Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Joseph R. Harris Co.

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Industry
  
Founded
  
1916

Defunct
  
?

Fate
  
Sell out, leading to bankruptcy

Key people
  
Joseph R. Harris, founder

Products
  
Fashion apparel, shoes, accessories, and cosmetics.

Headquarters
  
Washington, D.C., United States

Joseph R. Harris Co. was a Washington, D.C.-based chain of women's apparel stores.

Contents

History

The chain was founded in 1916, in Washington, D.C. by Joseph R. Harris. By the time of its sale in 1971, to the retail conglomerate Garfinckel, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads, Inc., it had grown to nine locations in the Washington, D.C. area, and branches in Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. The company's founder retired as board chairman that same year.

In 1978, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based retailer Gamble-Skogmo, Inc. purchased a 20-percent share of the Garfinckel conglomerate from the Joseph R. Harris family, thereby gaining a controlling interest in it. A court suit resulted in an agreement that Gamble-Skogmo would not acquire any more stock in Garfinckel. The following year, Garfinckel sold the Joseph R. Harris Co., then renamed Harris & Friends, to the Petrie Stores Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, Harris had 26 stores in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and the District of Columbia.

Flagship store

The original location was at 1212 F Street, NW, in the downtown core shopping district of Washington, D.C. In 1929, they moved to 1224 F Street, NW. The chains final flagship store opened in 1965, and was located at 1336 F Street, NW; a 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) store located in space formerly occupied by Capitol Theater in the National Press Building. The site is now occupied by The Shops at National Place.

References

Joseph R. Harris Co. Wikipedia


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