Raise your hands if you remember the thread I managed to derail over a year ago...
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=175019
It was a WWII picture thread, and I took it in the direction of a West End Mall discussion. Well I'm starting another Sears/Simpsons/West End Mall discussion, and if you don't like it then don't read it
With the recent news that HBC is closing The Bay store at WEM, I got back to thinking about all of this again.
Basically the approximate timeline we hashed out in that other thread was that the original Simpsons store opened off of Chebucto Road. Sometime in the 1960s, Halifax Shopping Centre opened up across Mumford Road with Eaton's as its' anchor tenant. Sometime possibly in the 60s a new Sears store opened up behind the Simpsons store, facing Mumford Road. It was believed that around this time the West End Mall was constructed. In the early 1980s (thanks to Keith) Simpsons moved from their now ancient original store to a new building adjacent to Chebucto Road. Shortly after, Hudsons Bay Company bought out Simpsons, and the new store was transoformed into The Bay which we know today. In 1999, Eaton's went bankrupt and their store at HSC closed. Sometime after, Sears moved from their WEM location to the old Eatons location at HSC, Sobeys moved from HSC to their new digs on the former Sears site at WEM, and a Wal-Mart moved in below it.
Cool, right?
Well tonight I was digging through old photos on the NSARM site, and came across this:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/nsis/archives.asp?id=1860&language=english
Yep, it's the old Sears building at WEM (where the Sobeys/Wal-Mart are today), displaying the Simpsons logo. And my mind exploded. Here I thought we had figured this convoluted history all out.
So I did a bit more digging, and got a few actual dates and some much needed clarification on the Simpsons and Sears partnership...so here I go
In 1952, Simpson's partnered with US-based Sears, whose Canadian based operation was known as Simpsons-Sears. Confusing name I know, because Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears were treated as separate companies. In 1978, Simpsons was purchased by the Hudsons Bay Company, and Simpsons-Sears became known as Sears Canada, which we know today. Part of the original 1952 partnership agreement said that no Simpsons-Sears store could be built within 25 miles of an existing Simpsons store. This restriction was ended in 1972.
So there's no way that, prior to 1972, a Sears and Simpsons store could have possibly co-existed at WEM.
Unfortunately there's no date on that NSARM photo, however based on the markings on that bus parked in front of the store, the picture was taken sometime between 1963 (when the Nova Scotia Light and Power Company purchased its' first diesel buses) and 1970, when NSL&P ceased transit operations.
So, obviously this building in the photo, where the Wal-Mart and Sobeys are today, started its' life as an expansion of the older Simpson's building behind it. They probably operated out of both buildings at the same time too, as we know they were linked together with escalators, and the photo title on the website says "New Simpsons Addition, Halifax." Also note in the picture that the WEM itself doesn't exist yet.
In 1978, HBC purchased Simpsons, and a couple of years later built a new Simpsons store adjacent to Chebucto Road with a large parkade under it. In the mid-80s HBC renamed this Simpsons store to The Bay, as it is today. When Simpsons vacated their old buildings (the one where the Sobeys is today as well as the original building behind it) in the early 80s, they would have been taken over by Sears, with Sears using the Mumford-fronting building as the main store, and the old building behind as the clearance centre/bargain basement. I assume around this time the WEM was constructed to link the two department stores together.
Now, since I was not alive in the 60s or 70s, perhaps somebody here has a memory that does go back to those days, and can let me know what they think of this theory...
And yes I realize having an interest like this in department stores is bizarre.
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