(Meet Me At) Tapp's, 1644 Main Street, October 1995 73 comments
Tapp's was one of those Columbia institutions that even if you didn't go there that often, you never expected to see it gone.
When I was growing up, Tapp's had a number of stores throughout Columbia. There was this, the main store, on Main Street, a store as one of the anchors (where the AMC theaters now are) at Dutch Square, an anchor store at Woodhill Mall and a store that, too small to be a "branch", was known as Tapp's Twig at Trenholm Plaza.
Tapp's was a truly local store, and at least some of the Tapp family must have lived in Forest Acres because one of them was in my class at Satchel Ford Elementary. (I'm pretty sure -- I could have just assumed that from the "Tapp" name, I suppose). I was a recalcitrant shopper at best when I was a kid, especially if I suspected a shopping trip was going to involve buying *clothes*, which I especially hated. We tended to park in the Belk's parking garage off of Assembly street for our downtown trips, hitting Belk's and Penny's. Tapp's was a long haul from that garage, and frankly I don't ever remember going to the downtown store. I'm sure my mother must have dragged me that far once or twice, but shopping with two kids is the art of the possible, and I suspect if she went there much, it would have been during school hours.
I spent a good deal more time at the Dutch Square store as that is what our out-of-town cousins would hit when they came through on whirlwind shopping expeditions. I still had no interest in clothes shopping, but I would buy some books at Walden's, and sit in one of the chairs Tapp's provided for husbands and read while they would shop up a blue streak. I have a pretty strong memory of reading a Rick Brant book that way.
As downtown started and continued to decline, the big department stores gradually left. The way I recall it is that Belk's and Penny's left first (Penny's in particular was in sad shape by the time it closed) with Tapp's holding out a good bit longer.
At any rate, by 1995, the writing was on the wall, and Tapp's called it a day in October of that year. Together with the retail operation, the store had run a restaurant in the basement called The Fountain Room, and the "cornsticks" that they served with every meal were so popular, that the Tapp family made the recipe public when the restaurant closed, so that people would not have to go without.
The restaurant version:
Tapp's Original Corn Sticks
Makes 448 corn sticks
6 quarts cornmeal
4 quarts flour
1 cup baking powder
1 cup salt
3 cups sugar
15 eggs
1 gallon milk
3 cups shortening
2 cups waterSift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with corn meal and sugar.
Combine milk, eggs, water and shortening and then mix into dry ingredients.
Bake in well-greased corn stick mold at 350 degrees until nice and brown, about 15 minutes.
and the home version:
Tapp's Original Corn Sticks (adapted)
Makes about 72 corn sticks
2 cups plain cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shorteningSift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with cornmeal and sugar.
Combine milk, eggs and shortening and then mix into dry ingredients.
Bake in well-greased corn stick mold at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
NOTE: The difference in oven temperatures and times for the two recipes takes into account the difference between restaurant and home ovens.
After the closing of the retail store, the Tapp's building stood vacant for a number of years. More recently, it has been at least partly converted to apartments for upscale urban living.
There is more info and historical pictures of Tapp's here.
73 Responses to '(Meet Me At) Tapp's, 1644 Main Street, October 1995'
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19 Jan 10 at 2:24 am
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I worked for Tapp's in the mid 80s. The Dutch Square Store at the time was the most sucessful then. They also had a store in Sumter briefly.
Tom
19 Jan 10 at 8:12 am
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Sky City is a site examining current and past retail sites in Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. The webmaster did a post on Tapp's last week.
http://skycity2.blogspot.com/2010/01/tapps-department-store-once-columbia.html
The webmaster's done a few posts on Columbia malls, including Columbia Place, Dutch Square, Bush River, and Decker malls.
Patrick
19 Jan 10 at 2:16 pm
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It's interesting that the very first comment for the Tapp's listing in the Sky City blog mentions the mirror and specifically calls it "cobalt blue," not just blue. There is something very electric about cobalt blue that seems to excite the eyes more than most blues. Here's an image of some cobalt blue glassware that will give an idea of the vibration in this blue, though nothing is quite like looking at it in person. Imagine a whole wall covered in this glass, and you get an idea of how powerful it was.
