621 S.W. Fifth (Fifth, Sixth, Morrison, and Alder)
Portland, Oregon 97204 (1857)
CApitol 7-4411
Basement Upper Level
Delicatessen • Groceries • Bakery • Gourmet & Wine Shop • Shoe Repair • M&F Budget Store
Basement Upper Level
M&F Budget Store • Customers' Service
Street Floor
Fine Jewelry • Jewelry • Watches • Fashion Accessories • Handbags • Leather Goods • Umbrellas • Gloves • Hosiery • Cosmetics • Toiletries • Drugs • Pharmacy • Hat Bar • Career Sportswear • Street Floor Blouses • Street Floor Sweaters • Top Shop • Scene I • Street Floor Lingerie-Sleepwear • Candy • Stationery • Notions • Camera Shop • Men’s Furnishings • Men’s Sportswear • Murphy & Finnegan • Tobacco Shop
Mezzanine
Watch Repair • Customer' Service Desk
Second Floor
Men’s Clothing • Men's Sportswear • Men’s Shoes • Men’s Hats
Young Fashion Floor Children’s • Infants’ • Layette • Boys’ Shop • Little Boys' Shop • The Establishment • Girls’ Shop • Little Girls' Shop • In Shop • The Hangout • Young Accessories • Young Peoples' Shoes
Third Floor
Dress Circle • Daytime Casuals • Casual Knits • Career Dresses • Coats and Suits • Sports Shop • Active Sportswear • Colony Shop • Pacesetter Shop • Perspectives • Town and Country • New Address • Tempo • Lownsdale Shop • Crest Room • Bagatelle Boutique • Fur Salon • Bridal Salon
Fourth Floor
Sleepwear Lingerie • Daywear Lingerie • Foundations • Junior Daywear • Robes • Maternity • Uniforms and Aprons • Millinery • Wig Bar • Career Shoes • Shoe Salon • Young Modern Shoes
Young Oregonian Shop Junior Dresses • Junior Sportswear • Coats • Addlib
Fifth Floor
Table Linens • Domestics • Pillows • Towels • Bath Shop • Candle & Flower • Fabric Center • Art Needle • Laces & Trimmings • Optical Service • Stamps and Coins • Photo Reflex Studio
Sixth Floor
Radio Headquarters • Television Headquarters • Stereo Headquarters • Musical Instruments • Record Headquarters • Books • Pet Shop • Sporting Goods Headquarters • Timberline Shop • World Travel Bureau
Seventh Floor
Curtains • Draperies • Pads • Rugs • Floor Coverings • Lamps • Studio of Interior Design • Wallpaper • Trim-a-Tree
Eighth Floor
China • Glassware • Crystal • Waterford • Clocks • Housewares • Cook’s Kitchen • Electricals • Appliance Headquarters • Hardware • Paints • Garden • Auto Accessories
Ninth Floor
Furniture • Gallery 9 • Patio Shop • Mattresses
Tenth Floor
The Georgian Room • The Pine Room Men’s Grill • The Coffee Shop • The Gift Shop • Antique Galleries • Auditorium
Eleventh Floor
Offices
Twelfth Floor
Beauty Salon • Credit Office • Cash Office • Friendly Employment Office
(685,000 sq. ft.)
 |
Salem Centre
Salem, OR
1955
186,000 sq. ft.
The Oregon Room
|
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Lloyd Center
Portland, OR
August, 1960
316,000 sq. ft.
59er Coffee Shop
The Aladdin Restaurant
|
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Valley River Center (1969)
Eugene, OR
186,000 sq. ft.
The Rotunda Restaurant
|
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Washington Square
Tigard, OR
August, 1973
150,000 sq. ft.
The Valley Room Restaurant
|
 |
Vancouver Mall
Vancouver, WA
August, 1977
120,000 sq. ft.
The Homestead Restaurant
|
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| Clackamas Town Center Clackamas, OR August, 1980 180,000 sq. ft. Restaurant |
Coming in due course.
A great name gone forever thanks to the Macy's assimilation. At 149 years old, one year OLDER than Macy's, Meier & Frank was the oldest extant department store on the West Coast at the time of the May/Federated merger. The customer loyalty and market share that Meier & Frank commanded to the very end was so great that Federated, who had Bon Marche stores in other areas of Oregon, never attempted to place a store in Portland.
ReplyDeleteAlso branches at:
ReplyDeleteThe Streets of Tanasbourne - Hillsboro, OR
Rogue Valley Mall - Medford, OR
Clackamas Town Center - Portland, OR
Acquired by acquisition of ZCMI:
Cottonwood Mall - Holladay, UT
Layton Hills Mall - Layton, UT
Fashion Place - Murray, UT
University Mall - Orem, UT
The Family Center at Riverdale - Riverdale, UT
ZCMI Center - Salt Lake City, UT
South Town Center - Sandy, UT
Valley Fair Mall - West Valley Center, UT
You might like to know that--aside from the restaurants on the 10th floor--there was a very large restaurant on the first basement level of the downtown M&F store.
