5 Downtown Department Stores that Don't Exist Anymore

4) JCPenney


JCPenney, F.W. Woolworth Company and the Robert Meyer Hotel. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/163677

JCPenney’s began as a Wyoming company by founder James Cash Penney in 1902. JCPenney's first downtown store opened at the intersection of East Bay and Main Streets in 1933. In 1955, that store was replaced with a three-story, 90,000 square foot store facing Hemming Park on North Hogan Street. This location was connected to another store and flourished for quiet sometime.

Unfortunately, like Ivey’s, street closures from the conversion of Hemming Park, ended up driving the final nail in the coffin of this downtown department store on October 26, 1985.