Does the stress of holiday shopping make you long for a stroll through an early 20th-century department store?
Teenager Helen Elizabeth Thompson wrote about her visit to Denver’s legendary Daniels & Fisher Department Store in an English class composition dated March 12, 1917. Helen Elizabeth's mother, Lucy May “Jessie” Thompson (1867-1941), worked as a seamstress at the store for more than 20 years. Helen Elizabeth's composition is part of the Jessie Thompson Papers (WH1870).
Wrote Helen Elizabeth:
I had the pleasure of going through one of our most complete dry goods stores in our city Saturday. The main building is six stories high, with a tower of twenty-three stories. It is of white brick. It has a wonderful clock that may be seen from quite a distance.
This clock is useful as well as ornamental as it winds itself and also turns on the electric lights in the building at a certain hour. It is run by electricity and strikes the hour which may be heard for blocks away.
On one side of the building is an electric flag to show their patriotism and on a flag pole on top of the tower three hundred and seventy-five feet from the sidewalk waves another American flag.
The entry room is very attractive. There are two large doors into the room. The room is of Colorado marble. There are two elevators and we entered one of them. In making the ascent, we learned that the first four floors are completely filled with dry goods.
On the fifth floor there are tea rooms. The decorations of the men’s dining room are of light blue. The general dining room is of light yellow with white pillars. On these pillars are light yellow lights.
In back of this room is the place where all of the cooking is done. On Saturday, they make from 1,000 to 1,500 loaves of bread besides cooking for the home cook foods department in the basement as well as for their lunch room.
On the sixth floor are mailing and office rooms.
On the ninth, there are manicure parlors. On the twelfth is Hopkin’s studio [photographer]. On the fourteenth is a private dining room.
On the fifteenth, there is a school room. The pupils are girls employed by this store. They are promoted according to their ability. The school is in session from nine to twelve. Miss Vernard is their teacher. The pupils are taught as in other schools but they also learn the art of becoming good sales ladies.
Next we reached the tower. This is where one may look over the city and the surrounding country and see the Arapaho Peaks fifty miles to the north and Pikes Peak seventy-five miles south. Tourists are frequent visitors to this tower and it is there that souvenirs are sold.
The Jessie Thompson Papers (WH1870) contain many unique items, including an autograph book dated 1881 (with lovely examples of cursive penmanship and painted illustrations), fragile volumes of Godey’s Lady’s Book from the 1860s, and a run of correspondence between Jessie Thompson and her nephew, Jesse R. Link (1896-1964), when Link was stationed at Camp Lewis (Washington) and Camp Travis (Texas) during World War I.
More photographs of the Daniels & Fisher Department Store can be found in a Daniels & Fisher gallery and in the DPL Digital Collections. In addition to the Jessie Thompson Papers, DPL’s Western History and Genealogy Department is pleased to house the Daniels & Fisher Records (WH12).
![View of the corner, four-story Daniels & Fisher building at 16th (Sixteenth) and Lawrence Streets in the Central Business District in Denver, Colorado. Windows have hood molding and awnings and the flat roof line has decorative brackets and finials. Shows horse drawn carriages in the street, street car tracks on 16th Street and probably telephone poles. A sign reads: "W.F. Perkins, Cigars [and] Tobacco."](https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/cdm_84057.jpg)
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I included in my novel,…
I included in my novel, Annie Elgin, in edit , a reference to the store. My main character had traveled to Denver and copied what she could in designing a modest tearoom next to her millinery located in Ogden Utah in about 1908.I would love it if stores like this still existed, remembering Marshall Fields, Woodies in Washington DC and our own ZCMI in Salt Lake. Now they live only in books. So grateful for the photographs and the young girl’s memory
I remember riding the street…
I remember riding the street car into Denver from Golden in the late 40's and by Denver Tramway Bus in the early 50's. They stopped in front of Daniel's and Fisher's store. D & F was the place to go, especially at Christmas time. After all, it was where the real Santa was located. All of the other guys with white beard were only his helpers. That's what my mother always told us and as you know, mothers do not lie. What a great store. The window decorations, especially at Christmas were magical. I'll never forget the glass windows and how they curved. Can you imagine what they would cost today, if they could even still be made? What a terrible loss to the City of Denver. At least they saved the tower. May Company destroyed Daniel's and Fisher and then eventually did the same thing, only worse to The Denver Dry Goods Co. The May was a second rate department store that should have left for St. Louis long before they did. Long live the memories of Daniel's and Fisher.
My mother, sister and myself…
My mother, sister and myself all worked there for a while starting in 1950 people would drive up in their car and Carl would help them in and park the car a women had hidden inside the store one night and had jumped outside and found dead by the clock in the morning
I was born in Denver in 1939…
I was born in Denver in 1939 and lived in Lakewood. I have fond memories of going downtown to Daniel’s and Fischer as a child, of the amazing store window displays at Christmas in particular. I stood with my family in front of the tower to watch the celebrants on the night of VE Day, 1945.
Three members of my family…
Three members of my family worked there from 1896-1930s:
Ellen Hagee (seamstress)
Dessa Hagee Roche
Gladys Hagee Mathew (errand girl at age 12, 1908)
I love this site and think…
I love this site and think it’s a very important piece to be adored if you care for Denver History, just history in general.
I suppose I’ve reached an age where I’m flat out tired of my fatherr not getting the credit ihe deserves. He’s been gone for 10 years but left a legacy - the Tower - that gets little attention. If it wasn’t for him that beautiful landmark would not exist.
My dad was Bill Pierson, of KBPI fame (Bill Pierson Incorporated). He had his radio station broadcasting form the Tower when Urban Renewal was attempting, doing all they could to tear it down. I’ve got a dozen articles - that somehow everyone has forgotten about - of the “Ghost of the Tower”. He saved our beautiful spire and even wound the clock (manually) every day. At age 5, I even helped him. It even became National News, yet, here in our town you’d be hard pressed to find his name. I’ve got pictures of him ringing the bell, climbing the spiral staircase to the bell tower, the winding mechanism, his KBPI Truck in front of the Tower and more.
I was with my dad the night they were using the wrecking ball to destroy the 6 floors of the May Co. surrounding the Tower , as my dad rushed out to tell them they were getting to close to his “second home.”.
Father was President of the City Club, the Dinosaurs Clib, was the weather man on Channel 7 and ran the Channel Six Auction every year for two decades. Maybe you’ve seen him? If not, that’s fine. But when you look, fondly at the most iconic building in our state, please recall there was a man who gave his all to save that for you. Hi name was Bill Pierson.
I’ll add this, in case…
I’ll add this, in case anyone knows or cares, I’ve got unique memorabilia from our beloved structure, including original microphones and then the (brass) plackard that was placed next to the elevator. I didn’t recall his name, but that “giant” elevator operator held me on my first ride.
For over two years that Tower was my fafher’s and we had the run of it. But, the elevator was long since gone and we had to walk twenty floors to his office. Next time you look at the tower, notice the large, triple arches that dominate ove to floors. That’s where dad ran KNPI from. From ther we’d go up where the fower narrows and wher the clock is to sons it. I couldn’t wind it myself so dad, of course, eloped me as my feet dangled. To see the light coming in through the dusty clock face was amazing. Then it was up and higher, onto the spiral staircase and through the trap door and into that scared little bell tower. OMG!
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