed in 1996, and the brick was repainted, this time a brick-red color.

Inside the building, very little is left from any period of its history. The first floor has been converted to office space, leaving no trace of its department store lay-out. On the second floor, now one large open space, many of the original cast-iron columns are visible. The exposed columns are round and unornamented. Some columns still are boxed in with mirrors that were part of the department store decor. The original beaded-board ceiling, for decades concealed by a dropped ceiling, now is exposed. In some places, the original wooden floors are visible, but much of the floor has a patchwork of coverings (different colors and patterns of linoleum tile and carpet), suggesting former locations of department store counters and partitions. Two department store passenger elevators remain, along with an older freight elevator. In the 1950s or 60s, the third floor was partitioned into a warren of offices with dropped ceilings and paneled walls.

Looking northwest from intersection of Sixth and Main Streets (1998)

South elevation (1998)

West elevation (1998)

Looking northwest from intersection of Sixth and Main Streets (1900)

Looking from Main Street and east elevation (1912)