Vacant Sears Department Store and Catalog Sales Warehouse TN
Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog Distribution Center and Retail Store, Memphis Tennessee
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- Tennessee
- Warehouse
- Retail
- Department Store
- George Nimmons
- Sears Company

The Sears Roebuck & Company Catalog Distribution Center and Retail Store (Sears Crosstown or Crosstown) was built in 1927, part of an important phase in the development of one of America's major retailers, during which Sears dramatically changed the way it served customers. By 1967 the complex was at its peak, with over 2,000 employees. Around 1958, the importance of the Sears Crosstown store was starting to be eclipsed as a retail center by Sears' newer store at Laurelwood on Perkins Extended at Poplar Avenue. Construction of the garage in 1964 was an effort to retain the Crosstown store's importance for retail sales. The Crosstown store was shifted in focus to the sale of surplus goods in early 1983; the retail store closed entirely in September of the same year. The catalog distribution function of the building remained in use until 1993, when all catalog sales nationwide at Sears were discontinued. Operations were relocated to newer warehouse facilities in other parts of the city, and the building was abandoned. It has remained vacant since.
Sears Roebuck & Company began to develop retail stores for the first time beginning in 1925, most in combination with regionally based mail order warehouses, and the Memphis facility in 1927 was one of the last three catalog centers to be opened before the onset of the Great Depression (The final facility, a catalog-only warehouse, was developed in Greensboro, NC in 1947.). While Sears had developed similar catalog distribution warehouses in Chicago (1905), Dallas (1910), >Kansas City (1913), and Seattle (1915) before World War I, it was the 1925 shift to the development of direct retail stores that made Sears' expansion campaign hugely successful, quickly making Sears Roebuck & Company the nation's largest retail merchant by the mid-1950s. The retail operations at the Crosstown building ceased in 1983.
The vocabulary of the Art Moderne style was introduced to Memphis with the construction of this building and the high-rise Farnsworth Building (E. L. Harrison and Noland Van Powell, architects; 88 Union Avenue), both completed in 1927. Both buildings share qualities as skyscrapers in their height; they share plain, flat surfaces and crisp edges; and, their decoration, while limited in scope, is made up of stylized geometric and foliated patterns-- all of which are hallmarks of the Art Moderne style. However, George C. Nimmons' design for the Sears Roebuck building also employs other iconic traits, such as the stepped set back of the building's mass as it rises from its base, and the employment of ribbed pylons that extend through the roof to further emphasize the building's height, unencumbered by the weight of a cornice or parapet. E. L. Harrison was by far Memphis' most prolific architect who worked in the Art Moderne style, and he went on to design others like the Keithley Pie Factory (1928, now demolished, 2265 Young Avenue); the Memphis Light Gas and Water Gas Meter Division building (1928, 826 Beale Street); and, Fairview School (1930, 750 East Parkway), but his work never reached the comparable height of the Art Moderne expression as Nimmons' design for the Sears Roebuck building. The only other building designed in the Art Moderne style that came close in its qualities is Kimbrough Towers, designed by Herbert Burnham and completed in 1939, at a time when the Art Moderne style was waning in popularity in favor of Modernism.
The Rise of a Retail Giant
The history of Sears Roebuck & Company is legendary, as is its place in American life. Begun in 1886 in Minnesota by Richard W. Sears (1863-1914) and joined later with his partner, Alvah C. Roebuck (1864-1948), Sears Roebuck & Company grew to become one of the world's largest companies at its peak in the 1970s. The foundation of the retail giant was in sales from its mail-order catalog, the first copy of which was printed in 1889, though it was not until the company moved to Chicago in 1893 that the Sears Roebuck & Company catalog was published annually.
Sears's original sales strategy was simply to target a largely rural farm audience who had only limited access to a variety of retail outlets, and offer well-made, low-priced goods that might otherwise only be found in the largest cities. Thus, the company took on the role as "buyer for the American farm", as they proudly proclaimed. The convenience of shopping by mail from home was made even more attractive through the company's iron-clad money back guarantee, and the ability to acquire parts and service for anything from a cast iron plow to a gold pocket watch. With these standards in hand, Sears's sales skyrocketed from just over $1.0 million in 1895, to $10.0 million in 1900.
