Stone & Thomas
| File:Stone & Thomas Department Store Final Logo.png | |
| Company type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1847 |
| Defunct | Template:End date and age |
| Fate | Transitioned to Elder-Beerman; select stores sold to Belk and Peebles. |
| Headquarters | Wheeling, West Virginia |
| Products | Apparel, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, cosmetics, and household goods. |
| Website | None |
Stone & Thomas was a department store chain in the United States, headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia. The retailer operated locations across West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. In 1998, the company was acquired by Elder-Beerman, a department store chain based in Ohio.
History
Established in 1847 by Elijah J. Stone and Jacob C. Thomas in Wheeling, West Virginia, Stone and Thomas—also known as Stone's or "The People's Store"—was a prominent retail fixture in West Virginia for over a century and a half. Beginning with its main store downtown Wheeling, the company expanded into Huntington during the 1910s, then Charleston by 1928, eventually opening outlets in many of the state's key cities. In 1956, Stone and Thomas acquired Broida's of Parkersburg, briefly operating under the name Broida's, Stone & Thomas. The chain ultimately grew to encompass 19 stores within West Virginia, two in Virginia, one in Ashland, Kentucky, and another in St Clairsville, Ohio.
Stone's cultivated a strong appeal among teenagers by sponsoring high school fashion events, hosting tea parties, and running the Stone-agers program aimed at youth. Throughout the 1990s, the company shifted its focus toward suburban locations, resulting in the closure of several older downtown stores in cities such as Huntington, West Virginia and Clarksburg, West Virginia.
Declining financial results led Stone & Thomas to sell the business to Elder-Beerman in 1998 for $38 million (~$Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year). By 1999, all Stone & Thomas outlets had been rebranded as Elder-Beerman stores. Additionally, six sites were divested to Peebles and three others to Belk. Following relocation to a larger space at the Ohio Valley Mall, the former Stone & Thomas anchor was also converted; its previous premises later housed Burlington Coat Factory, then Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, and eventually Crafts 2000. The Huntington store was acquired by Marshall University and repurposed as the Department of Art & Design facility for applied arts students.[1] The university officially opened its art department within this building on September 18, 2014.[2] Meanwhile, the downtown Wheeling location currently accommodates Williams Lea Group offices on its Main Street side along with an Urgent Care Center and residential apartments facing Market Street.
The Charleston downtown store—constructed in 1948—has remained unoccupied since operations moved to the Charleston Town Center mall in 1997. On November 15, 2019, BridgeValley Community and Technical College announced intentions to explore purchasing this Charleston property for renovation as its Kanawha Valley campus.[3]
References
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External links
- Monument of Jacob C. Thomas located at Greenwood Cemetery, Wheeling, West Virginia
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Former department stores in West Virginia
- 1847 establishments in Virginia
- Retail businesses founded in 1847
- Enterprises established in 1847
- Defunct West Virginia companies
- Businesses based in Wheeling, West Virginia
- Retail firms closed in 1998
- Companies dissolved in 1998
- Defunct department stores based in West Virginia