Another thing that's hard to quantify is smell, and as much as I will never forget the cobalt blue mirror stairway wall, I'll never forget the smell of fresh shoe leather mixed with the smell of coffee along with grilled cheese sandwiches and probably french fries when walking downstairs. The shoe department and grill were both in the basement, and when you would walk downstairs, that blast of fresh shoe leather and the aroma of coffee would hit you in the nose as hard as any wall; it will forever be etched in my olfactory. Mix it with some cobalt on the eyes, the smooth modern stainless-steel banisters to the touch, the flavor of a milkshake and french fries from the grill in a department store, the sounds of all the people shopping and having a good time doing so, and we have all the senses covered for an overwhelming memory of years ago for me.
19 Jan 10 at 7:43 pm
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Where was the Penny's store? Was it in the same spot as Macy's?
Mr Bill
20 Jan 10 at 2:12 pm
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Penny's was on the same (West) side of Main Street as Belk's, but on the next block South. It had entrances both on Main Street and the cross street, as did Belk. Macy's was also on the West side of Main Street, but a bit North of Belk's & Penny's.
ted
20 Jan 10 at 2:24 pm
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I used to work at the Columbia Museum of Art. There are still parts of it that resemble Belk.
Mr Bill
21 Jan 10 at 11:39 am
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Mr Bill -- I'm pretty sure that the Belk building was 100% demolished to put up the art museum. If there is any part of it on the north end that used to be retail space it would part of the old Davidson's/Macy's building.
Dennis
23 Jan 10 at 5:28 am
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The building is now the museum. They made a lot of changes but many things are still the same including the elevator
Mr Bill
29 Jan 10 at 1:44 am
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Does it still have the call buttons that don't depress but nonetheless glow orange when you touch them?
ted
29 Jan 10 at 2:03 am
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As far as I know, they tore down the entire Mimnaugh's/Belk's building..there's nothing left of it at all.
Davidson's was a seperate building..but dont remember what it was before it became Davidsons..anyone?Del
31 Jan 10 at 12:22 am
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I thought a later addition to the Belk building was saved for the bank building?
Tom
31 Jan 10 at 7:14 am
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The back of the building was saved. They added two stories to the old back portion of the Belk building to make the current bank building. The old decorative sidewalk that was outside the Belk store still exists too.
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Belk's technically had 4 levels.. The basement/bargain area, the main level (street), then you went up the escalators or elevator to the 2nd level (dont remember what was there), then you had the 3rd level which has the hair salon, electronics dept. toys and I think linens and towels..maybe gifts..but not sure.
Del
31 Jan 10 at 2:22 pm
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Can't remember if the buttons would light up or not but I know you have to have a special key to get to any of the other floors. Ted if you go by there and ask nicely maybe you can get a tour. It's really cool to see how much extra space they have for future expansion.
Mr Bill
1 Feb 10 at 9:19 am
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I remember my mom shopping at the Dutch Square Tapps -many a pair of shoes I (well, my mom...) bought there. The deal was I had to stay and shop with her if she was gonna sit and watch me play video games at Barrel Of Fun or let me go to the stores I wanted to go to. I also seem to remember Tapp's having a real cool logo, in the 70's/early 80's.
Mike M.
16 Feb 10 at 5:07 pm
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Thanks for sharing the corn sticks recipe. Now I just need to find a corn stick mold! I loved shopping on Main with my Mom, and ending the day with a Sirloin or T-bone steak lunch! So much more fun than going to the mall even though I don't remember their clothes being terribly interesting. We were big fans of Davidson's/Macy's and that kids store that used to be on Main - the name escapes me... Tot's to Teens maybe? An old timey shop where the salespeople knew us by name.
Ariella
11 Mar 10 at 2:10 pm
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This was the first building in the United States to be built with central heat and air.
Tara Dennis
12 Mar 10 at 9:38 pm
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Tapp's old building sits on the same spot (well sort of) where the original Ursalin Convent was back in the 1800's until it was burned in 1865, but dont know what was there after that. What year was Tapp's built?
Del
13 Mar 10 at 12:06 am
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According to the link I give at the bottom of the post, Tapp's moved into this building in 1940, and the claim (which I think I have seen elsewhere) was that it was the only air-conditioned department store east of the Missippi. I haven't seen the stronger claim about central heat and the whole US..
ted
13 Mar 10 at 12:28 am
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I worked at the downtown Macy's when I was in college in the 80's and had lunch every Saturday at Tapp's "Fountain Room" - I always had the baked grouper, 2 veggies and corn sticks with tea...and it was only 5 bucks! (Funny how I can remember those details). I'm glad to see from the pics that the building is still there - it was one of my favorites downtown.
