Gilchrist's

{{Infobox company , name = Gilchrist's. , logo = , fate = Bankruptcy , successor = , foundation = 1842 , defunct = 1977 , location = Boston, Massachusetts , industry = Retail , products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. , parent = , homepage = None} Gilchrist's was a Boston department store. Its flagship store was at the intersection of Washington and Winter Streets, across from both

Filene's Filene's (formally William Filene & Sons Co.) was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-p ...

and

Jordan Marsh Jordan Marsh (officially Jordan Marsh & Company) was an American department store chain that was headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and operated throughout New England. It was founded by Eben Dyer Jordan and Benjamin L. Marsh in 1841. The o ...

Downtown Crossing Downtown Crossing is a shopping district within downtown Boston, Massachusetts, located east of Boston Common, west of the Financial District, south of Government Center, and north of Chinatown and the old Combat Zone. It features large ...

. Gilchrist's was considered one of the ''big three'' stores (along with

and

) that dominated Boston's shopping district for so long. Gilchrist's opened in 1842, one year after Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston. Gilchrist's was not considered as high-end as its neighbors, but did just as well. In the 1940s Gilchrist's started to branch out into older suburban communities. By 1964 Gilchrist's had eight locations across the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

: Quincy, Brockton, Framingham, Medford, Waltham, Stoneham,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, and Dorchester. The company's store in Cambridge was located in the basement of the

Star Market Star Market is a New England chain of supermarkets based in Greater Boston. It was owned by the Mugar family and started in 1915. The company was sold to The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1964 and later to Investcorp, which in turn sold the chain to ...

grocery store at the

Porter Square Porter Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, located around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Somerville Avenue, between Harvard and Davis Squares. The Porter Square station serves both the MBTA Red Li ...

shopping center. The emergence of shopping malls led to the decline of the downtown stores. Gilchrist's took a back seat to the anchor stores until closing in 1977. Its flagship

store was replaced with a shopping mall called The Corner in Gilchrist's original building. Defunct department stores based in Massachusetts Retail companies established in 1842 1977 disestablishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Boston