page_title: S. H. Kress & Co.
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: S. H. Kress & Co. / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Exterior Photo of the Kress building in Fort Worth, TX.
context_page_description: S. H. Kress & Co. was the trading name of a chain of "five and dime" retail department stores in the United States of America, established by Samuel Henry Kress, which operated from 1896 to 1981. In the first half of the 20th century, there were Kress stores with ornamented architecture on "Main Street" in hundreds of cities and towns.
context_section_description: The Kress chain was known for the architecture of its buildings. "Samuel H. Kress... envisioned his stores as works of public art that would contribute to the cityscape." A number of former Kress stores are recognized as architectural landmarks and many are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the 1913 building on Canal Street in New Orleans (now the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton) and  the 1929 neoclassical store in Asheville, North Carolina.
  Notable Kress architects include Seymour Burrell, who studied in New York with  architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, and Edward Sibbert, who designed more than fifty Art Deco S. H. Kress & Co. stores between 1929 and 1944.
  Sibbert's buildings streamlined the Kress image with a sleek buff modernity, the lavish use of terracotta ornament, and strong verticals supporting the golden letters “Kress”. Curved glass display windows led the shopper through heavy bronze doors into an interior of rich marbles, fine woods, and large customized counters set crosswise down a long sales floor. Well-positioned hanging lamps created a bright atmosphere for an endless array of inexpensive items (there were 4,275 different articles on sale in 1934). Everything – from the constantly restocked merchandise to the gracious retiring rooms and popular soda fountain in the basement – encouraged customers to linger. Like the great movie houses of the day, the dime store – and ‘Kress’s’ in particular – was a popular destination during hard economic times.
  Sibbert's Mayan Revival Kress store on Fifth Avenue in New York City was built in 1935 and demolished in 1980.
  A seven-story marble structure designed for every shopping comfort, its Art Deco elegance was graced by airborne Mayan gods on the sales floor and Mayan-style hieroglyphs of the gloves and padlocks and yard goods for sale. Awarded a gold medal for architectural quality, the store represented the zenith of the Kress empire in luxury, modernity, and retailing capacity.
  The downtown Kress store in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a characteristic example that shows the chain's use of elaborate exterior details including coats-of-arms, metal work, and inlaid artistic flourishes on the keystones and corners.
  The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., holds a permanent collection of Kress building "records, including thousands of drawings and photographs relating to the design, construction, and operation of more than 200 stores stretching from New York to Hawaii."
caption: Newly renovated Fort Worth, Texas, Kress building
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