Andrea
21 Sep 10 at 3:23 pm
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My Gramma Butler used to take me shopping at Tapp's on Main in the 60's. We would put on our hats and gloves and travel by city bus from Eau Claire to downtown Columbia. After shopping we would have lunch at the Fountain Room. I remember they put real ham chunks in the salads. I loved the corn sticks then and I still do. Years later, my first job was at Tapps Dutch Square. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot from the people that I worked beside. Gramma Butler is only with me in memory now and Tapp's is too. They both hold a very special place in me. Thanks for the recipe and for the trip back to a special time.
Sherri
4 Nov 10 at 2:58 pm
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My maternal grandmother would take me to Tapps every Saturday afternoon for lunch in the Fountain room. I remember well the corn bread. The store had a certain fascination with me. The lower level had a section dedicated to Boy Scouts. I remember buying my scout uniform and supplies from there. The store had an art deco design which included the cobalt blue stairwell. Does anyone know if the stairwell was kept when the building turned into apartments? The elevators had operators when I was a child in the late 50's and early 60's. I also remember the code talk over the pa system that signalled some needed activity in the store.
joelc
1 Jan 11 at 1:55 pm
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FYI -- Richland County tax records show that Tapp's bought the downtown lot in 1919 and built the building in 1944. It's a little over 80,000 sq. ft.
Dennis
4 Jan 11 at 3:57 am
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Does anyone have a picture of a bar that use to be in Tapp's downtown? I would like to have one.
Melvin
8 Feb 11 at 2:27 pm
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@Melvin- It was not a bar, but a lunch counter called the Fountain Room. Don't know about any photos of it though.
Tom
8 Feb 11 at 2:58 pm
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I think Tapp's should have expanded outside of Columbia to be successful. They should have been like a JB White who had to expand outside of Augusta. Had Tapps just opened up a store at Columbiana like some wanted to Tapps would have been given a new lifeline. Instead they kept acting like the 1950s in the 1990s and they ended up failing miserably!
Lanster
13 Feb 11 at 1:55 pm
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The thought of Tapp's at Columbiana mall makes me laugh out loud. By the opening of the sumter store in 1986 and certainly by 1995 the store was no where as near sophisticated at it had been in the past.
Stan
13 Feb 11 at 8:53 pm
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ok so I know about the 3 Tapp's locations in Columbia as well as the one in Sumter that Stan mentioned...how many other Tapp's locaitons opened
btw I have some outlying tie to the Tapp's family somehow...
I was 7 in 1995 when Tapp's folded up so I have zero memory of them
Andrew
13 Feb 11 at 10:22 pm
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@Andrew, There were five Tapp's clothing stores. In order of their opening- Downtown, Trenholm Plaza (aka Tapp's Twig-located near the post office), Dutch Square (where the movie theatre is), Wood Hill Mall (sine demolished.) and Sumter at their big mall there.
In addition, there was a furniture store on Blanding street and one Christmas they opened a toy shop on Main street across from where the county court house is now.
Tapp's had two logos btw. The big block letters that still stand on the front of the Main Street building and a scripted one.
Tom
14 Feb 11 at 6:46 am
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Let's talk about Davidson/Macy's on 1527 Main Street, if I remember the address correctly. I worked there 22 years, matter of fact I was one on the last two people there before we locked the doors in 1992. Prior to Davidson/Macy's final location on Main Street, they were across the street as Davidson-Paxon. J.B. Whites was located at 1527 Main prior to Davidsons. After Belks and Davidson/Macy's closing they totally took down the Belk building, but used some of the Davidson/Macy's building for the current Museum.
Jeanne'
12 May 11 at 9:06 pm
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I have a trio of articles from when Tapp's closed up:
TAPPS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS: PLANS GRACEFUL EXIT FOR MAIN STREET
Andrew
12 May 11 at 10:03 pm
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and here are the other 2:
MEETING AT TAPP'S ONE LAST TIME
AS TAPP'S TUMBLES, 2 MALLS TREMBLE
* btw Tapp's Twig closed earlier that year at Trenholm Plaza. Tom indicates that Tapp's Twig was near the Forest Acres PO and I find myself wondering if it's where Books-A-Million is now or around where Stein Mart is now.
Andrew
12 May 11 at 10:07 pm
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Andrew: I believe it was where Stein Mart is now. Although I also remember a Lourie's there. Maybe it was both stores?
Dave
12 May 11 at 10:19 pm
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It was definitely on the Stein Mart side, not the BAM side.
ted
13 May 11 at 12:29 am
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The Tapps did live in Forest Acres, as I had family that went to school with them. Great blog, by the way! :D
Meg
3 Jul 11 at 2:34 am
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Thanks Meg!
ted
3 Jul 11 at 3:06 am
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I think Tapp's may have opened at DS Mall before it was actually opened on the inside..but not sure about that.
