IT’S SMART TO BE THRIFTY Gimbels was moderately priced. You didn’t expect to find anything unique there. It didn’t have the quality and it didn’t have the reputation that Strawbridge’s had. —Mercia Grassi, retired professor, Drexel University, Philadelphia In 1925, Gimbels decided to upgrade and expand its store in Center City Philadelphia, modernizing the cluster of rambling storefronts along Market Street that made up the store. Land and buildings were purchased all the way from Ninth and Market Street to Ninth and Chestnut Street. Gimbels wanted to build the world’s largest department store right in the heart of Philadelphia. In record time, Gimbels built a twelve-story addition to the Market Street store. The store redefined the company’s image with its classic ornamental columns and its Chestnut Street entrance. The new structure opened in grand style. On November 22, 1926, Wyoming governor Nellie Ross, the country’s first female governor, dedicated the new Philadelphia store.
