Yesterday: Kress Store 221

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 9, 2011

Here is a photograph from April 1927 of the sales staff of the S.H. Kress five-and-dime store at 300 S. Main St. Frances Rufty Barnhardt, who supplied the photograph to the Post, says her late sister Ann Rufty Glasgow is the fifth person from the right. The store opened Sept. 17, 1910 — Store 221 in the Kress chain. The building had an extensive renovation in 1936, and with those changes, the Kress store became the first in the company’s chain to have air-conditioning on the sales floor. The store closed in 1974. Developer Joel Goodman bought the historically significant steel and concrete structure in 2005 and transformed it into Kress Plaza. The $1.7 million renovation now offers residential condominiums and office/retail space.