Del Bazemore
3 Jul 11 at 3:21 pm
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Actually also..on the same block as where Davidson's was..the original Columbia Motel was just 1 or 2 places down from there back in the early 1900's to maybe the 1940's or so..
Del Bazemore
3 Jul 11 at 3:23 pm
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@ Del= You are right. Tapps. Whites, Wolco , Morrison's and Eckerd's wer all opened before the rest of the mall was. I remember looking through the glass door at Tapp's watching the workmen do the interior of DS. Since it was the first enclosed mall in SC, it was fascinating for a 10 year old to watch.
Tom
4 Jul 11 at 9:02 am
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I was going on 12 when the Mall opened in 1970. The old Richland Mall was supposed to be inclosed if I heard correctly..but they decided to keep it as an open-air Mall instead. DS Mall is what started the decline of Downtown Columbia..
Del Bazemore
4 Jul 11 at 4:07 pm
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Hey Del -- is your father's name Paul?
Dennis
6 Jul 11 at 5:40 pm
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I looked at some of the lofts in the Tapps Building when I was looking for a place in 2007. What I remember was that the price was truly exorbitant, and most of the lofts were empty. It was like a ghost town, and I didn't want to be a lonely guy paying a fortune for the luxury of getting my car get broken into every night parking it down there.
They had one loft that was considered their primary show-off unit, and it was pretty neat. I think it was the part of the store where the wedding dresses were or something, it had a veiw of main street (and was maybe only the second floor or something so you felt like you were really in the "thick" of the downtown hustle and bussle). My memory isn't the best here, but I think it had an big concave alcove in the wall with giant grapes painted on it.
Anyway, aside from the price and the lonliness aspect of it, I think I really HATED the layout of their other lofts! It seemed to me to be more like a whitewashed prison than a place I'd call home!
OverMachoGrande
22 Jul 11 at 6:33 pm
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We are now open and fuctioning on the Ground floor and basement level as a Community Arts Center. We have over three hundred linerar feet of gallery space, 31 artists studios for rent, a 200 seat performance space, and pack the house during the First Thursday on Main Street Gallery Crawl each month. The cafe will reopen in a month or two and will serve cornbread sticks (from the original recipie) and vegatable soup (along with sandwiches and salads). Please drop in. Tuesday through Saturday 10-7.
26 Jan 12 at 6:07 pm
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For those of you that remember The Fountain Room at Tapp's, it appears that Porter Dodd is about to reopen it
Andrew
2 Mar 12 at 9:45 pm
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I don't remember it myself, but after seeing the recipie and Billy Guess's and your link, I definitely want to try it sometime.
ted
2 Mar 12 at 11:09 pm
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I recently found myself walking Sumter Mall during a recent Sumter outing. I saw elements of Columbiana Centre and Dutch Square Center in said mall.
I've seen it discussed that Tapp's had a Sumter Mall store, and looking at my earlier link, I was wondering if anyone could tell me whereabouts it was in the mall in relation to where it is now. My guess would be that it is either where Sykes is now or the current JC Penney (though I know the now-closed Sears is a possibility as well)
Andrew
24 Jul 12 at 3:21 pm
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Does anyone have the date of the closing of the downtown store? My mother wants to see if she can find the picture that was in the State or Record that day - my father was at the lunch counter and in a picture that they put in the paper on the date of the closing.
Mark
2 Sep 12 at 3:42 pm
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Well, if I am correct that it was October 1995, that's only 31 papers to look through.
I don't know where you would do it though. Perhaps the RCPL has them on microfiche. The State's online archives cover that era, but won't help you since they only have the story text and not the pictures.
ted
2 Sep 12 at 4:25 pm
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Thanks Ted, Mark.
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Tapp's womens shoe department, located in the right rear of the first floor is the first place I ever sa an x-ray machine used to fit shoes. e-e-e-rie. The Tapp family did not operate the shoe department, but rather, leased the department. When Mr. Jess Locke leased the women's shoe department it was a high grade operation. After Senack leased the department it deteriorated significantly.
Can you research Haltiwanger's, Lisbeth Wolff, Cabiness, Berry's on Main, Harrrison Park's and Efird's?
I believe that Belk's opened in about 1934. The business in that location prior to Belk's was Memnaugh's, or so I have been told.
