Bamberger's was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain with branches primarily in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and other locations in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, New York, and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The chain was headquartered in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.

History

1892–1912

Newark was known for manufacturing in the last half of the 19th century. By 1892, Newark was the fourth largest American city and it manufactured products from leather to jewelry along with it being a rail hub. It also had a large

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

population. It was these factors that lead

Felix Fuld Felix Fuld (19 July 1868 – 20 January 1929) built one of America's well-known department stores – L. Bamberger & Company with his partner, Louis Bamberger. He was an early 20th century philanthropist contributing to many local, regional, and ...

, Louis M. Frank, and

Louis Bamberger Louis Bamberger (15 May 1855 – 11 March 1944) was the leading citizen of Newark, New Jersey, from the early 1900s until his death in 1944. He and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld co-founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Ne ...

to found the store on Dec 13, 1892 on Market Street on the corner of Halsey Street in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. Fuld and Frank were Bamberger's brothers-in-law.

1912–1929

On October 16, 1912 the company opened its flagship store, designed by

Jarvis Hunt Jarvis Hunt (August 6, 1863 - June 15, 1941) was a Chicago architect who designed a wide array of buildings, including railroad stations, suburban estates, industrial buildings, clubhouses and other structures. Biography Hunt was born in Weathe ...

, at 131 Market Street in downtown Newark. The historic building once ranked among the nation's largest department stores; after an expansion in 1929 it was the nation's sixth largest. The massive building covered an entire city block, bounded by Market, Washington, Bank and Halsey Streets - 1.2 million square feet. The phone exchange, 565 was devoted solely to Bamberger's, with local direct-dial numbers for most of New Jersey's suburbs for telephone orders, known as "TeleService". The building's loading dock was located well below ground on the fourth-basement level. Two massive elevators carried fully loaded 33 ft trucks from Washington Street down to the loading docks. The store had over 200 departments over 9 floors, and 2 basement floors. There was a restaurant on the 10th floor. The layout of the store changed over time but one layout of floor departments can be see
here.
Bamberger's had its own

Newark Public Library The Newark Public Library (NPL) is a public library system in Newark, New Jersey. The library system offers numerous programs and events to its diverse population. With eight different locations, the Newark Public Library serves as a Statewide Re ...

branch and US Post Office branch. It sold customized linens, engraved jewelry, furs and other speciality items.

1929–1959

In June 1929 Bamberger's was purchased by R.H. Macy Co, but the name remained Bamberger's. In the years immediately following World War II, the store was reorganized to become more "mainstream". In 1955, the tenth-floor restaurant complex was leased to the private Downtown Club. Dining service for customers continued at The Dinette, a counter style room on the first basement level and snack bars on the first and fourth floors. Eventually the lower-level eatery was remodeled into a formal restaurant named the Garden State Tea Room.

1960–1986

The 1960s and 1970s saw expansion throughout the state of New Jersey and into the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area, and by the 1980s there were branches opened in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area. On October 5, 1986, the Bamberger's stores adopted the name Macy's New Jersey, and in 1988 Macy's New Jersey was consolidated with sister division Macy's New York to form Macy's Northeast (now

Macy's, Inc. Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito' ...

). As northern New Jersey's population grew, Bamberger's followed the suburban population aggressively. Suburban branch stores of L. Bamberger & Co. were built in other New Jersey locations: downtown Morristown, Plainfield, and at

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. According to Greg Hatala, for nj.com, "With the post-World War II population shift towards the suburbs of major cities, Bamberger's built additional stores in locations such as East Brunswick,

Garden State Plaza Garden State Plaza (officially Westfield Garden State Plaza) is a shopping mall located in Paramus, New Jersey. It is owned and managed by Paris-based real estate management company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and located at the intersection of R ...

Livingston Mall Livingston Mall is a two-level shopping mall located in Livingston, New Jersey, United States, serving western Essex, Morris and Union counties. The mall has a gross leasable area of . As of 2022, Livingston Mall currently features the tenants Ma ...

Monmouth Mall Monmouth Mall is an enclosed split level shopping center in Eatontown, New Jersey located on the corner of the intersection of NJ 35, NJ 36, and Wyckoff Road ( Route 547). It is owned Kushner Companies and managed by Westminster Management. T ...

Nanuet Mall The Shops at Nanuet is a lifestyle center located in Nanuet, New York. It is located at the intersection of New York State Route 59 and Middletown Road and is also accessible via exit 14 of the New York State Thruway. Built on the site of the forme ...

Ocean County Mall The Ocean County Mall is a super-regional mall, opened On July 20, 1976 by Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation, located in Toms River, New Jersey on Hooper Avenue ( County Route 549). The mall is accessible from Exit 82 of the Garden State Parkway v ...

, and

Menlo Park Mall Menlo Park Mall is a two-level super regional shopping mall, located on U.S. Route 1 and Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey. The mall has a gross leasable area of .Brunswick Square Mall Brunswick Square is a single story shopping mall located in East Brunswick, New Jersey, at the intersection of Route 18 and Rues Lane. It is owned and managed by Washington Prime Group and has gross leasable area (GLA) of . The current anchor st ...

Sales volume at the downtown Newark store was affected by the Newark civil unrest of 1967 -- sales space was decreased and Newark became a "value oriented" store. Evening hours were eliminated downtown by 1979.

1986–present

In 1986, all Bamberger's stores were renamed

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, and the Newark store operated as Macy's until it was closed in 1992. The flagship store in Newark became 165 Halsey Street and serves the telecommunication, colocation, and computer support industries.

WOR radio

WOR radio was established by Bamberger Broadcasting Service in 1922. The broadcast studio was located on the sixth floor of its downtown headquarters It was the first radio station on the East Coast to broadcast opera and a morning gym class in the 1920s. Its FM station, W2XOR (then W71NY, now

WEPN-FM WEPN-FM (98.7 MHz) branded as ''ESPN New York'', is an all-sports radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Emmis Communications and its operations are controlled by Good Karma Brands, under a local marketing agreeme ...

) began broadcasting in 1940 or 1941. On October 11, 1949,

WOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW (ch ...

(channel 9) signed on the air, becoming the last of the New York metropolitan area VHF television stations to begin operations; in the same year, Bamberger was re-incorporated to General Teleradio, in part due to General Tire and Rubber's increased investment in the station. Transmission was from the

WOR TV Tower WOR TV Tower was a lattice tower used for FM- and TV-broadcasting at North Bergen, New Jersey, USA. The 420-ton tower was built in 1949. At the time of its construction, it was the tenth-tallest man-made structure in the world.North Bergen, New Jersey North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by a ...

, until 1953, and from the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

thereafter. In 1952, General Tire acquired General Teleradio from Macy's, merging it with the

Don Lee Network The Don Lee Network, sometimes called the Don Lee Broadcasting System was an American regional network of radio stations in the old-time radio era. Origin Don Lee made a fortune as the exclusive West Coast distributor of Cadillac automobiles. He ...

to form General Tire's broadcasting division."WOR merger; General Tire gets MBS control."
''Broadcasting – Telecasting'', January 21, 1952, pg. 25.

References

{{Macy's history Defunct department stores based in New Jersey Companies based in Newark, New Jersey Retail companies established in 1893 Retail companies disestablished in 1986 Defunct companies based in New Jersey Skyscrapers in Newark, New Jersey History of Newark, New Jersey 1893 establishments in New Jersey 1986 disestablishments in New Jersey