LOCAL Houston | The City Guide November 2017 | Page 49

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE
THE STORY OF HOUSTON
FOLEY’S DEPARTMENT STORES
By Lindsay Scovil
Images courtesy of Houston History Alliance
Foley's Department Store | 1110 Main St., Houston, TX 77002
Reprinted from the Texas State Historical
Association’s Handbook of Houston, a
project in cooperation with the Houston
History Alliance. For more information,
visit www.HoustonHistoryAlliance.org.
Foley’s, a leader in Houston’s retail industry, first opened in 1896 as W.L.
Foley Dry Goods Company at 214 Travis. Founder William L. Foley, an Irish
businessman, convinced his nephews James A. Foley and Pat C. Foley to join
him in Houston. Trained under their uncle’s tutelage, the brothers opened Foley
Bros. at 507 Main Street in 1900.

Foley Bros. offered fabrics, needles and menswear and recorded 138 sales
on opening day. By 1922, after moving three times, Foley’s was the largest
department store in Houston and was well on its way to becoming the “finest
department store in the South.”

As WWII was ending, plans were made for a new downtown location. Foley’s
broke ground on their new store at 1100 Main Street in 1946. Dubbed “the
store of tomorrow,” the building cost $13,000,000 to complete and included
air conditioning and a windowless design. The only windows were the display
windows on the street level, which drew crowds to see the latest fashions and
the elaborate Christmas displays each winter. Foley’s now also offered extra
amenities to their customers, including a beauty shop, wedding planning ser-
vices and a deli.

In the 1960s, Foley’s first branch store was built in the Sharpstown neighbor-
hood, an early leader in Houston’s suburbanization. By 1986, 16 branch stores
existed, and the Foley’s empire would eventually extend to five other states.

From the beginning, Foley’s was committed to serving Houstonians in many
capacities. In 1927, the Foley Bros. building included an auditorium that acted
as a civic center and rehearsal hall for the Houston Symphony. The company
often supported the Girl Scouts ™ and Little League ® teams, and in 1950,
Foley’s sponsored the first Santa’s ride from nearby Union Station to the Main
Street store. This event became the annual Foley’s Thanksgiving Parade that
Houstonians enjoyed for 44 years. During the period of branch expansion,
Foley’s studied Houston’s growth, including transportation and traffic patterns,
and worked with state and local entities to improve the nearby sewers and
water lines.

Foley’s was not immune to conflict, however. In the early 1960s, the store
became a central figure in Houston’s desegregation. Activists from TSU gathered
inside and outside the busy store, demanding racial equality in a time when Jim
Crow laws allowed stores like Foley’s to deny services to African Americans. In
an effort to avoid racial conflict and seeing a potential new market, the store
quickly welcomed African American customers and employees. Foley’s success-
ful example inspired other area businesses to desegregate as well.

In 2006, after a series of ownership changes, all Foley’s stores changed their
name to Macy’s, thus closing the door on Houston’s most successful department
store brand. The downtown store was demolished in September 2013.
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