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For ninety-five years, St. Louis residents counted on Famous-Barr to buy the things they used every day and to celebrate the moments that happened only once a year. Customers might bump into Sophia Loren while shoe shopping or confide in Santa Claus during a visit to Toyland. May Company purchased the Famous Clothing Company in 1892 and acquired the William Barr Dry Goods Company nineteen years later. In 1914, Famous-Barr opened the doors of its iconic downtown location, treating folks across Missouri and Illinois to almost a century of spectacular window displays and legendary luncheons.

Brookside’s burgundy-and-blue-striped awnings represent both a quaint corner of Kansas City where you can tread the creaky wooden floors of the Dime Store and a pragmatic philosophy that changed the way America planned its cities. Renowned developer J.C. Nichols’s “plan for permanence” was built on his conviction that if a community could offer its residents everything they would want and need, build to high standards and plan for future growth, the community would last. The Brookside shopping district has been giving the community everything it could want and need since 1919, helping it weather economic turbulence, natural disasters and dramatic changes.

In 1891, Siegmund Harzfeld and the Parisian Cloak Company introduced a new era of commerce and fashion to the residents of Kansas City. Women no longer needed to make lengthy and expensive appointments with dressmakers to maintain the latest fashion trends; the ready-to-wear movement had begun!
Join historians Joe and Michele Boeckholt as they uncover the story behind Harzfeld's department store, from its first offering of coats, blouses, petticoats, and furs to the beloved Petticoat Lane flagship location and regional network of satellite stores. With archival photographs and memorabilia, personal narratives and interviews, and a wealth of local and historical knowledge, the history of this local landmark franchise is revealed, one seam at a time.