Ross Ave. Led Dallas' Big Growth to the North, East
Before the end of World War II, Sears was eyeing the East Point and Morningside additions along both sides of Greenville Ave. in Dallas. Sears had in mind establishing in this well-populated area a big store that would serve Dallas as it spread east and north.
Sears had come into Dallas in 1906 with one of the first Order Taking Branch offices outside Chicago. By 1912 it had grown into the Dallas Mail Order Plant serving the whole Southwest.
In 1925 the Lamar St. store opened. As time passed, Sears reached into Dallas with small stores on Greenville Ave., Oak Lawn Ave., and Jefferson Blvd., but the big store on Lamar St. was the only complete department store when post-World War II planning began.
The triangle at Henderson, Ross and Greenville was in 31 tracts. Except for one or two vacant lots, it was built up with homes, apartments houses, a clinic, a grocery, a barber shop and a tailoring establishment. The abstract on one lot shows that it was sold in 1890. The neighborhood had some of the finest homes in Dallas pre-dating the Munger Place addition.
Three Realtors were charged with securing options on the land for Sears. "I gave them a corner of the triangle." said Y. A. Langdon, at that time in Sears Zone Property department, "and told them that the first man who could get 10 pieces of property together on his corner... that was where we'd build the store."
When the land acquisition was complete, Sears had bought 7 1/2 acres... at that time the largest single land purchase in the history of Sears outside the Chicago plant. In contrast, the purchase made in 1966 for Fort Worth's NorthStar came to 420 acres.
It was extremely difficult to get building materials in 1946 and Sears bought Indiana limestone for the new store because it was available. The first rain turned the building a blotchy grey, to the great disappointment of its builders. But as time passed the stone weathered to a uniform color and recovered its attractive appearance.
It opened on September 4, 1947, with approximately 185,000 sq. ft. of space. "It was one of the hottest days of the year," recalled R. L. Tayloe, retired, former Sears Southwestern Territory vice-president said in 1969. Tayloe a former manager of the Lamar St. store, became the first manager of the new Dallas Group created when Ross Ave. opened.
"General Robert E. Wood came down from Chicago for the opening and the air was so turbulent his plane bounced 40 feet in the air when it touched the runway, "Tayloe continued.
"General Wood had a young man with him, his assistant on foreign operations. His name was Charlie Meyer and the trip to Dallas was one of his first, " Tayloe went on. Charles Meyer later served in Dallas as Sears vice-president for Southwester Territory, transferred to the same position for Eastern Territory in Philadelphia in 1966 and was later an adviser in Washington on Latin-American affairs.
Ross Ave. had the first modern escalators in a Dallas department store. Some years before a downtown store had experimented with wooden escalators but had removed them. The first month after Ross Ave. opened, people came to the new Sears and spent all day riding up and down.
Parking needs forced the acquisition of a big area across Ross between Henderson and Greenville, in 1950. In 1962, the store was remodeled and its floor space increased by almost 10,000 ft., increasing the total to 250,000 sq. ft.
Sears Building