G. Fox & Co.

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G. Fox & Co. was a large retail department store established in 1847 by Gershon Fox in Hartford, Connecticut. In the 1920's, the founder's granddaughter, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, took control of the company and grew it into a powerhouse business that became the dominant retail store in the southern New England region for most of the 20th century. For a brief time in mid century, the store was also one of the largest privately held retailers in the world, prior to its 1965 sale to The May Department Stores Company. Through her efforts, Mrs. Auerbach became one of the most prominent women executives in American retailing and gained much respect in the Hartford area for her civic and philanthropic efforts.

The flagship store was located at 960 Main Street in downtown Hartford. Legend has it that the original store and offices, destroyed by fire in 1917, was rebuilt by asking customers to pay whatever they could of remember of their bills owed. The replacement store, designed by New York architect Cass Gilbert, was an 11 story behemoth initially dubbed "Fox's folly" in reference to its sheer scale. Not long after taking over, Mrs. Auerbach embarked on a major renovation that added elegant art deco interior details and a signature marquee above the display windows and entrances along Main Street.

Throughout the mid 20th century, G.Fox & Co. continued to grow exclusively at its downtown Hartford location. Against prevailing trends, Mrs. Auerbach believed that branch stores only detracted from the appeal of the flagship store. Following her instincts, G.Fox added several major additions to the complex, including a huge nine story retail addition to the Market Street (rear) side of the building, a major warehouse and a multi-level parking garage.

This parking garage was situated next to the proposed interchange of Interstate highways I-91 and I-84. A well told story is that the construction of this interchange, notoriously poor in its original configuration and on a very constrained site, was the result of Mrs. Auerbach's 'insistance' that the off ramps of the new highway deposit customers literally to the front door of G.Fox. Considering the culture of the 1950's, and how few women executives there were, it nonetheless showcased just how powerful her influence was over such decisions, particularly within the Hartford business community. It would be the mid 1990's before the interchange would be reconstructed to correct many of these early design flaws.

A final expansion of the store occurred in 1969, when G.Fox took over and expanded into the adjacent historic 'Cheney Building', designed by H.H. Richardson, that housed another local department store, Brown Thompson's, which G. Fox had acquired sometime earlier. This building would later be redeveloped into the Richardson Shops Mall in 1980 with about 40 stores, a food court and some residential apartments. The mall also connected G.Fox to the flagship store of another local department store chain, Sage-Allen, which eventually closed this location in the summer of 1990, with the entire chain declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy and eventually folding in 1994. The Richardson Mall was later renovated into a Marriott Residence Inn, a revamped food court and some street level retail space.

After the 1965 sale of the store to the May Department Stores Company, G.Fox began an ambitious expansion beyond its Hartford base, building its first branch store in 1969 in Waterbury and thus beginning a 12 store branch expansion that continued until the chain was folded into the May Company's Filene's division in 1992. As a result of this merger, coupled with the severe recession that took hold of the regional economy in the early 1990's and the decline of Hartford's downtown retail environment, the flagship store and the executive offices were shuttered on January 29, 1993.

Prior to the merger with Filene's, two additional G.Fox stores were announced in Albany, New York and Stamford, Connecticut The Albany store eventually opened at Crossgates Mall, but under the Filene's banner in 1994, and the Stamford store, part of a proposed mall with an existing Lord & Taylor, was never built. Eventually, a Filene's store would open at the nearby Stamford Town Center mall in 1996 in a former J.C.Penney location, but it would close in 2004.

On February 1, 1993 the remaining G. Fox & Co. stores were re-branded as Filene's, until September 2006 when most of the that chain was re-named Macy's, after corporate parent May Company's merger with Federated Department Stores was completed.

After being abandoned for almost a decade, the downtown Hartford G.Fox building was re-opened as the new campus for Capital Community College and some commercial space in the fall of 2002. This renovation and adaptive re-use maintained many of the art deco interior and exterior details while adding a large interior atrium, classrooms, circulation and leasable commercial space. In addition, a new and much larger parking garage was also built on the site of the original G.Fox garage on Market and Talcott Streets.

[edit] Former Locations

Connecticut

• Hartford: downtown flagship, 960 Main Street (Closed in the Filene's consolidation, January 1993) Renovated into Capital Community College campus and commercial space in 2002
• Farmington: Westfarms Mall, 1974, renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Meriden: Meriden Square (now Westfield Meriden) 1971, renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Waterbury: Naugatuck Valley Mall, 1969 (Closed 9/97 with mall demolished in 2000, Filene's relocated to Brass Mill Center)1997, now Macy's
• Danbury: Danbury Fair Mall 1986 renamed Filene's 1993, Closed 3/2006 and consolidated into existing Macy's location
• Trumbull: Trumbull Shopping Park (now Westfield Trumbull), 1979 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Milford: Connecticut Post Mall (now Westfield Connecticut Post), 1991 renamed, Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Manchester: The Pavillions at Buckland Hills (now The Shops at Buckland Hills), 1990 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Enfield: Enfield Square Mall, 1971 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's

Massachusetts

• Holyoke: Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, 1980 Renamed Filene's 1993 and relocated to new location in 1997, original G.Fox building now houses Target
• North Attleboro: Emerald Square, 1988 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's

New York

• Poughkeepsie: Poughkeepsie Galleria, 1987 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Middletown: Galleria at Crystal Run, 1989 renamed Filene's 1993, now Macy's
• Crossgates Mall

Rhode Island

• Warwick: Rhode Island Mall, 1977 (Closed when consolidated with Filene's at Warwick Mall), 1993, mall demolished 2004

Store Conversions to Filene's

1994: Steiger's    1993: G. Fox & Co.    
See also: Filene's Basement (associated until 1988) | Kaufmann's (part of division from 2002)
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