Bavarian Jewish immigrants Adam and Solomon Gimbel worked as peddlers before establishing a dry goods and clothing store here by 1848. Regular advertising and quality goods drew customers, and the business prospered. The company moved to Milwaukee in 1887, expanding to Philadelphia (1894) and New York City (1910). In the 1920s, Gimbels went public and acquired Saks and Co.
Gimbels’ became one of the largest department stores in the U.S. by the late 1920s with over fifty locations nationwide by the 1960s. It appeared in film and television shows such as Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and I Love Lucy (1950s). Local business owners used the “Gimbel” name for stores here into the 1980s, though they were separate from the iconic national chain.
