With a foundation as a sophisticated mail-order operation that began in 1889, Sears Roebuck & Company successfully created the role of “buyer for the American farm” by connecting rural people to retail goods. Its goals were to reach communities in rural areas that had limited access to retail stores and to provide affordable and quality goods that might otherwise only be found in the largest cities.

On August 8, 1927, Memphis Mayor Rowlett Paine officially opened the Memphis Sears distribution center and retail store in the Crosstown neighborhood. As one of ten nationwide distribution centers, the Crosstown facility was one of the last three catalog centers to be opened prior to the Great Depression.

The initial 650,000 square-foot facility was built in only 180 days and eventually grew to a 1.5 million square-foot complex. The catalog distribution function of the building remained in use until 1993, when all catalog sales nationwide at Sears were discontinued. Partial operations were also relocated to newer warehouse facilities in other parts of Memphis, and the building was abandoned.

Constructed in 1912, the George W. Adair School is a two-story brick building located at the heart of the Adair Park neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. Adair Park, a “bungalow suburb,” was developed between the 1890s to the 1940s and features a variety of unique architectural styles, including Queen Anne and Folk Victorian, English Revival, and the predominant American Craftsman bungalows.

The George W. Adair School was designed in the Academic Gothic Revival style by Edward Dougherty, one of Atlanta’s leading architects of the time known for his works throughout Atlanta, including Druid Hills Baptist Church, Druid Hills Golf Club, Imperial Hotel, and the Highland School. For almost 60 years, it operated as both a school and a community gathering center, until enrollment began to diminish in the early 1960s. The school shut its doors in the fall of 1973 and has remained vacant and decaying ever since.

Built in 1909, the historic Odell Building at 21 North Avenue was one of the first, if not the first, commercial buildings located on what is now known as North Avenue in Baltimore City, Maryland. During the mid-1800s, Taney Place was an upper-class residential boulevard of many free-standing estates and large rowhouses. The street began to transition to more high-end commercial use with the construction of 21 North Avenue, which housed the Auto Outing Company, a luxury Buick sales and service station, and Tuttle’s Dancing Academy. Generations of Baltimore’s upper-class took lessons at this academy, including Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

During the 1920s, the street became fully commercial and catered almost exclusively to wealthy patrons. During this time, the founder of Auto Outing Company, JM Robbins, changed the business name to Robbins Buick, to reflect an increased focus on car sales. This period was short-lived and came to an end with the Great Depression of 1929. Robbins Buick closed its doors in 1932, but the ballroom remained.

As the country recovered through the 1940s, the area around North Avenue shifted to serve the growing middle-class community and became a major point of connection for the city’s eastern and western residential areas. With excellent streetcar services, North Avenue became a social and entertainment center for Baltimore’s younger population, and the building became the social landmark. From the 1950s through the building’s vacancy in 1992, the building housed several famous nightclubs and venues, the most iconic of which being Odell’s. Opened in 1976, Odell’s was Baltimore’s premier disco venue through the 1980s and is often cited as the birthplace of Baltimore Club Music. Since the club’s closing in 1992, the building has sat vacant and waiting for revitalization.

The historic General Electric complex and its contribution to the community began in 1881 with the establishment of the Fort Wayne Electric Company. After meeting with the inventor of one of the earliest variations of arc lighting, local entrepreneur Ranald Macdonald established the Fort Wayne electric company to manufacture and sell the Jenney arc lighting system for Indiana and four other states. Within four years, the Fort Wayne Electric Works had grown from a start-up enterprise to a successful and growing business. By 1892, Fort Wayne Electric caught the eye of and was acquired by the General Electric (GE) company, one of the three largest electrical companies in the country at the time.

Upon taking control of the Fort Wayne Electric Works, General Electric invested heavily in expanding its operations in Fort Wayne. Through World War I and into the heady economic years of the 1920s, the company continued to grow exponentially. The company was at the forefront of the rise of electrical streetcar systems and the leader of electrical consumer appliances. As America electrified, General Electric grew rapidly. By the mid-1940s, the complex supported more than 20,000 employees.

However, through these decades, GE’s national footprint continued to expand and its prioritization of the Fort Wayne location began to diminish. By the 1950s, the Fort Wayne location was no longer the epicenter of GE’s key business. Over the ensuing years, production and employment levels at the Broadway campus dropped consistently and at times significantly as GE shifted production to newer, more efficient factories with cheaper and typically non-union workforces. Thus beginning in the Post-World War II years, the Broadway campus no longer served as a singular symbol of Fort Wayne’s industrial-strength, but rather one of many GE assets to be managed by GE’s corporate headquarters in Schenectady, New York. The company permanently closed the 39-acre complex in 2015 and it was acquired in 2017 for redevelopment by a partnership led by Durham-based Ancora Partners.