The logistical problems brought about by such rapid growth required the company to seek a new way of efficiently processing orders and moving goods to a focal point in the shipping department. Employing the proceeds from the first public sale of stock in the company in 1906, Sears built its first headquarters warehouse and distribution center in Chicago (Sears Roebuck & Co. Complex, 925 Hoffman Avenue). In this 3.0 million square foot building and its adjoining administrative campus designed by Nimmons and Fellows, Sears developed the means to efficiently move goods via overhead and belted conveyors, slides, tracked trolleys, pneumatic tubes and many other devices to fill the thousands of orders that came into the company each day. Sears also opened its first satellite distribution center in Dallas in the same year (now "Southside on Lamar" apartments, 1409 South Lamar Street), reflecting the rapid growth seen in the South and Southwest at this time. A West Coast distribution center was opened in Seattle in 1910 (now Starbuck Corporation Headquarters, 2465 Utah Street), followed by a Midwest center in North Kansas City in 1913 (715 North Armour Road). The year 1920 saw the construction of a distribution center in Philadelphia to serve the East Coast (Nimmons 1921, demolished 1994).
By the early-1920s, Sears's sales were beginning to lag, in large part because the farm audience for Sears' products were becoming increasingly more mobile as rural roads improved and the car became a more common way to get to town than the horse or the train. At the same time, urban areas were growing, with retail sales in urban department stores growing along with them. Sears and mail order rival, Montgomery Ward, were slow to recognize the trend. Sears reacted first by opening a retail store in Chicago in 1925, adding seven others over the next year, four of which were located in the regional catalog centers in Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas and Kansas City. By the end of 1928, Sears had opened 192 stores that added a $107 million in annual sales volume. The addition of retail stores put new pressures on the company's distribution network, and so new centers containing retail stores were opened in Atlanta (1926; 675 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE), Memphis (1927), Minneapolis (1928; 2929 Chicago Avenue, South), Boston (1928; 309 Park Drive and 201 Brookline Avenue), and finally Los Angeles (1928; 2650 Olympic Boulevard). The final distribution center in the Sears' supply chain was built as a free-standing building in Greensboro, N.C. in 1947.
The development of new distribution center stores and stand-alone stores was only one part of the revolutionary strategy being carried out by Sears in conjunction with the opening of the Memphis store. Another key element was to select locations for Sears stores in suburban areas, rather than in the central business districts of cities where competing department stores were located, including new retail stores opened by Montgomery Ward. This radical strategy recognized the developing impact that the automobile was having on retail sales, and Sears stores accommodated the automobile by providing large, paved parking lots, and in the case of the largest stores, service stations where gas could be purchased and new tires changed when purchased in the store. This effectively became the model leading to the suburban retail center or shopping mall containing a major tenant as an anchor, which became commonplace across America after World War II. It was likely not a coincidence, then, that the location of the Memphis Sears on North Watkins/North Cleveland Street between Poplar Avenue and North Parkway placed the store at the center of the city's eastern suburbs of the 1920s. The location of the store just off of North Parkway also meant easy access for the driving public.
Development of the Memphis Hub
The construction of the Memphis Catalog Distribution Center and Retail Store building is a remarkable story that clearly demonstrates Sears's ability to "move heaven and earth" to accomplish its goals, for the entire Memphis building project, from land acquisition to ribbon cutting to open the 650,000 square foot building, required only a little more than eight months to complete. The site was selected by Sears's executives early in January of 1927, and their decision to select the North Watkins site was made in part on the location of the site adjacent to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which was a major shipper of Sears's goods. Acquisition of the 16-acre site was first announced to the public on January 30th of 1927; rezoning of the site from residential to commercial use was approved by the City Council on February 15th and, groundbreaking for the building occurred on February 22nd(Commercial-Appeal August 26th 1927; Press-Scimitar August 27th, 1927).
Over the next six months, hundreds of workmen were employed in the project day and night, six days a week, with employment swelling to more than 2,000 at the peak of construction. The $5.0 million project met the goals of the company to have the retail store and catalog center up and running well in advance of the 1927 Christmas season. In support of the company's investment, the City of Memphis in turn spent $100,000 in the development of a new streetcar line, running past Sears' front door, connecting Poplar Avenue with Faxon Avenue, and completed its construction in 84 days (the north-south line connected two other street car lines "across town," thus giving birth to the place name of Crosstown to the area surrounding Sears). The inaugural run of the trolley line took place on the morning of August 26th1927 in conjunction with the opening of the new Sears building. Following remarks by Mayor Rowlett Payne and Julius Rosenwald, then Chairman of the Board of Sears Roebuck & Company, the new store and catalog plant were opened for inspection by the public. Not everyone chose to ride the new trolley to come to the new store, and instead drove there, parking in the paved 1,500-space parking lot adjacent to the building on the south, itself something of a revolutionary idea. By the end of the day, it was reported that more than 47,000 people had taken up the invitation to tour the new store and the operations of the catalog center (Commercial-Appeal May 7th, 1958).
