Merchants Move to Bloomington’s East Side
Search
Looking for something in particular? Search for it here.
Looking for something in particular? Search for it here.
When Eastland Mall was completed in 1966, some Bloomington merchants opened a second store at this new location. Others relocated to the mall.
Featuring:
Grace B. Smith (1907-1990), (1907 – 1990), Roland's employee and part-owner
Alan P. James, manager at Kmart
Lloyd Ringler, manager at J.C. Penny
Grace B. Smith (1907-1990) was a Brown’s Business School graduate with an eye for fashion when she got her first job in the millinery (hat making) department at Roland’s department store in 1927. Grace loved her sales job.
Grace didn’t stay in the job long, but after working in department stores in Little Rock, Arkansas and New Orleans, Louisiana, she returned to Roland’s in 1929 to start a serious career.
“They had beautiful hats and the job was a challenge.”
— Grace Smith
Roland’s sent Grace off to Chicago to learn about corsets. She was soon in charge of Roland’s lingerie department.
By the mid-1930s Grace was a buyer, and in 1953 she became a part-owner of the store.
As an owner she was involved in all big decisions, including the decision to modernize and expand the downtown Bloomington store in 1961.
At a cost of $325,000, changes were made to the store’s dated layout, dressing rooms, electrical systems, and elevator to improve the customers’ shopping experience.
In 1965 Grace and other owners decided to open a branch store at Eastland Mall. They believed the mall would attract more shoppers to the Bloomington area, and that having a store there would not affect downtown business.
She continued to manage the lingerie department in the downtown store, becoming a vice president at Roland’s in 1975.
Roland’s new 12,000 sq. ft. store at Eastland Mall opened in 1966. Six years later the mall store had become so successful that 13,000 additional sq. ft. were added.
Traffic at the Eastland store continued to increase, but traffic at the downtown store slowly declined. Grace retired in 1979 when the downtown store closed. She had worked for Roland’s for 50 years.
Negligee, circa 1950
View this object in Matterport
Around 1950 Grace, or one of her well-trained clerks, helped Dean McCrossin pick out this negligee for his wife Jean. Jean confided that she wore it, but “it wasn’t her style.” Jean imagined that the sales clerk “convinced him that it was exactly what she wanted,” or that Dean “had seen way too many Jean Harlow movies.”
Donated by: Jean McCrossin
94.3.438.1
Negligee, circa 1970
When Miriam Hiltabrand donated this lace and satin negligee, she noted that Grace had sold it to her.
Donated by: Miriam Cavins Hiltabrand
2004.47.08
Construction of the Beltline Road (Veterans Parkway) in 1941 and Interstate 55 in the 1960s, meant area merchants found their business traffic rerouted around their communities, rather than through their central business districts. New stores were soon being built along these roadways.
In 1962, Alan P. James became the first manager at Bloomington's new Kmart store. Alan was responsible for hiring, training, and managing 150 employees who worked in 40 different departments selling groceries, hardware, sporting goods, clothing, housewares, furnishings, and more, including Kmart's lunch counter.
The store was self-serve and offered discount pricing. Its large parking lot could hold 1,000 cars and was conveniently located (especially for out of town shoppers) at the intersection of Route 9 and Beltline Road.
The new Kmart was owned by the S.S. Kresge Corporation. Despite the new store's presence, Bloomington's downtown Kresge's store remained open. But business soon began to wane. The downtown store closed four years later, in 1966.
Lloyd Ringer had a long career with JC Penny's before he arrived in Bloomington in 1957. With 22 years of experience under his belt, he was brought in to manage the downtown Bloomington store and to find the business a new and bigger location.
Lloyd (far right) watched as the ribbon was cut, officially opening Bloomington's new JC Penny's store.
When plans for the development of Eastland Mall on the east side of Bloomington began to take shape, Lloyd and his bosses decided Penny's should be part of that development.
Ten years after he arrived in Bloomington, on November 10, 1966, Lloyd opened the doors of the new JC Penny's store at Eastland Mall. The downtown store closed its doors for good the day before.
Soon after the store opened, Lloyd was also managing catalog sales at the store — a test to see how the company would do. Within a few years, catalog sales alone exceeded total store sales and year at the downtown store.
Lloyd retired in 1972, not because he was ready, but because Penny's had a mandatory retirement age of 60 for executives.
With four times as much space as the downtown store and four times the number of employees, Lloyd's responsibilities increased dramatically.
