Walkabout: Frear’s Troy Cash Bazaar, Part Two

Read Part 1 of this story.

In the prosperous years following the Civil War, dry goods entrepreneurs like Brooklyn’s Abraham Abraham and Frederick Loeser joined Manhattan’s A.T. Stewart, Lord and Taylor, B. Altman, Siegel-Cooper and the Straus brothers, Nathan and Isador, in building some of the largest and most beautiful retail emporiums in the world. All of these retailers, in their own individual way, helped develop the department store as a staple of American society, introducing the idea of “one stop shopping,” where everything imaginable for body and home could be found under one roof.

Dry goods men were the natural originators of department stores. In their shops they had traditionally sold all kinds of fabrics, notions, clothing and sundries. Traditionally speaking, if it wasn’t grocery items or hardware, a dry goods store might carry it. There were specialty stores for other items like kitchen ware, dishes and silver. As these retailers began stocking more and more different items, in order to appeal to more customers, or to draw them in the door, the idea of different “stores” or departments was born, and so was the department store.

The economic and social climate for the department store was perfect. Technological innovations were making mass production of consumer goods possible, and factories were churning out all kinds of merchandise. Ships could sail across the seas in record time, bringing back affordable treasures from around the world that only the rich could have obtained before. A flourishing middle class was able to afford these goods, many of which the style-makers and advice mavens of fashion and home were telling them were necessary for a proper home and stylish appearance. The department stores were simply making it easier for shoppers to find everything in one place.

And they made it so great to shop, too. The new stores were large, with grand displays of exotic and familiar goods. There were plenty of helpful sales people, who would wait on you with great care, and your purchases could even be delivered to your home, you didn’t even have to carry them yourself. The stores often had tea shops or lunch rooms where you could rest up and have a bite to eat, and you could literally spend all day there, strolling around, being seen, and buying as much as your budget would allow. For many women of a comfortable class, who had very little to do outside of the home, it was a chance to get out, socialize and buy. Shopping has always been great therapy.

Although New York City and Brooklyn had some of the largest and finest department stores, other cities across the country were not slow to follow. Up the Hudson River in prosperous Troy, NY, an enterprising dry goods merchant named William Henry Frear was making a name for himself with the largest and most fantastic department store upstate. Shoppers came literally, from miles around to shop at Frear’s Troy Cash Emporium. He had customers from as far away as Utica and central New York, the Adirondacks, as well as much of Vermont and western Massachusetts. His store beat anything in the nearby state capital of Albany, and of course, Troy, itself.

William Frear’s early origins can be found in Part One of this story. By 1894, his store had grown from one section of downtown Troy’s Cannon Building to the entire block long structure, and had then spread into annexes, as well. In 1897, he had a magnificent new building built a few blocks away, a large gleaming marble temple devoted to shopping, and Frear’s was once again the talk of the town.

The Frear’s building is one of Troy’s downtown treasures. It stands on the corner of Fulton Street and Third Street, and at its opening, and for many years afterwards were four large stories of shopping wonder. Frear’s bragged that it had over 53 different departments, selling everything from clothing to silver to candy. One entered the store through one of three grand arched marble entryways, into a ground floor packed with delights.

Although it might have made more sense, in terms of square footage and selling space, to have elevators or a stairway on the side leading to solid floors of merchandise, Frear’s sacrificed floor space for visual splendor. The center of the store was an atrium, a large open space from the ground floor to the roof. The upper floors ringed the walls of the building and opened up onto a corridors that looked out over into the atrium. Above it all was a huge skylight with small panes of clear glass, sending light down into the atrium. The structure joining it all together was a magnificent double stairway with ornate cast iron railings. The railings ran all around the corridors of the other floors, as well as on the stairs, connecting them all in a beautiful ribbon of black iron.

The stairways were not only great as an architectural and decorative element to this fine building; they were also a tribute to Troy, and its wealth. One of Troy’s earliest and most prosperous industries was iron and steel. Troy’s foundries produced all of the horseshoes for the Union Army during the Civil War, and the steel for the iron-clad ship, the Monitor, had come from Troy. Some of the finest bells in the country were cast in Troy, and although by the end of the 1800s, the city’s iron industry was in decline, it still employed thousands. This ironwork, cast in Troy, was a monument to the city.

