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Wooster department store is last of its kind
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:36 p.m. EST, Feb 21, 2009
WOOSTER:These are the final few days of an American phenomenon.
Freedlander's, described as the last remaining locally owned downtown department store in the United States, will close Saturday, ending a 125-year run as a Wayne County institution.
Store President Mary Alice Streeter said Freedlander's is simply a victim of changing times.
''People don't come downtown like they used to,'' she said. ''More than 50 percent of our business came from outside of Wooster — from people from Akron and Ashland and Mansfield.''
There wasn't another store like it around ''that had the quality and better names of merchandise,'' she said.
Freedlander's had Christmas windows during the holiday season, a toy store, men's and women's tailors and home delivery, Streeter said.
She called the store the center of downtown Wooster.
''This was the information hub of Wooster,'' she said.
Shortly after saying those words, a man walked in the front door and asked her the location of the courthouse.
''It's right next door, sir,'' Streeter told him.
The other downtown department store in Wooster, the William Annat Co., closed in 1991.
In Akron, the Yeager Co. department store closed in 1961, Polsky's downtown store closed in December 1978 and the O'Neil's downtown store closed in 1989.
Freedlander's, a 90,000-square-foot building with three stories and a basement at 125 W. Liberty St., will be torn down. Developer Mike Rose will build a retail and condominium project in its place.
On racks in the portion of the store still open for business are items on sale at up to 75 percent off. At 10 a.m. Saturday, an auction will be held to sell fixtures and other remaining items.
Freedlander's was founded by David Freedlander in 1884, with his first store called the Buffalo One Price Clothing Store, Streeter said. It was on the east side of South Market Street, between the Wooster square and South Street.
''The cardinal principle of the founder of this business was David's strict 'one-price' policy,'' she said.
Customers of the era were used to bartering for products, but Freedlander's policy was to hold to one price, she explained.
The business moved to its current location in 1896. Two years later, David Freedlander died and his oldest son, Herman Freedlander, took over at the age of 17.
The store remained in the family until Harold Freedlander, Herman's son, sold it to a group of local investors in 1990.
In 1999, current owner Stanley Gault, former chairman at both Goodyear and Rubbermaid, bought the store.
Gault, 83, who grew up in Wooster and regularly shopped at the store all his life, said he purchased Freedlander's because he not only wanted to see the downtown anchor remain open, but also he wanted the workers to remain employed.
And there was another reason.
''I kept it open for 10 years — until, hopefully, a new library would be built,'' Gault said.
The Wayne County Library District's new 45,000-square-foot Liberty Street Library opened in 2007 in downtown Wooster.
Freedlander's, Gault said, was ''just not viable'' any longer, but he is excited about the retail/condo complex that will rise on the site.
A community presence
The closing was announced ast July, and the months since have been tough, Streeter said.
''It has been difficult for the employees,'' she said.
At its peak in the 1950s, there were about 100 employees. The number has dwindled to about 10.
''The thing that gets me is all the people I have grown to know over the past 18 years,'' said Phil Roberts, 43, who has worked in the men's department all that time. ''A lot of those gentlemen are retired now.''
Roberts, of Wooster Township, is not sure what he will do after the store closes, but ''I will be here until the end.''
Long-time customer Lori Voltz, 42, of Smithville, stopped by last week with her mother, Donna Specht, 69, of Apple Creek.
Specht said she started going to the store as a girl and then brought her own children.
''I know a lot of people will miss it,'' she said.
Her daughter said that even when she moved to Arkansas for several years, she always stopped by Freedlander's on trips home.
Her husband, Troy Voltz, and his family, from Holmes County, shopped at Freedlander's as well, she said.
As a girl growing up in Wooster, she said, she spent considerable time at the Wooster fixture.
''It was an awesome store,'' she said.
There was no Wal-Mart at the time. It was Freedlander's that had ''whatever you needed.''
She said the big shopping malls don't ''have the feel that Freedlander's had — the wood floors, the toy store in the basement.''
She took her two sons, Brandon, 20, and Bryan, 19, to Freedlander's when they were younger, and they still shop there, she said.
''I can't believe it's closing,'' she said. ''It's where you grew up.''
Streeter said the last day will be hard for the community.
''It is so huge and such a presence,'' she said.
For the workers, Streeter said, the final day will be hard to witness.
