Winfield Woolworth

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Winfield Woolworth (born April 13, 1852 in Rodman , New York , † April 8, 1919 in Glen Cove , New York) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the department store and supermarket chain Woolworth .

Life

Winfield Woolworth was the son of the potato farmer John Hubbell Woolworth and his wife Fanny McBrier. The farmer's son completed an apprenticeship as a retail salesman. On June 11, 1876, he married Jennie Creighton (1853-1924), with whom he had three daughters: Helena Maud Woolworth McCann (1878-1938), Edna Woolworth Hutton (1883-1917) and Jessie May Woolworth Donahue (1886-1971) .

In 1879 Woolworth borrowed $ 300 and set up his first five-cent store in Utica, New York on February 22, 1879, but within a few weeks a failure became apparent. In his second store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania , founded in April 1879, he expanded the concept to include goods that were priced at 10 cents. This store was successful, and Woolworth and his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, subsequently opened many more five and dime stores , which are cheap, full-range stores. The business model was extremely successful at the time of the great waves of immigration to the USA. In 1904 he owned 76 department stores in ten states, and in 1905 his company went public.

Woolworth Building , Manhattan , NYC

In 1913, Woolworth built the Woolworth Building as its corporate headquarters in New York ; until 1930 it was the tallest building in the world with a height of 241 meters. Winfield Woolworth paid cash for the construction, which cost 13.5 million US dollars at the time. As early as 1893, Woolworth had the Woolworth Mansion built on the corner of 80th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York. With a purchase price of 90 million US dollars (around 66.6 million euros), it is one of the most expensive properties in the world in 2013.

On the so-called Gold Coast on Long Island , the aging entrepreneur built the 56-room Winfield Hall country estate in 1916 . His unhappily married daughter Edna committed suicide there in 1918, so that his granddaughter Barbara Hutton became his sole heir. Winfield Woolworth ran his business until his death in 1919, when he had assets of $ 65 million and his business consisted of over 1,000 branches.

Woolworth Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery , NYC , Bronx

His tomb, a neo-Egyptian style mausoleum, is in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Study for Woolworth Building, New York . December 10, 1910. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
  2. ↑ No bargains - the most expensive houses in the world ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on socibase.com, November 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.socibase.com

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Woolworth, Winfield
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woolworth, Franklin Winfield
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the US department store and supermarket chain Woolworth
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Rodman , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1919
Place of death Glen Cove , New York