Woolworth’s

History

The old F. W. Woolworth Company store in downtown Miami had been a cornerstone of Miami’s commercial center since 1903, initially operating as a jewelry store before becoming the Glenn C. Frissell Building in 1911 to house the Miami Telephone Exchange Co. The masonry structure destroyed in the fire was erected in 1924, and in 1938, it was updated with a distinctive Art Deco facade made of glazed ceramic tile. Recognized by city historic preservation planner Sarah Eaton as one of the downtown district’s most architecturally outstanding buildings, the 10,856-square-foot structure lacked official historic designation after the Miami City Commission voted down a proposal in 1988 to create a protected commercial historic district.

At its peak, the Woolworth building anchor stood alongside other major 20th-century American retailers on Flagler Street, including Burdines, Kress, McCrory, and Lerner. As part of the international chain founded in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth, the store helped popularize self-service shopping and fixed low-price merchandise, mass-marketing items like zippers, strapless bras, and hula hoops, selling three million of the latter in just six weeks during 1958.

Beyond its general merchandise and popular soda fountain, the store played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. During the era of segregation, when the building maintained separate water fountains and restrooms labeled “white” and “colored,” it became a focus of integration efforts. On June 28, 1959, twenty members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) staged a sit-in at the lunch counter, waiting three and a half hours without service, serving as an early precursor to the broader lunch counter sit-ins that swept across the American South.

The Founding of the F. W. Woolworth Company

Born on April 13, 1852, Frank Winfield Woolworth was fascinated by traveling peddlers and declared to his parents that he would become one at just four years old. He and his brother, Charles, regularly played “store,” with Frank arranging goods to sell to him. Frank completed his formal education at 16, but with only fundamental knowledge and zero practical experience, local merchants repeatedly turned down his job applications. Refusing to give up, he borrowed money from his mother to fund two terms at a business college in Watertown, New York.

In 1873, Woolworth took a job as a stock boy at Augsbury & Moore’s Drygoods in Watertown, New York, a role that sparked his future business innovations. Considered an inept salesman, he was relegated to tasks like window washing, where he discovered a knack for arranging store displays. His creative work impressed his employer so much that he was officially put in charge of window design. At the time, standard retail practice required clerks to fetch items displayed out of reach or behind counters for customers. Watching this process convinced Woolworth that products should “sell themselves,” a revolutionary idea that would define his entire career.

While working for Moore & Smith, Woolworth was tasked with clearing out a large surplus of merchandise. He launched a store in Great Bend on February 10, 1878, to move the inventory, but poor sales led to its closure by May. Historians offer varying accounts of how the “five-and-dime” concept originated. Gail Fenske notes that Woolworth learned about a “five-cent counter craze” while doubting his sales skills at his initial job. Jean Maddern Pitrone claims a traveling salesman inspired him with stories of Michigan stores using five-cent counters. Meanwhile, Karen Plunkett-Powell suggests Woolworth overheard William Moore discussing the idea with a young retailer who ran a discount shop.

On February 22, 1879, Woolworth borrowed $300 from William Moore to open his first five-cent store in Utica, New York, “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store”, though it failed within weeks. Undeterred, he launched a second location a few weeks later in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the same name. Built on a shoestring budget, the shop featured basic fittings and simple counters crafted from overturned packing crates. Employees worked non-stop to earn their $1.50 weekly wage, carefully wrapping customer purchases in old newspapers to minimize expenses. Local Pennsylvania Dutch housewives praised the frugal approach and quickly spread the word, driving brisk sales in top items like tinware, toys, wash basins, handkerchiefs, and ribbons.

At the end of the first day, Frank Woolworth wrote to his father:

DEAR FATHER, I opened my store here for trade yesterday and did not advertise any. No-one knew there was a 5 cent store in this city until Friday night and we managed to sell yesterday in one day $127.65, which is the most I ever sold in one day. We sold $80 in the evening alone. I had 7 clerks and they had to work you bet. We could have sold $200 if the store had been larger. Jennie helped me last night … I am thinking of starting a branch store in Harrisburg, Pa. and putting Sum in it if Moore and Smith will spare him.

Woolworth opened the store in Harrisburg, but closed after a falling-out with the landlord; their next store, in York, Pennsylvania, likewise closed after operating for just three months.

The “5¢ Woolworth Bros. Store” opened in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on November 6, 1880, managed by Frank’s brother, Charles Sumner. It was here that the famous “five-and-dime” merchandising formula fully took shape, turning the location into a major success. Charles eventually bought out Frank’s stake in two installments, in January 1881 and January 1882, becoming the company’s first franchisee.

