Woolworth family today
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Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852-1919)
He was born on a small farm at Rodman, New York, and left school at sixteen. He struggled to find store work and even when he eventually did, he was considered a poor salesman. However, he soon found his talent was for arranging the shopfront window displays. In 1879, he borrowed $300 and set up a five-cent store in Utica, New York. It failed only weeks later and in August of the same year he opened a ten-cent store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. By 1911, the F.W. Woolworth Company was incorporated with 586 five-and-ten-cent stores and by the time of his death there were more than a thousand stores in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
In 1913, he built the Woolworth Building in Manhattan at a cost of $13 million, cash. It was then the tallest building in the world and remains one of the most iconic in New York City. He built a townhouse in Manhattan that recently went on the market for $90 million and his estate on Long Island, Winfield Hall, also still stands. Towards the end of his life, he became obsessed with Napoleon, and t
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F. W. Woolworth Company
Retail company
This article is about the company now known as Foot Locker. For companies, related or not, that are similarly named, see Woolworth.
The Woolworth Building, New York City, c. 1913 | |
Trade name | Woolworth's or Woolworth & Co |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
Traded as | NYSE: Z (1912–1997) |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | February 22, 1879; 145 years ago (1879-02-22), in Utica, New York, U.S. |
| Founder | Frank Winfield Woolworth |
| Defunct | July 17, 1997; 27 years ago (1997-07-17) (said division only) |
| Fate | Department stores closed. Name changed in 1997 to Venator Group, and in 2001 to Foot Locker |
| Successor | Foot Locker (1974–present) |
| Headquarters | Woolworth Building, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
Key people | F.W. Woolworth (CEO & president) Charles Woolworth (chairman) |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, consumer electronics and housewares |
| Parent | Woolworth Corporation, LLC. |
| Subsidiaries | Woolworths Group F. W. Woolworth
The Woolworths Museum
Frank Winfield Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York, on 13 April, 1852. His father, John Hubbell Woolworth, had fought as a Captain in the American Civil War. The soldier had married Fanny McBrier on his return in 1851 and had scraped together the deposit to buy a small farm. His brother, christened Charles Sumner, was born on 1 August, 1856. His parents hoped that one day their sons would take over the farm. As they grew up the boys were expected to help out with the milking before school and picking potatoes by hand in the evening. The whole family's help was needed to generate enough money for living expenses and to keep up the mortgage payments.
The boys often played at the abandonned home of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. During the 1820s, after being desposed as the puppet King of Spain, he had lived in exile in Bordentown, Pennsylvania. The brothers loved tales of far-away battles and empires. Frank's teachers thought him bright and diligent, if a bit of a dreamer. But his studies were often interrupted by the demands Copyright ©airtory.pages.dev 2025 |