Here is a very historic 270,000 square foot Sears location that closed on January 28, 2018. The store opened in 1939 and was the oldest operating department store in Houston at the time of its closure, click here for a brief summary of the history of the property. The property is currently under redevelopment to become a new business center. Here are the plans from Rice for the redevelopment of the property, which is nearly complete as of the publishing of this post.
December 6, 2017 during the store closing sale.
We start on the basement level.
Tools, seasonal, appliances, sporting goods, lawn and garden, vacuums, and electronics were located on this level.
Once the electronics were moved out, mattresses took over the floor space. The rugs were brought in for the store closing sale, I swear these rugs are brought in to just about every store closing sale I have been to.
Christmas displays were being sold down to the end.
The former electronics area.
Looking from one end of the store to the other.
One of two old school clocks.
As you can see in the distance, the electronics department had the upgraded paint job just before they eliminated the department.
The appliance department also had the upgraded color scheme.
I wonder what cool things were behind this employees only door.
Sporting goods with the very old security camera looking over the area.
Another employees only door to the backroom.
Going up the vintage staircase.
I am not sure what happened to this painting with the redesign of the building.
Such detail with the handrails.
A random advertisement.
Up to the third level of the building.
This corner of the store has always intrigued me, the old school design just past the exit door.
From one side of the third level to the other.
The third floor had intimates, kids clothing, housewares, small appliances, some furniture, and clearance items.
Leftover curtain displays from years ago. Most Sears stores had pulled these down a while back.
More of the old school security cameras watching over store.
One of the back storage areas had the door open for a look inside. Not much to see from this view, but it was cool none the less.
A different storage door was open across the way so I got to see more of the back room.
Very old door fixture.
The Simply Indoors sign had seen better days.
As a matter of fact, all of the display signs had seen better days. Some of them had fallen out of place and were hunched over.
We are now on the second level (street level).
The old school thermostat.
One of the store exits that had been covered up. Awesome stone detail surrounding the doors.
The ceilings and light fixtures of this store are much different than modern stores.
This floor had Women's, Men's, Shoes, Portrait Studio and small gifts near the escalators.
Final day of the store January 28, 2018.
Took several photos at several slightly different angles on the exit ramp.
Here are some short videos that I published on Youtube from this trip.
We start our journey on the basement level.
Whatever had been covering this sign up for years was removed. What a cool vintage sign. My Sons hand got in this photo, lol.
A look through a peg hole into the back storage room.
Lots of people, not a lot of merchandise left.
More views into the back storage area.
The remains of the tool department.
Back up the stairs to the third level.
Another look at the vintage corner on the third level.
The empty intimates department.
Now to the second level, which is where the majority of the remaining merchandise was left.
The walls needed work in the restroom area. The smell in these bathrooms was pretty bad and had been for many years.
Of course the fixtures that were left in the sale were pretty awesome. A lot of these fixtures were from many, many years ago.
A more recent fixture. I have one of these in my garage that I purchased from the North Shepard Sears.
With shelves being removed, lots of cool things were now out in the open like this phone and signage.
Very old school iron.
Panels beginning to fall off of the walls. These panels are not very sturdy since they always seem to droop when the shelves are taken down during the store closing sales.
Lots of fixtures still left with only a short time left for the sale at this point.
These ceilings look to be tough to maintain. I would guess that the plumbing and electric lines go through them as well. Any leaks can cause some real issues in the drywall.
A look at what was remaining on the sales floor.
From this view, it almost looks like a normal day at Sears.
A full view of the staircase from the third level.
Back to the street level of the store.
A lot of inventory was still left here. People were standing in line with full clothing racks though so deals were being made.
More of the sinking wall panels.
The watch display.
Interesting decorative designs in the ladies department.
A panel had fallen off of the wall. Also notice the ceiling which has discoloration from either damage or repairs.
A good view of the first level from end to end. Women's clothing to the Men's clothing area.
Some random fixtures along with the high tech Windows XP upgrade. Looks like the security camera system.
