A Dying Mall Store With Chicago Roots

Last minute quality for scanning of 1962 ad

1973 Whitehall Ad

1980 Whitehall Ad

I am an avid reader of newspapers. I think it is a dying art and besides you have plenty of stories that pass by the radar to the folks in newsrooms who sit pretty in front of cameras. Last night, I was reading about the trials and tribulations of Whitehall Jewelers who filed for bankruptcy some time ago and is now in the process of liquidating their stores. Now you all know Whitehall. It is a mainstay in malls or at least the malls I go to. You pass by it all the time as the neat and glittering rows of overpriced gold metals Mr. T would be proud of sit nice and flashy waiting for the next sucker, err...buyer. It may look just like any other mall jewelry stores such as JB Robinson or Kay Jewelers but it has a personality of its own not to mention employees that will unfortunately have no jobs soon. It is a sad story of another mall store disappearing under the pressure of dwindling finances. Like mainstays of the past such as the Petrie Co, County Seat, Casual Corner, Richman Brothers, etc which were once omnipresent in malls, Whitehall will join with another headstone in the graveyard.

By chance while I was reading the article it mentioned that Whitehall got its start as a store called Marks Brothers Jewelers. The name Marks Brothers gnawed at me with recognition. Some months back, our favorite retail historian Dave sent me some vintage newspapers, a few of which I got to profile here and one contained an ad on the back for a store called, what else, Marks Brothers Jewelers. In that April 1962 ad Marks Brothers lists five locations at 218 S. State, 100 S. State, 6337 S. Halsted, 4101 W. Madison and the last being Evergreen Plaza perhaps one of the first mall locations for this famous chain. Marks Brothers opened its first store in 1895 by Eastern European immigrants who nursed this small family owned business through the hardships of the Depression and the economic boom of post World War Two only to die a slow death some one hundred and thirteen years later. In the 1960s, the family sought to expand the company by placing them in the latest fad: suburban malls. By the 1970s the chain changed its name to Whitehall and began rapidly taking over with acquisitions and expanding into many states later on in the company's rich history.

Who knew that a little chain based out of Chicago would grow so large and be on the verge of disappearing?

If anyone here knows, they know I can't leave without a good juicy story. The archives failed me this time but I did note that the particular store located at 100 S. State Street was a target for smash and grab robbers, one of which who broke in in 1935. His name was fifty year old Walter Fletcher and he broke the display window taking watches that were valued at almost $400. The Depression called for desperate times and desperate measures apparently. But old Walter wasn't alone. In 1939, two men in their twenties pulled a similar stunt and stole five wrist watches at the location at 208 S. State Street. I wonder if any of them actually knew how to tell time.

So long, Whitehall, it has been a long, bumpy road to success.