By this time, William Frear had taken his brother and two sons on as partners, and the company name was officially changed to Wm H. Frear & Co. As his new store prospered in its new location, Frear continued his personal tradition of giving back to the city that had made his fortune, his beloved Troy. He was a generous man, and a great financial booster of Troy’s many civic and charitable causes and events. He was Troy’s largest property owner, and gave generously to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy’s historic educational institution.

William Frear was also a “trustee of the Second Presbyterian Church, the Troy Young Women’s Association, a director of the Citizens’ Steamboat Company, member of the committee for Old Home Week, Troy, 1908, and member of the committee of Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909; member of Troy Republican Club and Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the largest contributors to the building funds of Rensselaer Inn and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was treasurer of the Citizens’ Relief Fund, Spanish-American war, and one of thirty citizens who founded the permanent home of the Fresh Air Fund at Grafton.” (From the Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, edited by Cuyler Reynolds, 1911)

According to all, he was an exemplary employer. He kept a photograph and notes on every one of his four hundred employees, and could address them all by name, and make a bit of small talk. Very few employers to this day could say that. He emblazoned his mottos on a bronze plaque at the base of his grand staircase, for all to see. His adage, “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money cheerfully refunded” became an industry-wide mantra, adopted by almost every successful retailer in the country.

Busy until the last day of his life, William Frear died at the age of 69, in 1911. A biography of the man written that year, just before his death stated, “Not for him was the leather chair and the mahogany desk, but the thick of the fray; yet when the golden flood of prosperity came none knew better than he how to enjoy it. His life is one of the wonders of the commercial world, yet, while he is proud of the name he has carved for himself among America’s great merchants, he does not ascribe it to anything but good hard business sense put into circulation, personal attention, fair dealing and a thorough knowledge of his business.” (From the Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, edited by Cuyler Reynolds, 1911.)

The city established a park in his honor in 1922, one of Troy’s two largest parks. The Frear family donated some of the land, and today the park encompasses 150 acres. His brother and sons carried on, and Frear’s was a Troy institution until 1941, when it was sold to the Rowley Department Stores, which kept the Frear name. But only a generation later, it would all end. In the 1960s, Troy suffered through the loss of jobs and industry, and became a shell of its former self. Urban renewal was the phrase of the day, and Troy began physically gutting its downtown as stores and businesses began heading for the new suburban malls. Hundreds of buildings were torn down, in order to “rebuild” the city.

The Frear’s annex fell to the wrecking ball, but fortunately the Cash Bazaar building stood. Lower budget stores like Flah’s and Peerless took over, but not for long. The store building was turned into office space, the grand staircase hidden from view, the ground floor portion removed, but stored in the basement. Up until 2013, Frear’s was home to the New York State Health Offices. When they left, the building’s future was up in the air. It was now part of a landmarked district, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t just stand there empty and unused.

Fortunately, the building’s owner, David Bryce, had a better idea. He decided that retail should return to Frear’s Troy Cash Bazaar. One side of the building was already rented to a large CVS pharmacy, but the other side had been empty for years. He made retail space for the first three businesses to occupy the Frear building, starting this October. Astri Bryce’s Trojan Horse Antiques, another antique dealer named Modern on the Hudson, and ‘e ko logic clothing are now open and ready for business. ‘E ko logic, which takes cashmere clothing, deconstructs them, and recycles every inch of the old garments into new clothing and accessories, was working out of one of Troy’s iconic textile factories, a “shoddy” factory that used to process fabric scraps into new fabric, fittingly enough.

Kathleen Tesnakis, the designer and co-owner of ‘e ko logic, is now manufacturing and selling her creations in the Frear Building, a dream come true. She will also be selling her cashmere clothing at the holiday fair at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan this holiday season. The spirit of William Frear is living again in the Frear Building. Customers are buying antiques, home furnishings and clothing, much of it locally made or acquired, and sold with pride, in Troy, N.Y. You can also come in anytime the building is open and see the magnificent staircase. Frear’s, along with the rest of Troy, is coming back! GMAP

The source material for this article comes from Don Rittner’s great article on the Bazaar in the Times Union (10.28.13), the Frear Park Conservancy, Alloveralbany.com, and Hoxie.com.

(1950s photo: Alloveralbany.com)