George C. Nimmons, Architect
George C. Nimmons (1865-1947), the architect for the Memphis center, was a prolific designer of industrial, warehouse, and mercantile buildings in America, including most, if not all major buildings constructed for Sears Roebuck & Company from ca. 1905 through ca. 1955. Nimmons began his career in the office of Burnham and Root in Chicago in 1887, and one of his notable contributions that bringing attention to his abilities was his interior design for the Great Northern Hotel, designed by Burnham and built 1890-92 in anticipation of the Chicago World's Fair. In 1897, Nimmons broke off from Burnham to form his own firm with William K. Fellows (1870-1948), but then in 1910, broke with Fellows to form his own firm, George C. Nimmons & Company. Nimmons' was considered a leader in the field of structural design for industrial and warehouse buildings, particularly in the use of reinforced concrete structural frames (Western Architect January 1916:1). He took on partners George W. Carr and Clark C Wright in 1933, and remained senior partner in the firm of Nimmons, Clark and Wright until his retirement in 1945.
Apart from his work with Sears Roebuck, Nimmons's firm was responsible for many other notable Chicago-area projects, including the Arthur Dixon Building (1908, 411 South Wells Street, no longer extant); the Reid, Murdoch & Company Building (1914, 325 North LaSalle Street); the C. P. Kimball & Company automotive factory (1914, Michigan Avenue, no longer extant); the New Franklin Building (1912, South Dearborn Street); the American Furniture Mart (1924, 666 North Lake Shore Drive); the Commonwealth Edison Service Building (1926, now Pilsen Industrial Center, South Throop Street); Richard Sears' summer home in Gray's Lake, Illinois; and, Julius Rosenwald's residence in Chicago, among others.
His success at blending architectural design and industrial function caused Nimmons to be awarded the A.I.A.'s 1921 Gold Medal in Industrial Design for his design for the "Eastern Store" of the Sears Roebuck & Company, a catalog distribution center built in Philadelphia in 1920 (demolished 1994); the same qualities in design that he was able to deliver in the Philadelphia project were also carried on to each of his other buildings for Sears Roebuck. From a functional standpoint, Nimmons also had to meet the rigorous demands of Sears Roebuck in their use of the building. Each of the distribution centers he designed for Sears beginning in 1906 were built in reinforced concrete to support the massive loads of merchandise to be stored in each, using a grid of structural piers spaced 20 feet on center. This standardized approach to the structural design permitted Sears's industrial engineers to design modular equipment for the movement and sorting of merchandise that could not only fit into any workspace within the building, but also be able to fit into any workspace in every other Sears catalog distribution warehouse in its network. Each of the centers was also designed with expected additions, to be constructed in seamless integration with the rest of the structure without disrupting ongoing operations.
The exterior architectural character of the Memphis distribution center was similar in design and massing to that of each of the Art Moderne buildings designed by Nimmons and constructed during the latter half of 1925-1929 Sears expansion program, including the centers at Minneapolis (1927-28), Boston (1928-30), and Los Angeles (1928). Earlier centers constructed in Atlanta (1925) and Kansas City (second building, 1925) were somewhat similar in massing, but designed in a form of the Industrial Gothic Revival design. A feature of all of the Sears distribution centers and many of its early stand-alone retail stores is a central tower placed at the front of the building that was sometimes designed to include clock faces. The real purpose for the tower, though, was to hide a large water tank that was used to charge the building's sprinkler and plumbing systems by gravity feed. In the Memphis building, the tower also contained the elevator cores that serve the first eleven floors.
The Rise and Fall of the Crosstown Store
The Memphis Distribution Center and Retail Store had an immediate and immense impact on the Memphis retail environment. More than 1,000 people were employed to staff the original 53,000-square-foot retail store and to process the 45,000 orders that came into the catalog center each day (Commercial-Appeal August 26th1927). Sears's rapid-fire response to entering the business of retail sales caused growing pains and confusion, resulting in a company-wide reorganization. The management of the retail stores was separated from the operations of the regional distribution centers, and the number of regions reduced from ten to four, headquartered in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Memphis. The Memphis region included oversight for the distribution centers in Kansas City, Atlanta, and Dallas. The states for which the Memphis center was specifically responsible for catalog orders were Arkansas, Louisiana, Eastern Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Western Alabama, and Kentucky.