The history of the American Snuff Company can be traced back to 1782 with the founding of Garrett Scotch Snuff, one of the earliest producers of the smokeless tobacco product in the country and one of the first 10 patents to be issued in America. In 1900, Garrett Scotch merged with several major tobacco empires of the time, to form the first iteration of the American Snuff Company. This merger, however, created a monopoly on tobacco products and was divided into three separate companies in 1907.

The new American Snuff Company, under the management of Martin J. Condon Sr., a former Mayor of Knoxville, constructed the Memphis warehouse in 1912 to house the production, packaging, and distribution of their snuff products. Condon chose the Memphis location due to its proximity to a high-quality dark-fired tobacco farming region known as the ‘Black Patch,’ as well as its central location and well-connected rail hub.

The American Snuff Company prospered under Condon’s direction through the 1930s. The Wall Street Journal called the American Snuff Company “depression proof,” after a decision to broaden product lines to include sweet-flavored snuff resulted in higher sales than the company’s pre-depression years. During this period the Memphis plant was featured heavily in the company’s advertising campaigns as well as those for the city of Memphis.

During the 1940s and 1950s, women comprised a majority of the American Snuff staff, many of which were members of the growing labor union movements of the time, such as the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The Memphis warehouse was the site of a major union strike in 1950 when 324 workers staged a 185-day strike in demand of better pay and working conditions. The walkout and strike resulted in workers getting a $.05 raise, dues check-offs from paychecks, and a new recreation room in the warehouse.

By 1955, the American Snuff Company was the second largest snuff manufacturer in the US employing 500 at the Memphis plant. Condon was eventually succeeded by James E. Harwood, a long-time employee of the Nashville factory. In 1965, the firm’s name was changed to Conwood Corp., a combination of his and the former president’s last name. Reynolds American acquired the Conwood Corp in mid-2006 for $3.5 billion in cash. It now generates nearly 7% of Reynolds American’s annual revenue. They used the Keel Avenue facility until 2012 when they sold the property.

Originally known as Clifton Mill No. 3, the building was constructed in 1896 on the bank of the Pacolet River as part of the Clifton Manufacturing Company, one of the largest textile mills in the United States. The mill complex was part of the major growth of Spartanburg County, South Carolina’s textile industry leading the area to become one of the nation’s largest textile centers. At its peak, the factory complex housed over 57,000 spindles and 2,200 looms by the year 1900, nearly twice the number of its nearby competitors.

On June 6, 1903, a devastating flash flood destroyed dozens of homes and businesses, including Mill No. 3. It was rebuilt within the year as a five-story mill complex with adjacent cotton warehouses by the famed Boston mill engineering and architectural firm Lockwood, Greene, and Company. It remained a working textile mill for over 50 years.

By mid-century, Spartanburg County’s hold on the textile industry began to loosen and in 1965, the Clifton Manufacturing Company was sold to Dan River Mills, a large textile firm based out of Virginia. It was the beginning of the end as the company shut down all three mills between 1968 and 1973. Converse Mill was used as a warehouse for many years until two of the three mills were demolished between 2002 and 2013. The only remaining vestige of the vast Clifton Manufacturing Company is Converse Mill.

In 2006, a local owner purchased the building to preserve its history and bring new opportunities to Spartanburg County.

The Mercantile Library Building and the Formica Building have rich histories that are deeply intertwined with Cincinnati’s architectural and cultural heritage. The Mercantile Library was originally established in 1835 by a group of young men who pooled their resources to collect books, art, and host prominent speakers and authors. Over the years, the library has welcomed renowned figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. As the collection grew to nearly 2,000 books, the need for a dedicated space led to the construction of the Mercantile Library Building at 414 Walnut Street in 1904. The building was designed by Joseph G. Steinkamp & Brother and was developed by Thomas Emery Sons, who contributed to the development of several skyscrapers in Downtown Cincinnati during the early 20th century. The building featured commercial space on the first floor and office space on the floors above. The 11th and a portion of the 12th floor were custom designed to house the Mercantile Library.

The institution has a perpetually renewable 10,000-year lease issued by Cincinnati College, thanks to the support provided by the men of the Mercantile Library Association after the college’s structure burned in 1845. The Mercantile Library Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

The Formica Building, located at 120 East Fourth Street, along with the connected Crystal Arcade and Contemporary Arts Center at 255 East Fifth Street, were developed by Towne Properties and designed by Harry Weese & Associates of Chicago, a firm renowned for designing the Metro stations in Washington, DC. Completed in 1970, the Formica Building was constructed with travertine, glass, and bronze, showcasing modern, Miesian, and post-modern elements. The design incorporated elements from the neighboring Mercantile Library Building, such as eliminating the band of travertine between the 11th and 12th floors to mimic the double-height library. The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) was housed in the Formica Building from 1970 to 2003, before moving into the newly constructed Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in the spring of 2003.

Today, the Formica Building holds the distinction of being the most recently constructed building in Cincinnati to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As both the Mercantile Library Building and the Formica Building undergo an adaptive reuse transformation, their storied pasts will contribute to the revitalization of Cincinnati’s urban core and serve as a testament to the city’s architectural and cultural legacy.