So to speak, that is. Regardless of location, S. Klein stores were always “on the square”, even if they were in a mall, a shopping center, or the middle of a field. It was an integral part of the name, dating back to the opening of their famous flagship store on New York City’s Union Square. An engineering square (barely visible below the “L” in the sign) served as a company logo of sorts for years.Founded in 1906 as a wholesale manufacturer of women’s garments by Samuel Klein, a tailor’s son who emigrated from Russia at the age of five, S. Klein on the Square had evolved into a “full line” store by the early 60’s. They staked out the rarefied territory between department store and discounter, in a similar vein to E.J. Korvette and Alexander’s. Although Klein would eventually carry everything from furniture to food, the emphasis remained on fashion, for women in particular. In 1966, they were acquired by McCrory Corporation, assuming the role of high-end counterpart to McCrory’s Lerner Shops division and their growing stable of variety stores. Sadly, Klein was another in a long list of 70’s recession casualties, gradually closing stores in the early part of the decade and gone altogether by its end.
But times were good when the photo above, showing the Greenbelt, Maryland location in one of its first Christmas selling seasons, was taken. A massive (314,000 square feet!) store, it opened on October 17, 1963, a few weeks before the opening of a even larger Klein unit in Woodbridge, New Jersey.
A little snow would have made this the perfect scene, but I’ll bet that parking lot was a bear as it was!