The profitability of the Memphis facility was highly touted by Sears's officials, hence the short succession of major additions to the building in 1929, 1937, 1941, 1964-65, and 1967. At its peak, ca. 1967, the Sears catalog center and retail store employed more than 2,000 people.
A service station was originally developed in 1927 and expanded in 1936 on-site at the corner of Autumn and Cleveland; this facility was demolished in 1984. The "Sears Farm Store" that exclusively sold agricultural goods was also developed off-site on the east side of North Watkins in 1944; it remained open until 1977. The parking garage on the property, first offered free parking to Sears' customers beginning in 1964. It was designed by Francis Edmond Davidson of Atlanta, Georgia. Davidson was born in Chicago in 1916 and worked as an engineer for Chrysler Corporation from 1940-45. He established F.E. Davidson, Architect, in 1945. In the 1962 AIA directory has was listed as being the Chief Architect for Sears Roebuck's southern territory since 1945.
The Sears catalog distribution center began to see subtle changes immediately following World War II. In October of 1945, Sears opened a new distribution warehouse complex designed by Nimmons, Carr & Wright located in a part of the former American Car Company complex at 2520-2594 Broad Avenue, which removed "large items" (carpeting, appliances, farm equipment, etc.) from storage in the Crosstown building. The new warehouse was served by the Illinois Central Railroad, not the Louisville & Nashville. Another Memphis distribution warehouse facility was developed in the new Alcy Johnson Freight Yard of the Illinois Central rail line in 1961; this, in turn, was replaced by a 3.0 million square foot warehouse at Panama and Meyers streets, adjacent to the Alcy Johnson Yard that consolidated three other warehouses for catalog merchandise. Whether a direct result of Sears's move towards the Illinois Central or not, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad spiraled down over the post-War period: eventually abandoning its Memphis right-of-way in 1982. Delivery service to the Sears Crosstown center had earlier switched completely to deliveries by tractor-trailer truck in 1964- 65.
The Sears Crosstown retail store began to lose its viability as a retail location with the opening of the city's interstate system in the 1960s and the rapid development of new subdivisions around the peripheral interstate loop. After World War II, the demographics of Memphis had changed, and the residential areas that originally attracted Sears to its Crosstown site were by then seen as areas of the inner city. The first new suburban location opened at 906 South Third Street (U.S. Highway 61). The next blow to the viability of the Crosstown store occurred with the opening of the Sears store at Laurelwood on May 7th 1958 (Commercial-Appeal May 8th 1958). Other new Sears stores were opened in suburban shopping malls developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and by then, sales at the Crosstown store were beginning to lag. Sears invested in a new parking garage in 1964 and then gave the store a "complete remodeling" in 1969, said to have been for the "first time in 42 years" (Press-Scimitar October 6th, 1969). The new image given the store by the remodeling helped the store to soldier on, but business gravitated to the outlying stores as suburbanization continued. The Crosstown store was shifted in focus to the sale of surplus goods in early 1983; the retail store closed entirely in September of the same year. The catalog distribution function of the building remained in use until 1993, when all catalog sales nationwide at Sears were discontinued. Operations were relocated to newer warehouse facilities in other parts of the city, and the building was abandoned. It has remained vacant since.
Site Description
The Sears Roebuck & Company Catalog Distribution Center and Retail Store is a ten-story, reinforced concrete frame building in the Art Moderne style designed by George C. Nimmons (1865-1947) of Chicago and built in 1927 with a central tower that extends the equivalent of six stories above the main block. It is situated on a 16-acre site at 495 North Watkins (a.k.a. 495 North Cleveland) that is bound by Autumn Avenue on the south and the former Louisville and Nashville Railroad right of way on the north. The original 1927 footprint of the building was roughly U-shaped in the first-floor plan, with a two-story wing containing a portion of the retail store located on the south and west, and the building's original power plant and railroad receiving docks located in a two-story wing on the north. The second floor was L-shaped, while the third floor and above were I-shaped. The main block of the building's frontage extended 20 bays in width along North Watkins Street, and originally ran 15 bays deep. The building contained an aggregate of 650,000 square feet of space at this time, 53,000 of which was dedicated to the building's retail function. An addition in 1929 provided for 80,000 square feet of additional retail space, making the 133,000 square foot store the largest single-tenant retail space developed in the city of Memphis prior to World War II. Other additions to the building were constructed on the south and west sides of the structure in 1937, 1941, 1965, and 1967 to increase the warehouse capacity and merchandise handling capability of the property. At the end of the 1967 building phase, the massive structure contained 1.365 million square feet, making it one of the largest, if not the largest building under one roof in Memphis even today.
