The Ghost of Woolworth's

After coming to Chicago in 1989 as a nine year old kid, my mother was excited to see Woolworth's. She had been very familiar with it back in Ohio but for the life of me, I don't recall much about going to Woolworth when we lived in Cleveland. I do remember living in Lake View and frequenting the one on Broadway and Belmont which was about a block or so from my grammar school, Nettlehorst Elementary. Last time I was in the area that Woolworth's became a Gap. We didn't live in Lake View very long but we visited this Woolworth quite frequently buying clothes, household goods, beauty products, toys, candy and, of course, running into my annoying classmates. Later on, we moved to Rogers Park where we would frequently walk to this L-shaped Woolworth's on the corner of Devon and Western. If we went grocery shopping we almost always shopped at the Woolworth's at Howard and Western alongside the Jewel. If we went mall shopping, we always browsed the Woolworth's at Harlem and Irving which still had remnants of an old time lunch counter in the back. The Devon and Western location closed in 1992 or 1993 while the Howard and Western one which closed in 1997 became a Foot Locker for a time when I attended a high school not too far away. I do remember some of my friends trying to catch some good going out of business sales on beauty products. There we were 17 year old teenage girls who favored stores like The Limited and Express shopping at a Woolworth's and lamenting about how much we were going to miss it.

This old time Woolworth's above was in a location I never visited but I have seen so many times now that I have settled in the area. It is a Foot Locker located at the intersections of Diversey, Kimball and Milwaukee across the street from an old Goldblatt's turned Gap and down the street from an old location of Petrie's. This old location still bore the faded Woolworth's lettering. I don't recall when I took these pictures. I believe it was while I was bike riding during the summer of 2007. Whatever the case I am certainly glad that I was able to take these pictures at the right time. The lettering is now gone as it has been painted over. Another sign that Woolworth's is long gone.

Woolworth's flourished during the Great Depression making Barbara Hutton and her relatives rich enough to afford such lavish lifestyles and never set foot inside the stores that her grandfather Frank Woolworth worked hard to build. Many people do not know or have long forgotten that the Woolworth company diversified with shoe retailers buying the Kinney Shoe Corporation (a mall staple as a child) and operating Foot Locker, which now is the sole survivor of Woolworth's with stores under the Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Footaction USA banners. Some of the old Woolworth's locations like the one above have turned into Foot Lockers over the years. Woolworth's also had a hand in Afterthoughts a chain of fashion jewelry stores similar to Claire's. With all this, the chain still faced years of unfortunate decline but, hey, with the current economic climate and the state of retail that makes each store look and sound the same, perhaps a resurgence of good ole Woolworth wouldn't be such a terrible idea. Wishful thinking?