Gerber's department store staff picnic, 1924

Creators

Preview

Source Collection

William Nowland Van Powell papers, Special Collections Department, University of Memphis Libraries

Identifier

sc.0258.los_001.009

Description

Panoramic image of the staff of John Gerber's department store at their annual picnic at Riverside Park, Memphis, Tennessee, in 1924. The photographer was Bolton. Mary Herbst, a cashier, is identified in the photograph. John Gerber opened his first store on Main Street in Memphis in 1880. It expanded greatly over the years, eventually taking up most of the block. In 1949, Gerber's added the first escalators most Memphians had ever seen. When retailers began to abandon Main Street in the 1960s, Gerber's struggled to survive. An early-morning fire on December 29, 1968, did more than one million dollars' damage and closed the store for four months. Just three years later, another blaze struck, and again the owners rebuilt and reopened but the store closed for good in 1974. Other stores also closed around the city in the following years.

Date Created

6-9-2021

Date

1924

Recommended Citation

"Gerber's department store staff picnic, 1924" (2021). Images. 1.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-wnvpowell1/1