Edward F. Sibbert (July 1, 1889 – 1982) was a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

-born American architect. He is best remembered for the fifty or so retail stores he designed during a 25-year career as the head architect at the S. H. Kress & Co. chain of

five-and-dime A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...

s. His tenure at Kress coincided roughly with the company's peak years of success, and many of his

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-style buildings have survived beyond the chain's 1980 demise and are in use today in other purposes.

Early years

Sibbert's architectural education began at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

(1919–20) where he studied structural engineering. This was followed by work at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

(1921–22) in its architectural program, where he was tapped into the New York Alpha Chapter of the

Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Penn ...

, known for its artists and architects. Through that organization, he was a member of the Irving Literary Society. Following the end of his formal education he worked as a draftsman for

W.T. Grant W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns. History In 1906 the ...

and Company, a dime store retail organization. In 1924 Sibbert, along with Cornell classmate and fraternity brother Russell Pancoast, moved to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

where Pancoast's grandfather

John S. Collins John Stiles Collins (December 29, 1837 – February 11, 1928) was an American Quaker farmer from Moorestown Township, New Jersey who moved to South Florida at the turn of the 20th century. He attempted to grow vegetables and coconuts on the swam ...

was developing

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...

. It was an exciting time and the right place for an aspiring young architect: the great

Florida land boom of the 1920s The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble. This pioneering era of Florida land speculation lasted from 1924 to 1926 and attracted investors from all over the nation. The land boom left behind entirely new, planned ...

was in full swing, with some properties being bought and sold several times in one day. Then just when the bubble showed signs of imploding anyway, a serious

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

in 1926 helped things along and all but ended the Miami building boom. So Sibbert and his wife Bertha left Florida and returned to Brooklyn, where he signed on as an architect for E. H. Faile.

Architect for Kress

In 1929 Sibbert answered an advertisement in a newspaper and was hired by the S. H. Kress company.

Samuel H. Kress Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. variety store, five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collection ...

was in the process of dismissing his head architect, George Mackay and it is possible that Sibbert worked with MacKay in designing the store for

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

.Thomas, p. 61 Sibbert continued as Kress's chief architect for 25 years, designing chain stores across the United States in a consistent format and style, recognizable by its use of ornamental terra cotta. Sibbert was a member of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

and

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

as well as being a member of the

Salmagundi Club The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership roster ...

in New York. He retired to Pompano Beach, Florida, after living for many years in New York City. Sibbert died in Pompano Beach on May 13, 1982.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sibbert, Edward 1889 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American architects Artists from Brooklyn S. H. Kress & Co.