In 1884, Charles partnered with his close friend, wholesaler Fred Morgan Kirby, to launch a store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, under the name “Woolworth and Kirby.” Following its success, the Woolworth brothers began recruiting family members and trusted associates to build a “friendly rival syndicate” of five-and-ten-cent stores. Although each store featured uniform branding and layout inside and out, each operated under its respective founder’s name. Frank Woolworth supplied much of the inventory, urging the syndicate members to pool their resources to maximize their bulk purchasing power.

The largest of these stores at the time was undoubtedly Frank Woolworth’s in Lancaster with five floors of offices above a large store, as well as a garden and open-air theater. In 1910, Frank Woolworth expanded even further, commissioning architect Cass Gilbert, an MIT graduate, to design a groundbreaking skyscraper in New York City: the Woolworth Building. Funded entirely in cash, the iconic structure was completed in 1913 and held the record as the world’s tallest building until 1930.

By 1904, the syndicate had expanded to six affiliated store chains across the United States and Canada, each incorporated separately over the following years. In 1912, these regional operations consolidated, merging all 596 stores under a single corporate umbrella: the F. W. Woolworth Company. Frank Woolworth assumed the role of president, while key syndicate partners, Charles Woolworth, Fred Kirby, Seymour H. Knox, Earle Charlton, and William Moore, served as directors and vice presidents. The company’s headquarters was located at the towering Woolworth Building in New York.

The Flagler Street Site

The E. G. Romfh Company

The site of the old Woolworth’s in downtown Miami boasts a rich history dating back to the city’s earliest days and incorporation, starting with the E. G. Romfh Company. Born in Camden, Arkansas, Eugene Benjamin Romfh lived in Altoona, Florida, Titusville, and Atlanta before venturing out with his well-known brother, Edward Coleman Romfh. In 1898, the brothers moved to the fledgling city of Miami to open a store at 316 Twelfth Street (now 44 East Flagler Street). While Edward eventually transitioned into banking, Eugene remained in the mercantile business until 1916, when he sold the E. G. Romfh Company to Tucker Shoes.

The Tuckers Shoes Company

The Tucker Shoes Company was established in 1916 by Percy Lee Tucker, with financial investment from his in-laws, John M. Burdine and Eva P. Quarterman. Eugene Romfh focused on his real estate investments and continued owning the building, leasing the property to the new company. Since the new store was to sell only shoes, all the merchandise and stock purchased from Romfh was steeply discounted and sold to the public. Tucker Shoes operated from this building until 1919 when it moved, reportedly, to “its own building, on Twelfth Street, between Avenues B and C.“

Miami Telephone Company

Next door at 314 Twelfth Street was home to the Miami Telephone Company, founded shortly after telephone service arrived in Miami on February 24, 1899. Its first switchboard was set up inside the Red Cross Drugstore in the Townley Building, located at the modern-day intersection of Miami Avenue and Southwest First Street in downtown Miami.

By the time the Miami Telephone Company published its first directory in 1902, it had relocated to 314 Twelfth Street (now Flagler Street). This directory listed roughly 70 to 80 subscribers. Within its first few years, the company expanded phone lines to Lemon City and Coconut Grove. Innovating beyond basic communication, it became the first to broadcast music in Miami by playing songs directly from the switchboard to subscribers over their phone lines.

By 1917, the Miami Telephone Company had grown to over 2,000 subscribers and was renamed the South Atlantic Telephone Company. A few years later, on December 31, 1924, all assets of South Atlantic Telephone were officially merged into Southern Bell.

Woolworth’s Flagler Street Location

Woolworth’s interest in expanding to Miami dates back to 1916, when company agent Chester Watkins began scouting locations. Seeking a venue with a large storage area and at least 50 feet of street frontage to compete with rivals like McCrory’s and Kress, the company always intended to perform extensive renovations on its future home. In 1919, Woolworth finally announced it would take over the former E. G. Romfh Company building. However, because the H. T. Whaler Company held a lease on part of the space, Woolworth couldn’t officially move in until that agreement expired in 1921.

In 1924, Woolworth expanded its Flagler Street presence by leasing the adjacent South Atlantic Telephone Company building, as well as a third property on First Street occupied by The Momand Office Furniture Company. The ambitious expansion called for a two-story structure connecting the buildings, providing store entrances and street frontage on both thoroughfares. As part of the upgrade, Woolworth also added a popular 75-stool lunch counter. Miami contractor Charles Grimm handled the construction under the supervision of P. W. Reid, construction superintendent of the southern district of the Woolworth Company.