''Their hearts are here,'' she said.
WOOSTER:These are the final few days of an American phenomenon.
Freedlander's, described as the last remaining locally owned downtown department store in the United States, will close Saturday, ending a 125-year run as a Wayne County institution.
Store President Mary Alice Streeter said Freedlander's is simply a victim of changing times.
''People don't come downtown like they used to,'' she said. ''More than 50 percent of our business came from outside of Wooster — from people from Akron and Ashland and Mansfield.''
There wasn't another store like it around ''that had the quality and better names of merchandise,'' she said.
Freedlander's had Christmas windows during the holiday season, a toy store, men's and women's tailors and home delivery, Streeter said.
She called the store the center of downtown Wooster.
''This was the information hub of Wooster,'' she said.
Shortly after saying those words, a man walked in the front door and asked her the location of the courthouse.
''It's right next door, sir,'' Streeter told him.
The other downtown department store in Wooster, the William Annat Co., closed in 1991.
In Akron, the Yeager Co. department store closed in 1961, Polsky's downtown store closed in December 1978 and the O'Neil's downtown store closed in 1989.
Freedlander's, a 90,000-square-foot building with three stories and a basement at 125 W. Liberty St., will be torn down. Developer Mike Rose will build a retail and condominium project in its place.
On racks in the portion of the store still open for business are items on sale at up to 75 percent off. At 10 a.m. Saturday, an auction will be held to sell fixtures and other remaining items.
Freedlander's was founded by David Freedlander in 1884, with his first store called the Buffalo One Price Clothing Store, Streeter said. It was on the east side of South Market Street, between the Wooster square and South Street.
''The cardinal principle of the founder of this business was David's strict 'one-price' policy,'' she said.
Customers of the era were used to bartering for products, but Freedlander's policy was to hold to one price, she explained.
The business moved to its current location in 1896. Two years later, David Freedlander died and his oldest son, Herman Freedlander, took over at the age of 17.
The store remained in the family until Harold Freedlander, Herman's son, sold it to a group of local investors in 1990.
In 1999, current owner Stanley Gault, former chairman at both Goodyear and Rubbermaid, bought the store.
Gault, 83, who grew up in Wooster and regularly shopped at the store all his life, said he purchased Freedlander's because he not only wanted to see the downtown anchor remain open, but also he wanted the workers to remain employed.
And there was another reason.
''I kept it open for 10 years — until, hopefully, a new library would be built,'' Gault said.
The Wayne County Library District's new 45,000-square-foot Liberty Street Library opened in 2007 in downtown Wooster.
Freedlander's, Gault said, was ''just not viable'' any longer, but he is excited about the retail/condo complex that will rise on the site.
A community presence
The closing was announced ast July, and the months since have been tough, Streeter said.
''It has been difficult for the employees,'' she said.
At its peak in the 1950s, there were about 100 employees. The number has dwindled to about 10.
''The thing that gets me is all the people I have grown to know over the past 18 years,'' said Phil Roberts, 43, who has worked in the men's department all that time. ''A lot of those gentlemen are retired now.''
Roberts, of Wooster Township, is not sure what he will do after the store closes, but ''I will be here until the end.''
Long-time customer Lori Voltz, 42, of Smithville, stopped by last week with her mother, Donna Specht, 69, of Apple Creek.
Specht said she started going to the store as a girl and then brought her own children.
''I know a lot of people will miss it,'' she said.
Her daughter said that even when she moved to Arkansas for several years, she always stopped by Freedlander's on trips home.
Her husband, Troy Voltz, and his family, from Holmes County, shopped at Freedlander's as well, she said.
As a girl growing up in Wooster, she said, she spent considerable time at the Wooster fixture.
''It was an awesome store,'' she said.
There was no Wal-Mart at the time. It was Freedlander's that had ''whatever you needed.''
She said the big shopping malls don't ''have the feel that Freedlander's had — the wood floors, the toy store in the basement.''
She took her two sons, Brandon, 20, and Bryan, 19, to Freedlander's when they were younger, and they still shop there, she said.
''I can't believe it's closing,'' she said. ''It's where you grew up.''
Streeter said the last day will be hard for the community.
''It is so huge and such a presence,'' she said.
For the workers, Streeter said, the final day will be hard to witness.
''Their hearts are here,'' she said.
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