New-York tribune., 1918-03-06
Greenhut Store
Gives Up Fight;
To Close Doors
Famous Sixth Avenue
House Soon to Retire
From Business
Made Long Struggle
Assets Are Ample to Pay
All Creditors in
Full
Made Long Struggle

Greenhut Company's store at Eigh-
teenth Street and Sixth Avenue, the
last Of the line of department stores
that once bordered that thoroughfare
from Fourteenth to Twenty third
Street, is about 10 discontinue busi-
ness.
In announcing this yesterday, Bene-
dict j. Greenhut, president of the con-
Germ, said that all creditors would be
paid promptly and in full and that
there would remain 4 substantial sur
plus to be divided among the stock
holders OF the company.
The closing of Greenhut's, formerly
Siegel- -Cooper's, and knowp for nearly
a generation as THE Big Store" ends
an epoch in the history of the city's
drygoods establishments.
Only d short time ago this store was
considered one of the mercantile Won
ders Of the city. It's fountain. which
stood in the centre of the ground floor
became known from coast to coast
through the advertising slogan, Meet
Me at the Fountain"
Mr.. Greenhut and his father. J. B.
Greenhut, took over the store sixteen
years ago. Since then the character of
Sixth Avenue has changed. Firm after
firm that conducted big department
stores there either moved or have gone
out of business. O'Neill's, Enrich j.
Adams's and others have disappeared
The Big Store" the last to hold on. is
now about TO follow in their trail.
Mr.. Greenkut's statement follows:
ut has been determined to discon-
tinue the business Of the Greenhut
Company. In arriving at this decision
the board of directors have been in
duenced by considerations based on
special conditions affecting the busi-
ness and also upon business conditions
generally.
in connection with the discontinue
of merchandise will be disposed of a
retail as speedily as possible. Prepare
tions are now being made for serie
of special sales. Full details of suct
liquidation sales will hereafter be give,
in daily newspaper advertisements
"All creditors will be promptly pai,
in full. and all obligations of the com
pany of every kind will be met Their,
will beja substantial surplus remainin;
on hand for distribution among tn
stockholders of the company"
Men high in drygoods circles dis
cussed yesterday the puzzling fact tina
WINE ol&ll avenue ana ElEnteenLf
Street have been proved to be bae
location for department store tho
business is hourishing as never before
few blocks lower, on Fourteenth
Street.
MI Greenhut has made a gallan
fight dgairst condtons," one of these
men said. at was simply case Of
storekeepers' neighborhood movln.
away from him. There was no remedy
and the end had to come sooner O
/ later.
"A remarkable feature of the deca,
in that particular neighborhood as
shopping centre is that it left -four
ishing centre only a few blocks to tn
south.
Fourteenth Street was never $,
prosperous in the dry goods field as j
is to-day. 1t has established itself a
the great shopping outlet from tn
populous East Side, and bids fair It
hold its own in that capacity for in
definite years to come
But from Eighteenth Street W
Sixth Avenue and round on Twenty
third Street TO Broadway, once tn
fashionable Mecca for shoppers, tn,
decline has been one of the most com
plete metamorohoses in the northwart
| growth of the city"