McCurdy’s was a retail giant and pioneer in Rochester for nearly a century and the last of the locally owned family department stores.
Though perhaps overshadowed by Sibley’s, McCurdy’s certainly made its own enormous impact in Rochester.
Foremost was the development of Midtown Plaza, the first downtown shopping mall in the country and a project that revitalized the city shopping scene. McCurdy’s also was the first Rochester department store to branch to the suburbs when it opened in Greece’s Northgate Plaza in 1953.
The business started as McCurdy and Norwell Co. in 1901 before changing its name to McCurdy & Co. 18 years later. Founder John Cooke McCurdy was a transplanted Philadelphian who was born in Ireland.
The flagship store opened at East Main and Elm streets. Arch-rival Sibley’s was further west on Main Street at the time but moved a few years later directly across from McCurdy’s. That part of downtown wasn’t nearly as developed when McCurdy’s set up shop.
“In 1901, the site of the McCurdy’s store was considered practically ‘out in the country,’ ” read a 1951 Democrat and Chronicle story. Business at the time was centered at the Four Corners area. McCurdy’s was built on the site of the old Farmer’s Hotel.
McCurdy’s decision proved wise. The McCurdy-Sibley block proved to be the premier retail sector for Rochester shoppers for much of the 20th century.
Unlike Sibley’s, McCurdy’s remained locally owned throughout its tenure. Following John Cooke McCurdy as boss were succeeding family members Gilbert J.C. McCurdy, Gilbert G. McCurdy and Gilbert K. “Ken” McCurdy. When William B. Burks was named company president in 1980, it was the first time the job went to someone outside the McCurdy family.
McCurdy’s was a classic downtown department store that had quality merchandise spread over several floors, classic holiday window displays around Christmas and a restaurant that was a favorite of older female shoppers. Men’s and women’s clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, toys and sporting goods were among the offerings. The store, which was enlarged several times, held fashion shows and had a hair salon, bridal salon and fur salon.
McCurdy’s opened its first “remote” branch store in Geneva in 1957.
The most significant move that McCurdy’s made was with Midtown. Downtown already was losing shoppers to the suburbs, and McCurdy’s and the B. Forman Co., led by Maurice Forman, pushed for the innovative mall to breathe new life into the center city retail world.
Midtown Plaza opened to great fanfare in 1962. Midtown Holdings Co., the company that built and ran the mall, was a McCurdy’s venture. McCurdy’s bought B. Forman in 1968 and ran that business for years.
McCurdy’s opened stores through the Rochester area including one in Greece in 1969 that ushered in what became Long Ridge Mall. An Eastview Mall store followed in Victor four years later. But the downtown flagship store continued to be the biggest money-maker and the focus for company officials.
Miss America, Pamela Eldred, visited in 1970. Actress Eva Gabor showed up in 1975 to promote her wig line. McCurdy’s offered a “Blue Blazer Spit ‘n’ Polish Course in Manliness and Manners for Boys” in 1971.
“The basic idea is to demonstrate to boys in their formative years that there is nothing sissy about being well-mannered; that most real he-men are gentlemen,” an advertisement for the event stated.
McCurdy’s instituted a “Teen Board” to advise store officials about youth trends. The Midtown store went through a $5 million renovation in the mid-1980s.
Mitch Broder described his visit to McCurdy’s second-floor Garden Room restaurant in a 1987 Democrat and Chronicle story.
“Very often — for reasons that are not completely clear — it is practically filled with potential replacements for the TV cast of The Golden Girls,” Broder wrote. “They are many of them little, they are most of them old, and they are just about all of them ladies. Some are in their 60s, some are in their 90s, but most are in their 70s and 80s.”
The women came for the food, the atmosphere and the “excitement” of downtown, he wrote.
Much ballyhooed was the skyway built in 1989 to finally link McCurdy’s to Sibley’s. The pedestrian bridge, designed to keep downtown shoppers warm and dry during Rochester’s brutal winters, was first discussed shortly after Midtown opened. The department store titans squabbled about it for more than 20 years before finally agreeing.
Todd Lighty wrote in a 1988 Democrat and Chronicle story, “The Hatfields and McCoys of downtown retailing have decided to bridge their differences.”
Problems were just on the horizon. Sibley’s closed in 1990 and McCurdy’s followed suit in 1994. Tough economic times and a decline in downtown shoppers were blamed. Deborah Fineblum Raub covered a going-out-of-business sale at McCurdy’s in a September 1994 Democrat and Chronicle story.
“The ambiance is more like that of an old-fashioned wake, as shoppers send out the old institution in style — by buying,” she wrote.
It was a fitting end to a beloved institution that left quite an impression on Rochester during its 93 years in business.
The May Co., which had purchased Sibley’s, also bought McCurdy’s. After lengthy proceedings in federal court about antitrust issues, May divested its holdings in McCurdy’s to Bon Ton, a Pennsylvania-based competitor.
Morrell is a Rochester-based freelance writer.
This story was originally published November 2014 as part of the Whatever Happened To series.
