Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-03-09
NeW MilliOn-D0Ilar Lansburgh
addition Opens Tomorrow Night
Store Covering 10 by IS Feet in 1860 No,O
Uses Nearly Six Acres-Only Its Policy
Remains Unchanged.

ate displays were becoming the fash
ion.
And on the night of the opening OF
| the store of "Lansburgh & Bro" at
this new address there was a gala
| opening and display for the inspec-
ton of the public much similar in
Idea If not in scope to the opening
| which will take place tomorrow night.
: Henry Lsnsburgh remembers that
night. He talks proudly of the show
! windows which 10000 persons striv
| ing to get into the store crashed in.
He smiles as he recites the damage
| caused by the over enthusiastic public
| that night.
a This building. then. became the
nucleus of what present day Wash
| ington knows as Lansburgh's. The
| only elevator in commercial
building in Washington was one of
| the unique features of that store.
All. there was inlaid wood: newly
| designed showcases; every effort Civ
| en- to meet the changing taste of the
public, which was rapidly becoming
more fastidious in its shopping. There
were four floors in this new building
with floor space of approximately
$4,000 feet, far less than one-tenth of
| what the present store will have with
its new addition.
So Lsnsburgh's stayed there until
the present day, augmenting from
time to time, as the demand broad
ened and became more insistent.
Shortly thereafter, No. 426 Seventh
street was taken over and incorporat
ed in the store, and then 42S Seventh
street. The expansion continued apace
during the steady but speedy develop
ment of the city. Finally the store
purchased the Kelliher estate prop
erty on Eighth street and erected a
high one-story building with sky
light therein. This skylight was for
the purpose of displaying silks and
fine goods under daylight illumination,
so that shoppers might see exactly
how the colors appeared under natural
light Parenthetically, this is another
commentary on the developing fasti-
diousness of Washingtons buying
public.
Another Important Addition.
The greatest, If not the most i'm
portant. addition to the store came
when the new building was erected
on Eighth street in 1916. Six stories
in heighth, this new, snow-white
structure made 1t possible to enlarge
the store to the point where 81 de-
partments were housed under one
roof.
The scope of washington's develop
Inent may De seen III the line VI
goods which were then placed on sale
in the store. Instead of a limited
variety of calico and linens of a few
decades back. the store then began
advertising the fact that the world.
from Alaska to Paris, contributed
articles which were sold in this en-
larged establishment. Fur from the
polar region; linens from England
and Scotland. laces from Ireland and
Belgium; fashions, jewelry and art
goods from the fashion seat, Paris
rugs and carpets from the Orient;
silks and satins from far countries.
More than 500 employees appeared
on the rolls by 1920; shopping serv-
ice had been instituted; the telephone
or the post office could be employed
as 4 purchasing agent by the pros
pective customer: all an outgrowth
of the little store over the Bank of
Washington.
Before the erection of the new ad-
dition, which will be thrown open to
the general inspection of the public
tomorrow night, Lansburgh & Bro.
had acquired 100000 square feet of
floor space and some $50 employees.
Acres Of Floor Space.
BY Wednesday the firm will have
formally taken over control OF 2bS,Oo0
square feet of floor space, which would
amount to something between five
and six acres of floors If stretched
out on the same plane.
That represents the physical de-
velopment of the store. There were
days in the past when Lansbursh's
was open as early as $50 o'clock in
the morning to accommodate that al
most extinct type of Washingtonian
who wanted to go shopping on the
way to market. And there were
times when the store did not close its
doors until late at night to accommo-
date others who were not able TO
spend other hours in daytime shop
ping.
On the whole, Lansburghs grew as
Washington grew; broadened as
Washington broadened; enlarged
lines of merchandise as the demand
for it became general.
In the background, growing into
the store as the years passed by was
an intrinsic something called policy,
which. despite it's intangibility, Is
valued by the proprietors today at
far higher figure than the materials
on the shelves and in the show cases.
For policy" is the magnet which
pulls goods off shelves and adds
bricks to structures.
Maxim of the Store.
The founders of the business, &C
cording to the Rambler, who seems
to know such things about everybody,
were full of good human nature, and
they mixed 1t with their business"
The maxim of the store, as quoted to-
day by Stanley Lansburgh, is: "A Gus
TONER'S money does not belong to us
unless that customer is entirely salts
fed"
These are the things that constitute
policy. With this sort OF back
ground, Lansburgh's was the first
name to be placed on the membership
roll of the Better Business Bureau,
which was organized here some time