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Defunct American department store chain

Hess's, originally known as Hess Brothers, was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company was founded a single store in 1897, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its commercial peak in the late 1980s. The chains stores were closed or sold off in a series of deals in the early to mid 1990s.

In the summer of 1896, Max Hess Sr., a German Jewish immigrant from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, visited Allentown, and returned to Perth Amboy, advising his brother Charles that Allentown was a major business opportunity for the company. The brothers moved to Allentown that year, and leased space in what was then the Grand Central Hotel at 3rd and Hamilton streets. Hess's first store opened at 9th and Hamilton streets in Center City Allentown. In the store's French Room, Charles Hess filled the store with fashions primarily from France. Hess made frequent trips to Paris, and wrote in an Allentown newspaper about what fashionable women were wearing for social engagements or to the Paris Opera. Hess Brothers' dry goods business became increasingly popular and in 1901, and Hess expanded the store, taking over the entire Grand Central Hotel. By 1915, the store had expanded to nearly a city block, maintaining a major Center City Allentown presence at the northeast corner of 9th and Hamilton streets. In 1922, Max Sr. died at the age of 58. For the next several years, the store was run by his brother Charles. In 1927, an eight story annex was added to 9th and Hamilton store that included new departments and a new shipping and delivery area. While the exterior of the store still appearing as separate buildings, the inside was renovated to look as one large building. With offices in London, Paris, and Rome, Hess Brothers Department Store was always at the forefront in selling the latest fashions. Giant toy soldiers were used as Christmas decorations, and "Pip the Mouse" appeared in a puppet show at the flagship store. The store hosted an annual flower show in May, which was aired regionally on Philadelphia television, and annual imported fashions and toy shows. Hess invited celebrities to visit the store. Johnny Carson, Rosalynn Carter, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Barbara Walters, Burt Ward, and others made appearances at Hess's primary 9th and Hamilton store in Allentown. In 1968, Hess contacted Philip Berman, who operated a local trucking business for many years with his brother, and offered to sell the store. Berman acquired Hess for $16 million. Several months later, Hess died at the age of 57. Under Berman, the store name was changed from Hess Brothers to Hess's. Berman also brought in Max Rosey, a New York City and Broadway press agent, to promote the store, and they invited celebrities and notable national politicians to visit the store and promote Hess's nationally. In 1974, among Hess's retail firsts, the store held an over the counter sale of pure gold when bullion sale was legalized, and introduced the Rudi Gernreich topless bathing suit. Hess's was one of only a handful of stores in the entire country to carry the suits, but failed to sell even one. Biannual sales events at Hess's were sometimes semi disastrous events as shoppers, who often waited outside for the store to open in the morning, proceeded to trample each other and store employees to get to purchase discounted merchandise, leaving the shelves and racks completely stripped bare afterwards. Berman began expanding Hess's, opening new stores in suburban Pennsylvania shopping malls, including the new Whitehall Mall in Whitehall Township, an Allentown suburb, which included Sears and Zollinger and Harned department stores. Berman wanted Hess's to be part of the wave of mall construction during the 1970s, and to be anchor stores in them. In October 1979, Crown American, a developer and owner of hotels and shopping malls, purchased the Hess's chain, which then included 17 large stores, as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1987, Hess's acquired the Knoxville, Tennessee based Miller's Department Store chain from Allied Stores by hostile takeover. In September 1987, Hess's agreed to acquire Snyder's, Inc., a privately held Louisville, Kentucky based department store, and five L. S. Ayres stores in Kentucky that Snyder's had agreed to buy L. S. Ayres acquired them from Stewart Dry Goods and Pogue's a few years earlier. This new division operated briefuly under the Snyder's name. In November 1987, Hess's announced that it would phase out the Millers and Snyder's names in favor of its own moniker in February 1988. By 1990, Hess's had expanded to 76 stores. A number of cost cutting measures were made following the transfer of the chain to Crown American, including abandoning most of Hess's flower and fashion shows and celebrity appearances. The store's outside windows in the main Allentown store were covered up after their annual holiday window decoration displays were ended, along with the regular store window dressing displays of merchandise. In the early 1990s, Hess's suffered as retail competition increased and the Allentown region was impacted by a national recession. The company responded by selling or shuttering 43 of its stores, especially those in the South, including the Knoxville stores, which they sold to Dillard's, and 18 other stores that they sold to Proffitt's in two transactions in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, the company's remaining 30 stores were sold off, including the main Hamilton Street store in Allentown in 1994, ending the Hess's 97 year enterprise. May Department Stores purchased 10 locations, and The Bon Ton purchased 20 others. In 1995, Crown American sold the flagship 9th and Hamilton store in Center City Allentown to Bon Ton Stores, Inc, a regional department company based in York, Pennsylvania. However, Allentown had been in economic decline since the 1970s, and the store's operations proved unprofitable. On November 9, 1995, Bon Ton Stores announced that the 9th and Hamilton store would be closed, and, on January 15, 1996, the store was closed permanently. With the closure of the store, Bon Ton placed the property for sale, and received inquiries from Mark Mendleson, who had a poor reputation with property management in the city. He was involved in a series of disputes with the City of Allentown with regards to non payment of taxes, and the properties he owned being permitted to deterioriate to states of disrepair. There also was fear by the city that the property would be left vacant until property values improved, or would be used for a large flea market, tattoo parlors, or adult movie theaters. Allentown Mayor William L. Heydt began a campaign for the city to purchase the property and redevelop the building. In October 1998, the city purchased the store from Bon Ton, Inc. for $1.8 million, amounting to ~$ in In addition to the department store building, the adjacent H. L. Green property, which had operated for decades as part of the McCrory Stores five and ten store chain and had closed, was acquired by the city. A considerable remediation effort began to rid the old building of hazardous materials. The demolition was completed by October 2000 and the site was graded with gravel, and a fence erected. During this time, a series of redevelopment options, including the building of PPL Center, a 10,000 capacity indoor arena that hosts the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and various entertainment events and concerts, was reviewed by the city. The former Hess's property was sold to PPL Corporation, which expanded its office complex onto the site with the plaza at PPL Center, a new office building that opened in July 2003 at the former Hess's flagship store site. The building includes one floor of leased office space, and the plaza level of the building includes retail storefronts.

James A. Michener mentions Hess's flagship store in Allentown his The Novel, published in 1991, in which Hess's serves as the location where a fictional author sells his novels' first printings.