Additional improvements followed in 1934, including the installation of air conditioning, a modernized lunch counter, and a completely remodeled storefront featuring Woolworth’s signature red-and-gold marquee. By this time, Woolworth had become a global brand, expanding into international markets such as New Zealand, Cuba, and Germany. However, operations in the latter two faced severe turmoil, marked by political bombings in Havana and widespread looting by Nazi loyalists.

Back in Miami, Woolworth continued to thrive, expanding once again in 1938 by acquiring the neighboring Lerner’s store to the west on Flagler Street. The addition expanded the storefront to a full 100 feet. Both buildings underwent extensive renovations, receiving updated lighting, modern fixtures, and enhanced air conditioning. During the 1930s, the company embraced Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles across its retail footprint, and Flagler Street was no exception, featuring a sleek new exterior designed by company architect H. W. Stakes.

Racial Segregation and Civil Rights Sit-ins

Following the success of the Liverpool, UK, store’s lunch counter, the company introduced counters at its other locations, turning them into popular gathering spots and early ancestors of the modern food court. One such counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, became historic ground during the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, where activists protested Woolworth’s Southern segregation policies in a pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement. While it wasn’t the first sit-in, it was one of the most successful, leading to the Woolworth Company removing its policy of racial segregation in the South.

A Miami Herald story from June 28, 1959, reported 20 members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) waited three and a half hours without being served at the Woolworth lunch counter. That same day, Burdine’s also refused service. Earlier that month, CORE also staged sit-ins at nearby McCrory’s and Grant’s, where they were refused service.

Growth and Expansion

Woolworth’s popular business model inspired numerous competitors, turning five-and-dimes into downtown fixtures. Much like the big-box stores of the early 21st century, these early discount chains faced criticism for undercutting and displacing local merchants.

In the 1960s, five-and-dime stores expanded into discount department stores as suburban malls began to replace highly taxed, single-store downtown shopping, and cars replaced pedestrian shopping. Woolworth’s entered this new market in 1962 by launching Woolco, a chain of expansive, single-story discount locations. That landmark year also saw key competitors introduce their own discount chains: S.S. Kresge launched Kmart, Dayton’s debuted Target, and Sam Walton opened the very first Walmart.

Woolworth expanded into the footwear industry in 1963 by acquiring the Kinney Shoe Corporation. This move eventually paved the way for the creation of Foot Locker in 1974. Over time, the company shifted its strategic direction toward athletic retail, becoming an exclusively sporting goods business by 2001.

Throughout the 1980s, the company further diversified by branching into various specialty retail formats. Key additions included Afterthoughts for women’s jewelry and accessories, Northern Reflections for winter outerwear, Champs Sports for athletic gear, and Rx Place, a pharmacy chain later acquired by Phar-Mor.

Decline

By 1989, the company launched an aggressive mall strategy built around multiple specialty retail formats, a plan that would lead to the company’s downfall. The plan allowed them to rapidly swap out underperforming store concepts with new ones, aiming for up to ten locations per major shopping mall. However, this goal fell short because Woolworth’s failed to develop enough viable brands.

In October 1993, Woolworth’s launched a major restructuring, shutting down half of its 800+ U.S. general merchandise stores and rebranding roughly 100 Canadian locations as The Bargain! Shop. By 1994, the company sold most of its Canadian Woolco locations to Wal-Mart, with the rest converted, sold to Zellers, or closed. Facing stiff competition from big-box discounters and expanded grocery chains, Woolworth’s was replaced by Wal-Mart in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on March 17, 1997. As traditional store sales plummeted, Woolworth shifted focus toward athletic retail, acquiring Eastbay in early 1997, before announcing the full closure of its remaining U.S. department stores on July 17, 1997.

Following the shutdown of its department stores, F. W. Woolworth Company rebranded as Venator Group, Inc. on June 12, 1998, deriving its new name from the Latin word for “sportsman,” before taking the name of its top retail performer, Foot Locker, Inc. Woolworth’s former downtown Miami location became a Foot Locker, but by 2015, it had closed down.

Redevelopment

Developer Moishe Mana purchased the old Woolworth’s, along with the adjacent Flagler Station and Morris Brothers buildings in 2015 as part of MANA Common, an ambitious urban redevelopment aimed at blending residential, commercial, and cultural spaces. The plan envisioned over 5,000 micro-units, shared workspaces, and creative hubs, offering middle-income housing while sparking local innovation. However, years of neglect left the properties structurally compromised, triggering municipal violations in 2019 and 2022.

Because decades of extensive alterations had already stripped away their architectural integrity, these historic buildings were deemed beyond repair. The Morris Brothers and Woolworth buildings were demolished in 2025, and Flagler Station met the same fate in 2026.

Photo Gallery

Interiors by @urbexspecialist on Instagram and YouTube