The massing of the Memphis building is set upon a two-story high base that projects forward of the front (east) and side (north and south) facades of the original 1927 building block, and the base contains entrances expressed on the south, east, and north facades. The bulk of the building rises from the base seven stories to a plain flat parapet. The tenth floor of the building is then set back from this parapet on the three facades. The four-bay wide tower on the front (east) facade projects forward of the main building block and its base by two full bays; flanking the tower on the main block are one bay wide and deep "shoulders" that extend to a height of eleven stories, and thus accentuate the forward and upward thrust of the tower itself. The entrance at the base of the tower is set in a projecting entablature fabricated of smooth-faced cast stone blocks, with a parapet set back from the top edge of the entablature detailed with Art Moderne pylons and foliated motifs. The tower itself is detailed with expressed, plainly finished corners that flank a vertical recess that is four window bays in width. Each window bay is separated by a pilaster or pylon that extends upward beyond the line of the tower's parapet.
The exterior facades of the building are clad in load-bearing and veneered buff-colored brick masonry, with cast stone elements used on the principal facades of the original building block in belt courses, lintels, acroteria, pylons, parapets and other key decorative elements. The windows of the building are steel-frame casements in a variety of sizes and configurations, including, among others: nine-light, bottom sash hopper casements; eleven-light, center sash awning casements; twelve-light, double center sash awning casements; sixteen-light, double-center sash awning casements; and, twenty-five light, double-center sash awning casements, some in pairs but most in groups of three.
The south ell of the building extends west from the main block at a uniform height of ten stories and then drops to a wedge-shaped, two-story section appended to the building in 1965 to provide additional truck loading docks to replace the facility's original railroad-based shipping and receiving area. The ell is decorated only by the expressed exterior pilasters that separate window bays, and the grid made up of the large voids containing windows. The north ell of the building was separated from the south ell by a railroad siding that ended at the main block of the building. The north ell contained the building's original two-story powerhouse and heating plant. A portion of the rail spur was filled, roofed over and enclosed, and the north loading docks and bay doors were walled in ca. 1964-65 when railroad deliveries to the facility were discontinued completely in favor of deliveries by tractor-trailer trucks to the southern ell. The northern shipping and receiving area was used as a storage area thereafter.
The interior of the building is made up largely of vast open warehouse spaces on the third through tenth floors, with the character of the space defined only by the grid of cylindrical or square cast concrete support piers that have flared or flange-shaped "capitals." The open space areas are partitioned into administrative and employee support services in the main 1927 block of the structure on the second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and eleventh floors; most of these spaces have dropped ceilings and partition walls installed in 1965 through 1985. Retail and catalog sales areas were concentrated on the basement, first, and second floors of the main 1927 block and its 1929 addition. Both the retail areas and the administrative supporting spaces have seen periods of alteration over time, including the complete renovation of the retail store area in 1969. The movement of partition walls and the replacement of doors, trim and other features were complete enough so that only a handful of pre-1960 doors and other features remain in all of these spaces.
The greater balance of the building was either used for the storage of merchandise, or for the organization, collection, sorting, and shipping of catalog merchandise through a maze of chutes, conveyors, elevators, and other mechanisms. Much of this machinery remains in place but it appears that all of the original sorting apparatuses were replaced ca. 1964-65. The building was organized to provide storage on floors three and above for 35,000-plus products once offered in the Sears catalog. Merchandise pulled from the shelves on each floor was sent down an enclosed spiral slide, which then emptied out on a conveyer on the building's second floor. There, the customer's entire order would be assembled together, packaged, and delivered to the building's first floor for shipping.
An interesting set of spaces in the building are contained in the tower of the structure above the eleventh floor level, the most notable of which is the three-story tall "tank room", which contains the building's 70,000-gallon water tank and secondary tanks that pressurized the fire sprinklers.
The only other historic structure remaining on the property today is the parking garage, a reinforced concrete, five-level building covered with bands of alternating lozenge-and-rectangular-shaped pre-cast concrete panels. The 1,200-car garage was built in 1964 to designs prepared by architect F. E. Davidson.

