Comments on: S. H. Kress & Co., Hampton & Main Streets: 1980s

By: Shirley Williams

Shirley Williams — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:33:32 +0000

Being older than dirt, I do remember visiting Kress's as we called it, as well as Silver's Dime Store, and W. T. Grant Store, which were all close to each other on Main Street. Most of my sheet music came from Silver's, but, yes, the cheese sandwiches from Kress were out-of-this world! This was the early 40's.

By: Terry

Terry — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:25:28 +0000

Additional Kress photos

http://www.agilitynut.com/dept/ksc.html

By: Miz T

Miz T — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:26:41 +0000

I used to love this store, especially during the holidays. Oh, and their grilled cheese sandwiches were fantastic.

By: ted

ted — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:06:59 +0000

Interesting memories! I used to drive through Bennettsville a lot in the late late 80s through early 90s. I'm sure I must have seen the place (though I tended to go through at night).

By: Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:35:28 +0000

There was a Kress in my hometown (Bennettsville) and was always a treat to go there, even if ours wasn't an old, retro building. The lunch counter was indeed the Whirly-Q luncheonette and they had horrible hotdogs, flat soda and greasy potato chips...but I loved it anyway. It closed in the late 70's and the building sat vacant until it was demolished somewhere around 2000. It was THE social gathering spot for those of us that grew up in the late 70s to mid-80s. Friday and Saturday nights would see the parking lot filled to capacity, the law enforcement officers never chased us off, and the social cliques were separated into groups....Preppies in the front center, country crowd left center to left middle ways back, hot rodders left side at the back, stoners back center to back right, geeks slap dab in the middle and culture-jumpers all over. We tried our hand at graffitti on the walls, tried to paint our own version of "tunnel vision" and someone once brought a large extension ladder and the plastic letters that fit into slots on signs and spelled out "get high" on the Kress sign out by 15-401. We even found that the garden center doors were unlocked and a Toyota Corona Mk.II of the 1972 variety would just fit thru the doors, and we made an impromptu speedway on the inside of the store. I'm pretty sure we were the only people in the history of the Kress store chain to ever drive a car thru the store! We even have a facebook fan group "Kress parking lot fans"!

By: awarre

awarre — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:06:13 +0000

S.S. Kresge was not associated with S.H.Kress two different guys two different companies Kresge was high end real department store with only a few Northern locations ,then 5 and dimes Kmart was discount department store with very little overlap

By: Reaperducer

Reaperducer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:10:11 +0000

The Main Street side was the original store from the 1930's. The Hampton street side is a 1950's expansion (see here: http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/3800.php )

But you're right -- Hampton Street is the better looking of the two.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:51:05 +0000

S. S. Kresge, the founder of the company, was a major art collector (part of his collection is across the street in the Columbia Museum of Art) and he insisted that his stores be unique archtectuarly. So much so that books have actually been written about the architecture of his stores.

BTW, there is a nice one in Charleston too on King St. The Columbia store is an Egpytian revival style building.

Kresge also founded K-Mart which ironically proved to be the death of his five and dimes.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:41:58 +0000

The lunch counter was indeed a trip back in time, with uniformed waitresses and those spinning stools bolted to the floor, and huge wooden overhead fans. It had the wonderful name The Whirly Q Luncheonette.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:30:44 +0000

There is a Kress in Asheville that they've turned into an art gallery (imagine that). They kept the signage as well.