Ed
Ed Anderson
6 Apr 13 at 5:37 pm
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This week's Free Times has an article about the desegregation of Columbia in the early 60's. There are a couple of photos of old Main St. store fronts from the era. There is only one on the Free Times web site but they are credited to the South Caroliniana Library at USC. Interesting read and the pics did bring back some memories. I'll have to try to find more.
Homer
7 Apr 13 at 2:52 am
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@Ed - boy those names bring back the past!! When I was a kid back in the 60's my Mom and Grandma would take me down to Main St. for the Saturday shopping spree. I'll have to ask my Mom about some of the stores you mentioned. I remember Haltiwanger's, Lisbeth Wolff and Berry's. I have heard her mention Efird's and I'll have to ask her about Memnaugh's. One you left out (that I saw in the Free Times article from above) was Davison's, which was an offshoot of Macy's. If I can find anything out I will post it here.
Homer
7 Apr 13 at 3:00 am
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The State has been doing similar stories this last week.
ted
7 Apr 13 at 3:00 am
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Thanks Ted. I'll have to check that out.
Homer
7 Apr 13 at 3:03 am
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@Ed - btw - the mention of the x-ray shoe machine... I saw one on American Restoration on TV several months back. Someone took one in to the shop to have it rebuilt and they could not restore it so it could function. Seems that these things were a fad during the era but they were not shielded in any way and he x-rays were just passing through the wooden cabinets that they were housed in and pouring out to anyone who was around. Lord knows what hey did to your feet!!
I can picture it now - "Dang, Martha, I got sized for a pair of new shoes today, and now my feet are glowing under the covers!!".
Homer
7 Apr 13 at 3:21 am
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Here's a picture that brought back some memories of the old Main St.
Every Christmas, Belk's would place huge nativity scene on the overhang at the corner of the building. If I remember correctly they also had loudspeakers playing Christmas carols. They also had the old animated displays in at least a couple of the display windows. Sort of like the scenes from "A Christmas Story". Good memories.....
Homer
10 Apr 13 at 1:11 am
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It looks like to me that the picture Homer posted was taken pripir to 1967 as the Belk logo that was used until 2010 was unveiled (per info on Belk's wiki page)
Andrew
12 Apr 13 at 12:00 pm
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Here's a few names from Main Street's "Golden Age":
Lisbeth Wolfe opened in 1936 and eventually had 2 stores, one on Main & the other at Richland Mall. She closed about 1976.
Allan's opened sometime in the 1930s and closed about 1971. They were very popular and had a big following in Columbia & much of South Carolina. They sold some high end items but mostly mid-range priced clothing.
Berry's on Main opened in 1940 & closed in 1982. They grew to 3 stores in Columbia (Main St, Dutch Square & Richland Mall). I have family members that still speak about Berry's and make you feel like the store is still on the corner of Main & Taylor. I remember Berry's on Main very well & it was one of Columbia's best stores ever.
Haltiwanger's opened in 1913 and closed in the mid-1970s. The store started in Newberry as Haltiwanger-Carpenter and that partnership ended in the 1930s. They were on the corner of Main & Hampton where the Wells Fargo building is today. I remember parking behind their store to go shopping at JC Penney's, which was next door.
Kohn's opened in 1868 and closed in early 1970 and was one of Columbia's oldest retailers at the time. They were in the block across the street from Davison's. I believe they were in the spot formerly occupied by Margo's for many years.
Cabaniss was a very high end store that opened in the mid 1920s and closed in the late 1950s. They carried items similar to Lisbeth Wolfe. There was a store in Greenville, Cabaniss-Gardner, that they may have owned but I can't confirm that.
Some other stores worth mention are Dial-Treadway, Henry Averill Shoes, Marie Dickert Millinery Shop, Efird's Department Store (which was in the spot formerly occupied by Lourie's until about 1959), Wright-Johnston men's shop, Grayson's mens shop, the Darling Shop, Lerner's, Warner's, Marilyn shoes, Mangel's (they amazed me with all of the mannequins in their display. There must have been at least 60), & B. Berry's on Assembly.
Columbia had many locally owned stores where you could purchase nearly anything you wanted. The last of these local stores, Moe Levy's, will be closing soon.
Jim
5 May 13 at 12:26 pm
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Does anyone know if the Fountain Inn restaurant in the Tapp's basement ever re-opened? There was talk about it in 2012 but I haven't heard anything since.
