Butler Brothers Department Stores

Butler Brothers Department Stores

Company type	Retail chain
Industry	Retail
Founded	1950s
Headquarters	Vernon, California , United States
Area served	Ohio, Greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle
Products	Department store merchandise

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English The Butler Brothers Department Stores represented a retail chain established during the 1950s.

The merchandising firm Butler Brothers developed two full-scale department stores in Ohio alongside four locations across the Greater Los Angeles area, plus one store each in San Francisco and Seattle.

Greater Los Angeles

• Lakewood Center (1952), located at 5252 Lakewood Blvd., a two-level building encompassing approximately 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m²), inaugurated on November 8, 1951, attracting over 175,000 attendees on opening day. The first patron was actress Joyce Holden.
• Alhambra, situated at 343 E. Main St., began operations on November 15, 1951, serving as an anchor within the bustling downtown area, a prominent retail hub in the San Gabriel Valley. It ceased operations around c. 1973. The location lacked a dedicated parking lot and was subsequently occupied by Nahas department store until its closure in 1980.
• Ontario, at addresses 317–327 N. Euclid Ave., staffed by approximately 55-60 employees, opened its doors on September 19, 1961, featuring roughly 35,600 sq ft (3,310 m²) of retail space.
• Van Nuys, located at the northwest corner of Kittridge and 6609 Van Nuys Boulevard, commenced business on September 21, 1951, occupying around 125,000 sq ft (11,600 m²) of space. This site eventually transitioned into a branch of Dearden's, a department store specializing in furniture, appliances, and jewelry catering primarily to Latino consumers.

During the 1960s, the company's Los Angeles buying office along with its manufacturing plant was situated at 3030 South Atlantic Boulevard in Vernon, an industrial neighborhood within Southeast Los Angeles County.

San Francisco

• Stonestown Shopping Center is situated in a suburban neighborhood within the city of San Francisco.

Ohio

• In the Cleveland metropolitan area, a store opened in Euclid, Ohio, at E. 222nd and Lake Shore Boulevard in April 1951, initially operating as a Scott-Burr outlet.
• The Cincinnati location at 616–628 Race Street commenced operations on October 1, 1951. This establishment featured four floors dedicated to sales and employed approximately 200 individuals. The Butler Brothers replaced the Victorian façade with a modern brick exterior. Previously, this site housed A. E. Burkhardt's furrier shop, followed by Miller's department store, and then a J. J. Newberry variety store. By around 1960, Butler Brothers ceased operations here; the building was subsequently converted into a Kroger grocery store. Later tenants included a Singer retail outlet, a Wurlitzer shop, and from 1988 until March 2020, The Chong.

Washington State

• Northgate Mall located in Seattle.

Federated Stores

It is important to distinguish the Butler Brothers Department Stores from Federated Stores, which were also part of the Butler Brothers enterprise and emerged around 1931. Federated Stores consisted of approximately 1,400 department stores that were independently owned and operated. These stores followed a unified business model and sourced their merchandise through the wholesale channels provided by Butler Brothers.

External links

• Photograph of the Van Nuys branch at Calisphere