Behind the scenes in the former Portrait Studio.
I really enjoy going into these previously closed off parts of the store. The Portrait Studios usually have some cool things to see. On future posts, you will see the Pasadena and Baton Rouge Sears Portrait Studios during the closing sales at those 2 stores.
A lot of ceiling damage here.
Looking from the former Portrait Studio into the store.
A random coupon found on the desk.
More views of the store.
Some of the old funny t-shirt racks.
The closed off entrance in the Men's department.
Another old phone near the Men's Department.
The escalators.
They don't make these signs for the last day.
Not sure where these photos are from, but they were out in the fixture area.
There were some other photos for sale like this 90's looking one.
Shoe department.
A look at one of the lines to check out.
The customer pick-up exit of the store. This was actually my first time going into this part of the store.
Looks like an old trash chute door.
Some racks of clothes were back here, not sure if they were already sold or if they were overstock that hadn't been pulled to the sales floor yet.
An old customer service booth?
Things were moving fast at this point. The shoes were picked through, with very few remaining.
The former Sears Optical corner.
More ceiling damage in this area of the store. In the past these areas would have held the grand window displays.
A view from the main entrance to the back of the store.
This is what the parking lot entrance looked like. Very detailed just like the entrance we saw that had been closed off. Carpet had been placed down unfortunately which covered up the vintage floor design.
Random fixture that was in the shoe department.
I am not sure what this is, but take a look below to see where it came from.
This was a cool find in the fixture department. This Kmart store was also scheduled to close in March 2017. It is so strange how this item got here to Houston.
More items in the remains of the shoe department.
A look back into the storage area near the shoe department. There were probably more retail treasures left back there.
A few more random photos from throughout the store.
Another hidden room, I can remember where this area was located.
More fixtures
This sign caught my attention.
One of the last open registers.
We left the store with less than an hour left before the store closes for good. We were there for over 2 hours.
More views of the store as we drive off.
Farewell Sears Houston, 79 years of business. The sun sets on the final day of operation 😢
After the store closed taken in April 2018.
Taken in August 2021, the Ion transformation is nearly complete.
The former Fiesta next door has also been transformed into a lab.
It is hard to believe this is the same building. A couple of floors were added to increase the size of the building.
The classic exterior of the former Sears that were covered up by the ugly metal panels are once again open for all to see.
A blend of the old and new.
The view from the freeway exit ramp.
I am pleased at how the building looks. I wish they somehow could have kept the neon sign somehow, but the extra floors made it necessary to remove the sign.
This store’s interior looks similar to the Ravenswood, Illinois Sears that closed in 2016. That Sears opened in 1925 and was the longest operating Sears ever.
ReplyDeleteI wonder of any pre-1950 Sears locations are still going. This property became too valuable so they had to sell it. This property is the catalyst for this area to become gentrified. This is the last big section in between Midtown Houston and the Museum District that needed major improvements. Now all of the nearby properties are cleaning up or selling for redevelopment. Sears is a sad casualty, but at least parts of the building remained intact.
DeleteLet me start this reply off by saying that I hope your readers in Louisiana are doing okay with the recent hurricane. That is a very sad situation and, unfortunately, Louisiana has had to suffer through a lot of these storms lately.
ReplyDeleteThese are some great photos of the Main St. Sears including some great behind the scenes peeks into the backrooms and such. Speaking of hurricanes, I suppose those photos of flood water are from Hurricane Ike given the date printed on those photos. I didn't remember Ike causing that much flooding, but I guess it did in that area. It's odd that Sears had frame photos of that and that they were selling it as a fixture. I wonder if anyone bought those!
There are so many great little vintage signs around this store that it's hard to know where to start. The most interesting one to me is that old ad display board. That would be great to display with the Willowbrook Mall Sears Thank You sign if anyone could get their hands on that.
Is that a photo of a security camera next to the Sam Houston portrait in the stairwell?! If so, that might be the oddest form of security I've seen in a store, lol.