ReplyDeleteVery cool blog entry. I worked for Meier and Frank in So. Oregon back in the mid-to-late 90s and enjoyed working there (most of the time lol). One of my favorite memories? Going up to Portland on my day off to the Georgian Tea Room with my daughter. Had my first Champagne cocktail there...and of course they served my girl a Shirley Temple
ReplyDeleteThere is a separate exhibit for ZCMI.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a note just for M&F but it is a note for the majority of stores on this site...remember the days when Department Stores were just that...they sold, EVERYTHING...records, books, stereos, TVs, fabrics...everything under one roof. The likes of this will NEVER be seen again!
ReplyDeleteI am 57 years old. I still have a Meier and Frank truck that I believe I got from Santa on the 10th floor downtown. It is Green and in pretty good shape.
ReplyDeleteThe Bon Marche and Meier and Frank had a gentleman's agreement to not operate opposing stores within seattle and portland. Reportedly this included a handshake agreement and was always a matter of contention between May and Federated parent companies. Meier and Frank was more than a store, it embodied the history of Oregon and was founded before Oregon became a state. The son of the founder became Governor of the state. The Meiers and the Franks dominated social life in Portland for over 100 years. Upon the initial sellout to May Company in 1966 the Meier children had all they wanted from the company and wanted quick riches, The Franks were forced out in a leveraged buy out a few years later. The Franks did manage to have a written clause in the May buyout that stated May Stores could never change the name of Meier and Frank. Before the merger with ZCMI, M&F was the smallest division ( 8 stores) left in May CO as the manifest destiny plan was for all store to be MAY. The sale to Macy's nullified that clause. Meier and Frank had the first air conditioned store on the west coast, the first elevator and longest escalator installation on the west coast. There was a full power plant in the basement so the store never had to suffer through the power failures that plagued downtown during floods and winters.
ReplyDeleteThere is one more Meier & Frank store in Oregon that isn't on the list here. The last branch store that they opened before the Macy's conversion was in Hillsboro at the Streets of Tanasborne. It was a big deal sometime in the 2000's because it was the first newly-built, original M&F store since Clackamas Town Center's branch store.
ReplyDeleteI'll always remember the Santa Land at the downtown store every year and the LONG escalator ride up to it! Kinda sad though that by the time I was a kid in the 80's, there were whole floors sitting unused, to the point that one floor (the 6th?) had only the escalator landing open to customers, with a wall around it. May REALLY let the flagship store go back then.
Does anyone remember Henry (Hank) Hunt? He worked at Meier and Frank in the mid 1940's? I am looking for his son Jerry Hunt. Thank you. dsc93232@hotmail.com Please put Hank Hunt in the subject line. Dianne
ReplyDeleteClark Gable worked in the shoe store in Portland. I sat next to him on an airplane going to Europe with my step-Father, Frank Meier. I never appreciated my step-Father before he died. I was young and knew nothing. As an adult, I am very grateful to my step-Father. God bless him.
ReplyDeleteSteve
I did a temp job a M&F back in 1998. The 6th floor was used for offices, so was the 13th. They had a lot of admin people on the 13th. (advertising). They still had a fur vault, which basically was a walk in refrigerator to keep furs from rotting. This was just before the consolidated the admin departments to Los Angeles and took over ZCMI
ReplyDeleteMy mother and i shopped at Meier & Frank in the 40s, never missing Friday Surprise! I ate my first soft ice cream at a stand up counter in M&fs basement!......and does anyone remember the ex-ray machine, where when you were buying shoes, you could enter your foot in at the bottom and look down from the top to see how your chosen shoe fits your foot? Kids remember things like that! Great memories of Meier and Frank from those days!
ReplyDeleteMy first job right out of HS was in Center Aisle, first floor at M&F, later in the Record dept, 6th floor, both of which I loved. Later I worked in Advertising, 13th floor, with Jack Cohen and Sam Weisenberg and about a dozen other wonderful people: a great experience and I loved my time there. I still think of M&F as the best dept store in the country, bar none!
ReplyDeleteI worked for M&F when I was going to college. I also remember buying a black and white poster sold by M&F in the early '70's. It had a lot of the highlights of the Portland metro area including things like the Pittock Mansion, Mt. Hood, St. Mary's Convent bell tower, etc. I found it when we were packing to move and couldn't wait to frame and hang it, but I couldn't find it once we moved. Does anyone have any idea where I might find a copy????
ReplyDeleteI worked on 13th floor in the sign shop next to display. Had a mad crush on Sam WEISENBERG.Iwas a 18 yr. old girl.He kept his distance. He told me I was misspelling most of signs,SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT.MAD BOMBER STRUCK .DETECTIVES ALL OVER STORE. HAD TO WORK THAT SATURDAY. WE WERE SOOOOO SCARED. BOMBER WANTED MONEY OR WOULD STRIKE AGAIN.LEFT PORTLAND AND WENT TO SANFRANCISCO TO WORK AT MACYS
ReplyDeleteI have been watching the "Mr Selfridge" series on PBS where the store reminds me so much of Meier & Frank in Portland where I used to walk by the windows to work. They had great windows during the holidays. And, yes, I sure do remember Santaland.
ReplyDeleteNow wasn't there another large department store on about 10th and Morrison? It had large open space surrounding the center floor, I think.
They changed to something long ago..
THat would be Olds & King, which was purchased by Rhodes Western Department Stores and renamed - see their separate entry.
ReplyDeleteBruce
Yes, thank you I remember Rhodes. Is the building still the same?
ReplyDelete