A. M. Jensen's
A.M. Jensen Company was a department store established in Walla Walla, Washington in 1905 by Albert M. Jensen after acquiring the Skiles Dry Goods Company. From 1905 to 1920 the business was located in the former Knapp & Burrell Company building, where now Banner Bank is located, on the east side of Second Street between Main and Alder. The store suffered a huge fire in 1912 but it did not close.[1] In 1920, A.M. Jensen Company built a new large store building completely clad with terracotta on East Main Street towards which Walla Walla's business district was starting to shift. The former location was replaced by the First National Bank building in 1921, which currently houses Banner Bank.
In 1946, the C.C. Anderson division of Allied Department Stores purchased the store's assets. Albert M. Jensen died at 80 years of age on November 20, 1948 after having run the business for 36 years.[2] Allied Department Stores purchased the store building from the Jensen family in 1950. In 1951, Allied changed the A.M. Jensen Company name to The Bon Marché accompanying a large renovation adding over 28,000 square feet (2,600 m2) to the sales floor.
In 2005, Federated Department Stores removed the Bon Marché name from all of its stores, rebranding them Macy's. Jensen's original building stands today, much as it did then, but as a unit of Macy's.
See also
References
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2009-06-08. A.M. Jensen's fire-image at Whitman College digital archives
- ↑ Washington State Digital Archives
Further reading
- Walla Walla: A nice place to raise a family 1920-1949 (Robert A. Bennett, Walla Walla: Pioneer Press, 1988)
- Department Store Remodeling Will Be Completed This Week (The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Vol.83: pg5, 1951))