Former Kress Five and Dime Store in Tampa FL


S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida
Date added: July 27, 2024
East elevation (1923)

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The S.H. Kress and Co. department store building at 811 N. Franklin Street was one of the last major commercial structures erected in downtown Tampa, Florida, before the beginning of the Great Depression. It is representative of the remarkable period of growth from 1885 to 1929 that saw Tampa transformed from a small frontier village into a major Florida city.

The Kress store was for decades one of the most prominent and popular retail establishments in downtown Tampa. The first Kress store opened in 1904, making it among the earliest chain variety stores to open in Tampa and one of the earlier outlets established by the Kress organization. Samuel Henry Kress built his retail chain empire on the fixed price concept of five and ten cent stores which had been developed in 1879 by F.W. Woolworth. He decided to concentrate his efforts in the South where he had little competition and was one of the first retailers to buy directly from the manufacturer, thereby eliminating the middleman. He also preferred to own rather than lease his stores.

The first Kress store opened in Memphis in 1896; and over the next four years, ten more stores opened. In 1908, the Tampa store was moved to its present location at 811 Franklin Street where a three-story building, superficially similar to the present structure, was erected. This store was enlarged in 1916 by adding a two-story addition that fronted on Florida Avenue.

The rapid growth of the Kress facility in Tampa reflected the growth of the community itself. Although the area was known to the Spanish as early as the sixteenth century, there was no permanent settlement oh Tampa Bay until the U.S. Army established Ft. Brooke near the mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1823. The civilian settlement that grew up nearby became Tampa. Primitive conditions and the isolation of the community kept the population small, in 1880 Tampa claimed only 700 residents.

The opening of the Ft. Brooke military reservation to civilian settlement and the discovery of phosphate pebbles in the Hillsborough River in 1881, caused a flurry of real estate speculation. Another impetus to growth was the completion three years later of Henry Bradley Plant's South Florida Railroad which linked the gulf community with Jacksonville on the eastern seaboard. Another important development was the establishment of the cigar industry in Ybor City in 1885. With the assistance of the Tampa Board of Trade, a cigar manufacturer named Vicente Martinez Ybor purchased a swampy tract of land about a mile east of Tampa known as Lesley's Subdivision. Ybor had first achieved success as a cigar manufacturer in Havana, Cuba, then later in Key West, Florida, where many Cuban manufacturers moved after the outbreak of the Ten Years War in 1868. Nine other cigar manufacturers quickly followed Ybor to Tampa, and within a year Ybor City was a city of nearly 2,000 people; and Tampa's population had grown to nearly 3,000. Tampa annexed the new development in 1887. In 1888, Henry Bradley Plant extended his rail line to the tip of the Hillsborough peninsula, establishing port facilities there. Five years later a second cigar manufacturing center, named West Tampa, was established on the west side of the Hillsborough River.

Gradually, houses began to disappear from downtown Tampa as commercial development grew and people began building houses in the new residential subdivisions of Hyde Park and Tampa Heights. By the end of the century, two- and three-story brick buildings stood where earlier there had only been a scattering of wood frame houses and stores. By 1929, the population of Tampa stood at approximately 100,000, and high-rise masonry buildings filled the downtown area. On March 1st, 1929 the Tampa Morning Tribune announced that the S.H. Kress and Co. planned the construction of a new four-story building at the site of its Franklin Street store, the cost of the new facility to be $325,000.

Plans for the new building were drawn by a New York City architect named G.E. McKay and the construction contract awarded to G.A. Miller, a local contractor. The building was completed in November, 1929 and was open for business by January, 1930. The new store fronted on both Franklin Street and Florida Avenue, its nearly identical facades bearing the Renaissance Revival style features which had been favored for decades by many American designers followed the tripartite system of articulation which had come into vogue in the 1890's: dividing the building into distinct treatments for the lower story, the intermediate stories, and the uppermost story, including the cornice or crown. Although stylistically conservative in approach, the building is enlivened by the coloristic effects of the terra cotta details in the spandrels and tympanums, and on the pilasters and cornices.

Not only the polychrome decorative elements, but also the simulated granite facing of the building is of architectural terra cotta. Architectural terra cotta was widely used in American commercial architecture during the 1920s and 30s, and many of Tampa's downtown buildings dating from that period evidence at least a limited, decorative use of it. Few other downtown buildings, however, employ terra cotta as extensively as the Kress building. Some of the more notable examples, also located on Franklin Street, are the Tampa Theater, erected in 1926, and the old First National Bank Building, also erected in 1926.

