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What became of these two former Montgomery Ward stores?

Posted: 27 Oct 2012 19:36
by Ephrata1966
I'm not 100% sure, but I think the Wards seen in this 1959-1960 picture only had one floor, and was built before the adjoining Northline Mall (this was in Houston) was enclosed: http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot. ... -band.html (look at the second picture from the top)

Could this store have possibly been replaced by the Montgomery Ward at Willowbrook Mall, built in 1981? That was one of the last stores in the chain built with the 1968 logo. Does anyone know what's on the site of either of these now? I used to live right near Willowbrook Mall but I moved away in 2001, months after the Montgomery Ward shutdown. And the 50's were before my time, but I was surprised to learn recently that the company name was "Wards" then but changed to "Montgomery Ward" (perhaps the Penneys switch to JCPenney in 1970 was inspired by this 1968 switch?), but the chain tried to reinvent itself as "Wards" again in the 90's. Service Merchandise, which also was a catalog retailer, also got a new logo right before it went out of business, less than a year after Montgomery Ward.

Re: What became of these two former Montgomery Ward stores?

Posted: 27 Oct 2012 22:15
by wnetmacman
Based on some old pictures I remember seeing on Bing Maps, the Northline Wards stayed Wards until the very end. The reason I say this is that the sign was still on the building until they tore Northline down a couple of years ago. There was a huge rooftop sign that you could see the shadows of in the older pictures, but they have been updated.