Acquisition date 1998 | ||
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Founded 1874, Augusta, Georgia, United States Parent organizations Dillard's, Mercantile Stores Company, Inc. | ||
J. B. White was a department store chain in the Southeastern United States founded in Augusta, Georgia in 1874 by James Brice White, an Irish immigrant. In the early 1910s, White sold the store to the H.B. Calvin Company, owner of Lord & Taylor. The store's initial offerings included clothing, furniture, appliances and community programs.
Owned by now-defunct Mercantile Stores for most of its existence, most locations of the chain were in South Carolina, though locations existed in Augusta and Savannah. Most locations became Dillard's when the Mercantile Stores chain was sold in 1998 for $2.9 billion; some J. B. White locations in overlapping areas became Belk. In Augusta, the original downtown store added three suburban branches over time. The last of these opened at Augusta Mall in 1998 after relocating from the failing Regency Mall and was quickly changed over. The Savannah location opened at Savannah Mall in 1990.
The defunct Augusta, Georgia store on Broad Street was purchased in June 2007 to be converted into condominiums.