The William Hengerer Company, known informally as Hengerer's, was a

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

-based

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 stores exclusively located in the Western New York region.

History

The company was founded in 1867 as J. C. Barnes & Co., followed by Barnes & Bancroft in 1869, at 259 Main Street, with James K. Bancroft. In 1873, William Hengerer was admitted as a partner and the company became known as Barnes, Bancroft & Co. Along with other department stores located in Buffalo including AM&A's,

Flint and Kent Flint & Kent was an upscale department store based in Buffalo, New York. History It had its roots in a dry good store that opened in 1832 by Benjamin Fitch (1802–1883) at 288 Main Street, Buffalo. In 1836, the store was called Fitch, Marvin ...

, and the Sweeney Company, Hengerer was very successful in the 1880s and 1890s. The department stores offered cooking classes, beauty parlors, and restaurants and introduced washing and sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, and iceboxes to the public. In 1889, Hengerer's new department store was built at 268 Main Street and was designed by

Cyrus K. Porter Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

and built of brick with Medina sandstone trim. In 1903, a new store was constructed and by 1907, Hengerer's boasted of being the largest department store between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Wm Hengerer Co. was a founding member of the

Associated Dry Goods Corporation Associated Dry Goods Corporation (ADG) was a chain of department stores that merged with May Department Stores in 1986. It was founded in 1916 as an association of independent stores called American Dry Goods, based in New York City. History T ...

in 1916.

Closure

The Hengerer chain was merged into ADG's Sibley's name in 1981, with its flagship store at 465 Main Street in downtown Buffalo closing by 1987.

References

;Notes ;Sources *Rizzo, Michael F. (2007) ''Nine Nine Eight: The Glory Days of Buffalo Shopping'' Lulu Enterprises, Inc.; Morrisville, North Carolina. . *Elvins, Sarah (2004). ''Sales & Celebrations: Retailing and Regional Identity in Western New York State, 1920-1940.'' . 1867 establishments in New York (state) Retail companies established in 1867 Retail companies disestablished in 1987 Companies based in Buffalo, New York Clothing retailers of the United States History of Buffalo, New York Defunct companies based in New York (state) Defunct department stores based in New York State {{US-retail-company-stub

History

Closure

See also

References