Historic photos: America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
On Feb. 22, 1879, F.W. Woolworth opened the first chain store in America in Utica, NY. The chain closed the last Woolworth store in 1997. The last Woolworth in Tucson — in El Con Mall — closed in January 1994.
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Citizen photo: Woolworth's 31 E. Congress 1958
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
The rodeo queen, Joan Moore, appeared at the 1958 opening of the new Woolworth's in downtown Tucson (at Pennington and Congress.) With the rodeo queen is Roy Miller, left, president of the Tucson Retail Trade Bureau, and Jack Bingham, right, the store's manager. Photo by Jack Sheaffer.
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
A view from inside El Con Mall into the closing sale of Woolworth's. Jan. 13, 1994.
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
35 E. Pennington, the site of the "new Woolworth Building" in May, 1956. Tucson Citizen file
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
This old photo of clerks outside the F.W. Woolworth store at 170 N, Queen St, Lancaster, Pa., was taken in June 1879. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
In its beginnings, F.W. Woolworth had a partner. Shown here in an undated photo, it was Woolworth and Northrop, 5 cent and 10 cent store. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Former North Carolina A & T students, left to right, Joseph McNeill, David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Jibreel Khazan, are shown at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., Feb. 1, 1980, as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of their historic sit-in. The four were not served in 1960 but their action launched the sit-in movement in more than nine states. (AP Photo/Bob Jordan)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
A Woolworth store in Berlin in 1949.
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Frank W. Woolworth brought chocolates within the reach of millions of Americans when at the turn of the century he convinced a manufacturer that such delights could be made to sell at five cents a quarter pound. In this 1930's photo, an elaborate display of candies drew customers into a Woolworth's at an unknown location, where for 20 cents one could buy a pound of sweets. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
The Woolworth Building, center, with its towering spire, rises across from City Hall Park in New York City on April 9, 1963. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Youths who identified themselves as students at City College of New York sit at the lunch counter in F.W. Woolworth store at New York's Herald Square on April 2, 1960. The students did not order anything at the counter during their protest, which was sponsored by the New York Youth Committee for Integration in support of similar demonstrations by black students in the Woolworth's chain stores in the South. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Rescue workers dig amongst rubble, with the aid of cranes, for victims that may still be buried after a Woolworth Store , in New Cross , London, on Nov. 26, 1944, had received a direct hit from a German V2 Rocket. One hundred and sixty eight people were killed and hundreds were injured. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Four Nazi troops sing in front of the Berlin branch of the Woolworth Co. store during the movement to boycott Jewish presence in Germany in March, 1933. The Hitlerites believe the founder of the Woolworth Co. was Jewish. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
More and higher skyscrapers have made it necessary for the New York Fire Department to construct new fire towers to extinguish blazes originating many stories in the air. The new fire tower tested in City Hall Square, New York City on Feb. 21, 1930 as it looks from an angle beside the Woolworth Building. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
This is an undated photograph of Frank Winfield Woolworth. The American merchant founded the F.W. Woolworth Co., the five-and-dime chain empire, in early 1900s. He was born in 1852 and died in 1919. (AP Photo)
America's first chain store, F.W. Woolworth
Employees at a Woolworth's store at an unknown location pose in this photo from the early 1900's. Proper attire was a bylaw in the early stores, including dresses below the ankles and ties on the men at all times, although these young men more often than not spent their working hours unloading crates and scrubbing floors. Woolworth Corp. announced Thursday, July 17, 1997 that it is closing its five-and-dime stores across the country, ending a 117-year-old business that was once a fixture of American life. (AP Photo)