Rogers Department Store

Rogers Department Store

File:Rogers logo
Company type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	1894
Founder	Benjamin A. Rogers and sons
Defunct	2007
Fate	Acquired by The Dunlap Company in 1998; stores gradually closed through 2007
Headquarters	Florence, Alabama , United States
Area served	Tennessee Valley region
Products	Department store goods

File:Rogers Department Store AL Logo.png

Rogers logo

Rogers Department Store was a retail chain headquartered in Florence, Alabama. Established in 1894, the business expanded to multiple sites throughout the Tennessee Valley region. The original structure, erected in 1910, earned a place on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1994 and was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

History

In 1894, Benjamin A. Rogers and his sons settled in Florence amid a local economic upswing fueled by the construction of a canal circumventing the Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River. They built a two-story wooden edifice to operate their department store. Notably, this establishment was among the earliest in the vicinity to display fixed prices on merchandise instead of relying on bargaining.

After Benjamin Rogers passed away in 1902, a fire destroyed the store in 1910, prompting his sons to reconstruct it. They built the current two-story building, which was later expanded to three stories and partially rebuilt following another fire in 1946. Additional branches were established in locations such as Muscle Shoals, Decatur, and Athens. The enterprise remained family-owned until 1998 when it was acquired by The Dunlap Company, which shuttered the downtown Florence store in 2001. The Athens location closed in 1996, Decatur's in 2006, and the Muscle Shoals outlet at Southgate Mall ceased operations in 2007. As of 2013, the Florence building houses an Asian fusion restaurant alongside Jos. A. Bank and Alabama Outdoors on its ground floor, with Martin Supply Company occupying office space on the upper levels.

Architecture

This three-story edifice exemplifies Art Deco design, encompassing more than 65,500 square feet (approximately 6,100 sq. m) of interior area. Initially built using solid brick, the structure incorporates sections of concrete block and poured reinforced concrete walls added during the late 1940s expansion and subsequent fire-related restoration. The building's rear, which is separated from a nearby parking garage by a narrow alley, preserves its original brickwork, displaying remnants of arched window openings on the two lower levels alongside a pair of chimneys.

The façades facing the front and side are clad in beige limestone, adorned with intricately carved ram's heads positioned on the chamfered corner as well as along the side elevation. Entrances are located at both the front and side, while expansive display windows framed in aluminum span the front façade. A polished pink granite band runs along the building’s base. The distinctive Art Deco style is most evident on the upper two floors, where each bay is recessed and features tripartite windows composed of a central casement flanked by fixed panes. Limestone panels projecting between bays extend slightly above the parapet line, further divided by scored panels situated above the third-floor fenestration. Centrally on the front façade and twice along the side, an additional recessed bay is bordered by panels that rise prominently above the roofline.

Mezzanines are present on both the first and third floors. Notably, this store was among North Alabama’s earliest to incorporate elevators as well as centralized climate control systems including both air conditioning and heating.

Situated directly across Mobile Street is Southall Drugs, another property listed on the National Register.