J.L. Brandeis & Sons, commonly referred to by Midwesterners as Brandeis, was a chain of

department stores 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 appea ...

located in the

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

area started by Jonas L. Brandeis in 1881. It was purchased by Younkers for $33.9 million in 1987, when the stores were converted to the Younkers name.

History

Jonas Leopold Brandeis's first retail store, called The Fair, was located at 506 South 13th Street. In 1888 he opened the Boston Store on the northwest corner of 16th and Douglas Streets. By 1905, work had begun on a grander Brandeis flagship store at 16th and Douglas Streets in

Downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and ...

. The store was completed in 1906. The eight-story building was designed by

John Latenser, Sr. John Latenser Sr. (1858–1936) was an American architect whose influential public works in Omaha, Nebraska, numbered in the dozens. His original name was Johann Laternser. Many of the buildings Latenser designed, including public and private, ...

, and contained retail space on the first three stories and the basement. Two additional stories were added later. The total cost of the original structure was $650,000. By the 1950s Brandeis took up the whole facility. The store strove to carry every item possible, including furniture. The Brandeis building is constructed on a steel frame and is faced with Bedford

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

. Design elements vary by floor to add architectural interest. A balustrade and a projecting cornice decorate the upper stories.

Developing the mall

By the late 1950s, Brandeis was looking for a way to expand and to modernize. One way to do this was by creating malls, anchored by Brandeis. In 1959, Brandeis Investment Co. developed the

Crossroads Shopping Center Crossroads Shopping Center, better known by its name in its heyday, Stewart-Lakewood Center, is an open-air shopping center on Metropolitan Parkway (formerly Stewart Avenue) at Langford Parkway (formerly Lakewood Freeway) in the Sylvan Hills nei ...

in Midtown Omaha. The mall was also anchored by Sears which closed in 2019. Crossroads was the 9th enclosed shopping mall in the United States and became the place to be in Omaha. The simple mall design, connecting the three story anchors by an "arcade level", soon proved to be successful when Brandeis opened

Southroads Mall Southroads Mall is an enclosed shopping mall at 1001 Fort Crook Road in Bellevue, Nebraska. Fort Crook Road was U.S. Route 75 until the early 1990s, replaced by the Kennedy Freeway. History Developed by the Brandeis Investment Corp., Southroads ...

in southern Omaha in 1966. Southroads was designed after Crossroads, but was anchored by Brandeis and

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Merge with Gold's

Brandeis acquired

Gold and Company Gold and Company (Gold's) was a department store located in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. The store was founded in 1915 and quickly grew into one of Lincoln's dominant retailers throughout the 20th century. Gold's merged with the Brandeis department ...

, a Lincoln-based department store, in 1964. The Gold's flagship store, in downtown Lincoln, was the only store in the company but took up a large portion of the Lincoln market. Gold's kept their name but operated as a division of J.L.Brandeis until it was phased out of the chain and closed in 1981.

Golden age of Brandeis

At the top of its game, Brandeis had around fifteen department stores in its chain. The flagship store downtown had become one of Omaha's most prized symbols of modern culture. Brandeis was Nebraska's department store. The chain had its peak in the early 1970s with 3,000 employees and $100 million in sales. The Crossroads Mall store opened in 1960 with mixed results but soon took off and proved to be one of the best stores in the chain, earning an average of $38 million. Crossroads proved to be extremely successful for Brandeis, despite the risk of opening the first new Brandeis in 50 years.
"The Brandeis Story The family-owned department store dynasty has its last hurrah" Brandeis dynasty history Locations opened across the entire state, downtown (Columbus and Hastings) and in the malls ( Conestoga Mall (Grand Island, Nebraska), Conestoga in Grand Island, Southroads & Westroads in Omaha, and Gateway in Lincoln). Soon locations were developed in Iowa, at Midlands Mall in Council Bluffs and Valley West Mall in Des Moines.

Downfall and acquisition by Younkers

Brandeis lost its major store and much of its public approval when the flagship store closed in 1980. The downtown Lincoln (former Gold's) location followed soon after in 1981. It was the end of an era. The Crossroads anchor became the new flagship store, but had lost its power over the Omaha and Nebraska markets. When plans came for a new

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

at Crossroads Mall in the mid-1980s, Brandeis executives knew that there was no chance of competition. They made a deal with Younkers, another department store based out of Des Moines, and sold its chain to Younkers in 1987. Younkers kept 11 of the stores and converted them to the Younkers name.

Jingle

"Everything you want is at Brandeis."

References

External links

Brandeis Building Luxury Condos
{{DEFAULTSORT:J. L. Brandeis And Sons Store Defunct department stores based in Nebraska Defunct companies based in Omaha, Nebraska Retail companies established in 1881 History of Omaha, Nebraska Retail companies disestablished in 1987 Retailing in Omaha, Nebraska 1881 establishments in Nebraska History of Lincoln, Nebraska