The Memphis catalog distribution center and retail store, shown after its completion in 1927. Courtesy of the Sears Holdings Historical Archives (1927)

A group of Memphis dignitaries was photographed outside of the new Sears Roebuck building after arriving on the inaugural run of the Crosstown street car line. Mayor Rowlett Payne is the tall man standing at center in the light colored suit. Courtesy of the Sears Holdings Historical Archives (2007)

Julius Rosenwald, Chairman of the Board of Sears Roebuck, was in attendance and addressed the crowd at the grand opening of the Memphis catalog center and retail store. Courtesy of the Sears Holdings Historical Archives. (1927)

View of the Hat Department in the Memphis Sears Roebuck Store, taken prior to opening the doors to the public on August 27, 1927. Courtesy of Sears Holdings Historical Archives. (1927)

View of the Snack Counter, also taken on opening day in 1927. Courtesy of Sears Holdings Historical Archives. (1927)

This postcard of the Sears building is undated, but it does show the addition made to the building in 1929 and the neon sign added in 1941. Courtesy of the Sears Holdings Historical Archives (2007)

View of the side (north) and front (east) facades of the building, looking southwest across North Watkins Street (2007)

View of the tower. The scaffolding attached to the top of the structure was installed 1941 to hold large neon letters that spelled Sears on three of four faces (2007)

Front entrance, showing its distinctive design and current conditions (2007)

Parapet on the third floor above the entrance, showing its pylons decorated with foliated motifs (2007)

Side (south) facade and the building's tower, looking north along North Watkins Street (2007)

Side (south) facade of the building (2007)

Side (south) facade looking east, with the employee's entrance in the middle ground, and the south public entrance at right (white metal canopy) (2007)

Typical configurations and conditions of the steel casement windows on the building's south facade (2007)

Loading docks of the shipping and receiving area, and the two-story addition made in 1965 to the west end of the south wing (2007)

Long, deep back-sloped canopy that covers the loading docks of the shipping and receiving area on the building's south side (2007)

Side (south) facade of the building (2007)

Rear (west) facade of the 1965 addition (2007)

North (side) facade of the 1965 addition, looking northeast along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad right of way (2007)
