403 Main Street (Racine, Wisconsin)
| 403 Main Street | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Commercial building |
| Location | 403 Main Street Racine, Wisconsin |
| Coordinates | 42°43′45″N 87°46′58″W / 42.72917°N 87.78276°WCoordinates: 42°43′45″N 87°46′58″W / 42.72917°N 87.78276°W |
| Construction started | 1893 |
| Owner | OCM LLC[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Developer | W.S. Buffham & Son |
403 Main Street is the address of a building in downtown Racine, Wisconsin.[1] Built in 1893 for the W.S. Buffham & Son paint store, it housed a J.C. Penney department store from 1925 to 1948, a Salkin & Linoff department store from 1949 to 1953, and a Walgreens drugstore from 1953 to 1994.
History[edit | edit source]
The current building was constructed in 1893 for the W.S. Buffham & Son paint store,[2] which operated there until 1925, when the Buffham family leased the site to J.C. Penney.[3]
Racine's first J.C. Penney department store opened in the building on November 6, 1925.[4] In the early morning of June 20, 1943, a fire caused damage estimated at $62,000 to the store building.[5] In 1945, the company announced plans to construct a new building at 413 Main Street, then the site of Bloch Furniture Co.[6] The new store ultimately opened on November 11, 1948.[7]
An S & L department store, the 37th location in the chain, opened in the building on March 25, 1949.[8] The building was owned by the Buffham family until 1952, when it was sold to Edward Shovers.[1] S & L closed on January 17, 1953, the day after Walgreen Drug Company announced that it would begin leasing the space.[9]
Walgreens moved into the building's ground floor from its existing Racine location at 201 6th Street, opening the new store on August 31, 1953, and holding a grand opening on September 3.[10][11] The same year, the Eitel Apparel Shop at the neighboring 401 Main Street announced it would expand its second floor above the new Walgreens.[12]
The Walgreens store closed with the opening of the nearby Walgreens #3022 at State Street and Memorial Drive on March 7, 1994.[13] Norman Seeger, the owner of the Seeger Map Company business at 401 Main Street,[14] purchased the building in June 1995[1] to expand his business into the building. He also removed the building's Walgreens facade to reveal its brick front once again.[15]
The Children UpFront program, administered by Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago, moved into the building in 1999.[16] Copacetic, a store featuring "Life is good" 
T-shirts, opened in the building on July 1, 2004.[17]
Seams Unlimited, a costume design business which had moved to 401 Main Street in 2003, occupied the space for several years before shutting down in October 2020 due to the COVID–19 pandemic .[18] The business reopened in March 2021 at 1509 Rapids Drive.[19]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Property Details: 403 MAIN ST, cityofracine.org
- ↑ Advertisement, Racine Daily Journal, March 20, 1893, front page.
- ↑ "Penney Co. Will Open Store Here", Racine Journal-News, June 27, 1925, front page.
- ↑ "Penney Store Opens Doors to Public", Racine Journal-News, November 7, 1925, page 4.
- ↑ "Penney Loss Set at $62,000", Racine Journal-Times, June 24, 1943, page 4.
- ↑ "Penney Plans New Building On Main St.", Racine Journal Times, August 2, 1945, front page.
- ↑ "Penney's Store Ready to Open", Racine Journal Times, November 10, 1948, section 3, front page.
- ↑ "S & L Company's 37th Store To Open in Racine Friday", Racine Journal Times, March 24, 1949, page 10.
- ↑ "Walgreen Drug Co. Leases Building Occupied by S & L", Racine Journal Times, January 16, 1953, page 4.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Walgreen's Features Self Service In Its New Racine Drug Store", Racine Journal Times, September 1, 1953, page 18.
- ↑ Full-page advertisement, Racine Journal Times, September 3, 1953, page 11.
- ↑ "Eitel to Expand Present Store", Racine Journal-Times, May 20, 1953, page 28.
- ↑ "Out with old, in with new", Racine Journal Times, March 8, 1994, page 4A.
- ↑ Buttweiler, Joe. "Racine's Big Change: There's progress in plan to revive heart of Downtown", Racine Journal Times, May 23, 1993, front page.
- ↑ Blaustein, Elizabeth. "City's sleeping beauty: Step by step, Main Street comes back to life", Racine Journal Times, January 28, 1996, page 6A.
- ↑ "In Brief: UpFront Program moves to new offices", Racine Journal Times, June 9, 1999, page 5C.
- ↑ Garbo, Jean. "Possibilities abound Downtown: Plenty of fun for all comers", Racine Journal Times, June 3, 2004, page 4B.
- ↑ Johnson, Eric. "Breaking up 'The Band:' After 25 years, Seams Unlimited to shut down due to COVID", Racine Journal Times, September 30, 2020.
- ↑ Williams, Scott. "Business owners hope to rebound after COVID-19 forced them to call it quits", Racine Journal Times, March 28, 2021.