I have a lot of great memories of shopping at this store. It was certainly a trip back in time shopping at this place. While the N. Shepherd Sears had a lot of retro features as well, nothing that existed in modern times in Houston could really compete with this place in terms of a retro shopping experience. The basement level was always the neatest place for me to shop. They still had a pretty decent electronics department through the mid-2010s. I remember buying a pair of headphones from there in 2015 or 2016. The tool department was a bit of a disappointment since the inventory was locked away. It was better to look for tools at another Sears if one wanted a hands-on approach to shopping.
Those are some great photos of the redevelopment of this building. It's hard to be too upset about the Sears being evicted given that Sears probably would have closed the store anyway, but it's a shame that the Fiesta is gone. That was a very useful store for the community...as was the Sears. It's a real shame for downtown area residents to lose that neat Fiesta along with the Sears and also the Macy's a few years earlier.
The storm is indeed a very sad situation. The next month especially will be very tough as people return to assess the damages, and power may take some time to be restored. I just hope that help arrives quickly and people can get their lives back in order as quickly as possible.
DeleteThere were so many cool items in the store. I should have done some more digging and asked for backroom access, who knows maybe someone would have given me permission to check those areas out.
It is a security camera sticker. I guess it had a warning label that was gone leaving just the security camera sticker. Very strange looking indeed.
Going to this Sears was always a treat. This store was well maintained on the inside, but the outside of the store was pretty trashed most of the time. Just about everytime we went, someone was trying to get money either in the parking lot or at the entrances to the store. The metal shutters they put on the store really looked terrible as the building aged, I am glad they are gone. The redevelopment of the area needed to happen, the area really needs improvement.
Now that I have finished this article, I can begin thinking about the Willowbrook, Deerbrook, North Shepherd, and Pasadena Sears tributes. All 4 of those will be larger than this tribute, so I have my work cut out for me.
Wow, that is going to be amazing if the Willowbrook, Deerbrook, N. Shepherd, and Pasadena Sears tribute posts are going to be even more comprehensive than this one because this one was pretty awesome! I can't wait to see all of those. I feel that I already know what's in the Willowbrook Mall Sears post, plus I did visit that closing sale, but that one should be really awesome to see one last time.
DeleteOn the topic of Willowbrook Mall, I hope you don't mind the shameless plug, but my guest post over at Houston Historic Retail about the 40th Anniversary of Willowbrook Mall is now live. This post features some great photos of Je and Mike's collections. Hopefully you and your readers will appreciate this post: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/09/01/happy-40th-anniversary-willowbrook-mall/
That would have been awesome to have seen some parts of the Main St. Sears that were closed off to the public. I saw a video from an urban Chicago Sears store that was of a similar age to the Main St. Sears. The video had some behind the scenes views from the store before it closed. It was neat seeing some of the very old equipment in the mechanical rooms and all of that. I'm sure a lot of similar stuff was at the Main St. Sears.
I may have overdone the N. Shepherd and Pasadena Sears tributes. I have several minutes of video footage along with a massive amount of photos.
DeleteI will definitely check the post out, I am always happy to link up with fellow retail blogs. We each have a unique story to tell. It is crazy to think about our local malls hitting the big 40. Even our newest indoor mall is over 20 years old, so crazy how time flies.
I was very glad to have access to most of the store without any issues arising. I was able to sneak into a few back areas of the North Shepherd Sears.
I am going to try and get a new blog post later tonight or tomorrow. Things have been very busy so I haven't been able to keep up with any social media or news for about a couple of weeks now.
Sad but cool all at the same time. It's always interesting seeing what comes out of the woodwork, so to speak, at a Sears closing sale.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this sale, but it didn't have as much old school stuff as I was expecting. They did have a lot of stuff in the back storage rooms from what I could see, so maybe they moved those fixtures to other stores.
DeleteA couple of floors which added to increase the size of the building that is good and look like similar to the Ravenswood
ReplyDeleteIt looks very different on the outside, and the inside probably looks really spacious now. Historic Houston Retail got to see the inside.
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