Homer
7 May 13 at 1:40 am
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I remember Tapps on Main Street very well! We lived in Lugoff, and my grandmother lived in Columbia. We would go to visit her and go shopping downtown. I loved eating in the basement, and can still hear the sound of all the tinkling glasses. They made wonderful chicken salad! I especially remember the black ladies who operated the elevators. They would announce the department on each floor: "Third floor-Lingerie!" In the late 60's/early 70's, my dad and I would park in the lot behind Tapps and take the 50-cents bus to the USC football games. Wonderful memories!
Caroline
10 Jan 14 at 10:03 pm
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Here is The State story on the "shifting focus" of the Tapp's art center. My between-the-lines takeaway is that it isn't doing that well
ted
27 Mar 14 at 11:33 pm
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IMO, there's probably not any point in linking stories in thestate.com, Ted, because I can't imagine anyone actually paying money to access stories in that pitiful, nearly dead paper.
JBL
28 Mar 14 at 12:18 am
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I think if you disable cookies you won't get the subscription nag and the articles will view OK.
ted
28 Mar 14 at 12:31 am
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OK, I'll try that. Thanks, Ted.
JBL
28 Mar 14 at 1:01 pm
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I block "ppjol.com" and "thestate.com" cookies, and that seems to work. In Firefox you enter them in Preferences=>Privacy=>Exceptions.
ted
28 Mar 14 at 11:24 pm
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I'll do that on my computer when I get home. I'll pass the info along to my relative whose computer I'm borrowing. Thanks again.
JBL
29 Mar 14 at 10:07 pm
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I would love to see pictures of the inside of the store as it appeared in the sixties and seventies. Especially, I would love to see a picture of the wall behind the staircase that went from the first floor to the second floor. Thanks!
Amanda Crsuse
19 Apr 14 at 4:51 pm
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Hmm, per the Free Times the Tapps building has been sold.
ted
25 Oct 17 at 1:08 am
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I am lucky enough to have 2 of the iron corn stick pans from Tapp's--they were Auctioned and friend that saw at worked at CourtHouse bought them for me--still use them today.
The recipe was given out in the State paper--it is still taped inside of my Recipe Book--(made 72 sticks ) and same recipe as printed on this site. No recipe for Soup--I would imagine that the soup was a little different each time it was made....
Getting cold down here in the LowCountry this week--think I will have to make my own Vegetable Soup. I will make cornsticks--and use the pan--but they won't taste same as Tapp's ! Great Site--thanks.Henriette Hall
26 Nov 18 at 3:33 pm
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Mimnaugh's ( Belk ) was part of the Tobias family in Columbia. Wasn't that lunch room called The Plantation Room ? I remember their Iced-Tea had almond extract in it--I make it--and it really is good !
(Neiman-Marcus ) had the same iced-Tea recipe.Henriette Hall
26 Nov 18 at 3:37 pm
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Mr. Mimnaugh who also owned the old "Sherman" house that sat across the street from Dunbars Funeral Home/ The Whaley House, was I think originally owned by Mr. Niernsee who redesigned the State House from what I was told by his Great Grandson a few years ago. Downtown Columbia had some great places to eat in the 60's for sure. Too bad things changed, and downtown has become what it is now, but in some ways has had a better outcome than most downtowns throughout the country.
Del
27 Nov 18 at 6:20 pm
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So many days spent with my parents shopping for school clothes and having lunch in the basement cafe. And for many years, actual elevator operators; "Up, please!" "Down, Please!". It was a special place in its heyday.
Harold Ward
28 Nov 19 at 10:14 am
My Mom's sister worked in the shoe department in the downtown store in the early 60's, and we'd go there quite often when I was young and being dragged along everywhere. The thing that fascinated me the most were the stairs that went from street level to basement level where the Fountain Room was. They were flanked on one side by a long cobalt-blue mirror. You couldn't really call it a mirror as such, it was more like a bunch of wall panels that were highly reflective and happened to be cobalt-blue. You could go into a different world by looking into the "mirror." I would say it was downright mesmerizing to me for some reason, and I would endlessly walk up and down the stairs totally lost in a cobalt-blue world, waiting on my mother to finish the visit with my aunt. Anyone else remember those wall panels?
The other big memory of the downtown store would be the old elevators. Every time I see the "Twilight Zone" episode about the missing floor in the department store where the mannequins come to life, I'm always instantly reminded of the elevators in Tapp's. I even used to have reoccurring dreams about the elevators when I was younger.
As an adult, I shopped the Dutch Square Tapp's, and also the one at Trenholm Plaza, but for some reason never went back to visit the elevators or the cobalt-blue world at the Main Street location.