![]() ![]() Located at the "Six Corners" intersection of Milwaukee, Cicero and Irving Park Road, it drew an estimated crowd of 99,500 people on its opening day according to the Sears Archives. ![]() The Sears on Irving Park Road in Portage Park is the only remaining Sears in Chicago. Sears only has one store remaining in Chicago It took 76,000 tons of steel, 2 million cubic feet of concrete, 16,000 tinted windows, 15,000 miles of electrical wiring and 80 miles of elevator cable to build, according to Sears Archives. When it opened in 1973 the 110-story building became the tallest building in the world at 1,454 feet. Sears announced plans to build a new downtown headquarters in Chicago in 1969. The Sears Tower was the tallest skyscraper on Earth at the time it was built The company's first downtown department store opened on State Street in 1932 in an eight-story building that had previously belonged to the Stegel-Cooper department store.Įven though the State Street store's opening day took place deep in the Great Depression, local papers reported that 15,000 shoppers visited and several thousand people crowded the employment office looking for work. The company chose the massive U-shaped building as the location of its first retail store, which also included an optical shop and soda fountain. The decision will keep 425 stores open and save the. But Sears' bankruptcy threatens to end it's run. The company had already built a merchandise building in 1904, south of Garfield Park, comprising nearly one million square feet of floor space. Sears' history as an American retail pioneer goes back 132 years. Sears opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Chicago in 1925. Sears sold the radio station in 1928, but it continues to operate as WLS to this day, as does ABC 7 Chicago as WLS-TV. Its Sunday night program The National Barn Dance became the most popular program in the Midwest. Though it was assigned the call letters WBBX, Sears first broadcast under the letters WES (for World's Economy Store) and then under WLS (World's Largest Store). In 1924, a new Chicago radio station began broadcasting under Sears' ownership. Sears launched the Kenmore brand in 1913, started Allstate Insurance Company in 1931 as a wholly-owned subsidiary named after a Sears brand of car tires, and created the Discover Card in 1985. Sears created Allstate Insurance, the Discover Card, Kenmore, and once owned WLS General Admission includes access to the elevator ride to the Skydeck, and The Ledge, glass floor balconies 1,353 feet over Chicago.
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