A Sincere Wish For a Silent Night

My friend Jason Togyer at Tube City Almanac wrote a great piece on the "War on Christmas." Check it out.

cox's of mckeesport: presented by tube city online

Cox’s, northeast corner Fifth Avenue at Walnut Street, Downtown McKeesport, PA, circa 1990. The blue tiled portion is the original building, opened in 1955. The annex to the left, covered in black anodized steel, was opened in 1972. The awnings around the store were used for outdoor fashion shows into the 1960s. ( photo © Jason Togyer)

It's an understatement that I'm fascinated by old retail (and new retail and future retail; you get the point). So anytime I find something new that's about retail history, I'm all over it.

Such is the case with the historic photos posted online by my friend Jason Togyer of the old Cox's Department Store in McKeesport, Pennsylvaina. Cox's was his hometown store and was quite successful in Western Pennsylvania back in the middle part of the 20th century. A story he wrote on Cox's a few years back will tell you more about the store's glory days.

Here's a excerpt:

From its chrome trimmed, blue-tiled front to its marble and terrazzo floors, Cox's was a class-act all the way. The street was closed periodically for fashion shows, with the models using the awnings outside as runways. At night, indirect lighting illuminated the front of the building, including the giant stylized "Cox's" scripts.

Inside, besides the latest fashions, the architects had included an elevator and - fantastically - an escalator! In a city full of wooden-framed five-and-tens, anchored at one end by a Sears and at the other by Monkey Wards, it must have seemed like Macy's on the Mon.

Sadly, Cox's is no more. The building was demolished in 1994 after falling into disrepair when Cox's closed down in the mid '80s.

The pictures give a perspective on what once was and allow the viewer to eith relive a little of the past or experience the midcentury styles and merchandising they never saw in person. it's a facinating viewing and did I mention the story? Yeah, I did.

Jason is also writing a book on the late, great G.C. Murphy Co., which was also headquartered in McKeesport. Murphy's was one of my favorite stores growing up. I mentioned this a few months back when I saw the story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Can't wait to read that book.

We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.

Jason Togyer
Tube City Almanac

It's the 25th anniversary of "The Blues Brothers ," and the Chicago Sun-Times is running a weeklong look back at the places in Chicago that were featured in the film. The church where James Brown was preaching has fallen on hard times, and the street where John Lee Hooker was singing in an open market was demolished to make way for the expansion of the University of Chicago.

And don't tell The Penguin , but the orphanage has been torn down anyway. (Of course, it was only a false-front movie set, built in an alley.)

It's good stuff, even if you're not on a mission from God.

my neighborhood | The Tube City Almanac

This is Jason Togyer's blog at Tube City Online. I wish I could write as well as he can.

murphy memories

Bob Donaldson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jason Togyer (above) is writing a book about the history of G.C. Murphy Co., the McKeesport, PA-based five-and-dime store chain that enjoyed 79 years in business before closing in 1985. He's pictured in January outside the now-vacant Murphy's storefront on Forbes Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. That Murphy's site consists of five buildings between Fifth and Forbes avenues and Market Square.

Togyer hopes the book, which he is working on with help from the G.C. Murphy Foundation, will be published by 2006, which would have been the company's centennial. He has interviewed about 50 former employees and patrons of the stores, and he is gathering more contacts and information through a Web site: http://www.murphymemories.com/.