The Franklin Street store prospered during the 1930s and 40s, and the Kress Company reached its sales peak nationwide in 1952 but afterward declined steadily. In 1963 S.H. Kress & Co. was bought by Genesco, Inc. The Franklin Street store closed in 1980.

Building Description

The four-story former S.H. Kress and Co. building is located on the east side of the 800 block of Franklin Street in the heart of downtown Tampa. The building is flanked on the south by the three-story F.W. Woolworth Company building, erected in 1941, and on the north by the J.J. Newberry store, erected in 1940. Like the Kress building, the Newberry store is vacant. In the vicinity of the Kress building are a variety of small and high-rise commercial buildings, including the seventeen-story Floridan Hotel, erected in 1926, and the thirty-five-story First National Bank, completed in 1973.

The Kress building is a masonry and steel skeleton structure. The steel members have been encased in concrete for fireproofing; the floors are poured concrete and the walls brick faced with architectural terra cotta. Most of the interior furnishings and original features have been removed; however, there are still some significant details on the walls and ceiling of the first floor.

The building has a frontage of fifty-three feet on both Franklin Street and Florida Avenue and extends through the block 210 feet. The interior is divided into five floors, including the basement, and has 55,000 feet of floor space. The Franklin Street and Florida Avenue facades are basically the same design. However the Florida Avenue (east) facade is slightly wider owing to the existence of the stairway connecting the floors. The stairway is lighted by a small window at each landing. To accommodate this feature, the pilaster at the northeast corner of the building was widened; however, it has been decoratively treated in a fashion very similar to the other colossal pilasters on the two facades.

Basically, each facade has been divided vertically into three parts. The first floor and mezzanine level (actually a sort of clerestory) are treated as a massive rusticated base, in the manner of a Renaissance Italian palazzo. A suspended bronze marquee separates the street entrance from the mezzanine windows. Each marquee is crested with a band of anthemions in bold relief and in the center is a large cartouche bearing the letter "K".

The mezzanine windows are recessed and set into metal frames. There are no decorative surrounds except for the rusticated straight or "jack" arches above them. Above the arches is a sharply projecting table or course of masonry which on the Florida Avenue facade bears the sign "S.H. Kress and Co." The sign on the Franklin Street facade is no longer extant.

The intermediate portion of each facade has a veneer of smooth flush jointed ashlar. The fenestration of the upper three stories is set into recessed bays and separated by spandrels decorated with swags and cartouches. The fourth story windows are arched and have eight-pointed stars in their tympanums. Cable moldings accentuate the edges of the window recesses.

The crown of each facade features an entablature surmounted by a paneled parapet. The entablature consists of a simple molded architrave with a dentil band, a frieze composed of a series of arches resting on modillions which frame red and blue shields, and a molded cornice decorated with an acanthus pattern.

The high parapet features pedestals whose dadoes are decorated with relief panels and paneled walls whose dividers are similarly decorated. The central, and somewhat larger, panel contains the word "KRESS" in bold relief executed in terra cotta with a gold metallic glaze. Atop this center panel is an escutcheon supported by scroll brackets. The inner pedestals which flank the central panel are also supported by scroll brackets.

Very few original interior furnishings or finishes remain in the Kress building. The basement still has a portion of its original wooden shelves in place, and those on the first floor, although they have been removed from the walls, are stored in the building. All the display cases, lunch counter furnishings, and equipment have been removed. Also gone are the storage bins that were once found on the three upper floors. These floors are vast lofts which were used primarily for the storage of retail merchandise, rotating seasonal displays, advertising aids, and other equipment. The only areas partitioned off on the upper floors were a small office on the second floor and the restrooms for the employees.

The first or main sales floor does contain some significant features on the walls and ceiling. The walls have colossal paneled pilasters with composite capitals. These support the grid of the beams supporting the upper floor which are also paneled and decorated with floral or biomorphic patterns. The coffers between the beams also have similar designs.

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida East elevation - Florida Avenue (1981)
East elevation - Florida Avenue (1981)

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida West elevation - Franklin Street Mall (1981)
West elevation - Franklin Street Mall (1981)

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida Ground floor (1981)
Ground floor (1981)

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida Third floor typical upper floor (1981)
Third floor typical upper floor (1981)

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida Basement (1981)
Basement (1981)

S.H. Kress and Co. Building, Tampa Florida East elevation (1923)
East elevation (1923)