Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Christmas at F. W. Woolworth....in Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario


Here is a B&W photo of F. W. Woolworth five and dime store right here on Victoria Ave. in Fort William Ontario(now Thunder Bay...and sorry, I don't have a winter shot), taken in about 1950 when Woolworth's was at its peak of business. As mentioned in a previous post, this store is now an art gallery and is located in the present day Victoriaville Centre. The second photo is of their fountain menu(you'll have to click on this one and all the others to observe the detail) and finally the very recognizable red and gold marquis.

The F. W. Woolworth company (Woolworth's) was a retail company that was one of the original North American five-and-dime stores. The first Woolworth store was founded with a loan of $300.00 in 1879 to Frank Winfield Woolworth. Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980's. The chain went out of business in 1997 when the company decided to focus on the Foot Locker division and renamed itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc.(thanks wikipedia)
The above are pictures of a couple of early shoppers catalogs and how an entrance to a Christmas toy department there would look.
The following photos show you what an older Woolworth store in the 1950's might look like inside around the Christmas season.

Enlarge this inside store shot to see all the Revell "Big" models for sale high on the back shelf(Big "T", Big Tub, etc.


How many of your old toys do you still have??


Great package art!!

We still have a couple of these bottle brush wreaths around somewhere.
Most of the above pictures are courtesy of the National Christmas Centre in Pennsylvania.
BE SURE TO CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO SEE THE DETAIL.
Merry Christmas....hope you enjoy these!....more seasonal stuff to come!

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