George B. Peck Dry Goods Company

George B. Peck, son of an affluent merchant and Detroit banker, moved to Kansas City in 1889 and subsequently bought a block of stock in the Doggett Store, established in 1866. Peck immediately took an active role in managing the store. By 1901, the store carried his name. Peck gained a reputation as a charitable man and one happy to help his employees. For instance, although he hired children to run money back and forth to cashiers, most of whom preferred to work instead of school, he also launched a school within his store, which included paying for teachers and providing the "cash boys" and "cash girls" with books and stationery.

George B. Peck, son of an affluent merchant and Detroit banker, moved to Kansas City in 1889 and subsequently bought a block of stock in the Doggett Store, established in 1866. Peck immediately took an active role in managing the store. By 1901, the store carried his name. Peck gained a reputation as a charitable man and one happy to help his employees. For instance, although he hired children to run money back and forth to cashiers, most of whom preferred to work instead of school, he also launched a school within his store, which included paying for teachers and providing the "cash boys" and "cash girls" with books and stationery.

In 1866 John Doggett opened his first store in Kansas City. Peck, a Detroit native and son of an affluent merchant, met Doggett in New York and learned of Dogget's plan to open a Dry Goods store in Kansas City. Doggett's plan appealed to Peck, so he moved to Kansas City in 1889 and purchased a controlling interest in the Doggett store, and operated as an integral part of the store's management team. Peck learned merchandising first from his father in Detroit and then in various retail operations in the Eastern U.S. Over time, he grew more influential, eventually becoming the store's director and vice-president. In 1898, Peck bought out Doggett's interests in the store. Three years later, in 1909, the directors voted to change the name to George B. Peck Dry Goods Company. 

In 1914, Peck hired Walter C. Root and George Siemens (Root & Siemens) to construct the now-historic George B. Peck Dry Goods Company Building. The firm designed an abundance of structures throughout Kansas City, including single and multi-tenant residences, religious facilities, and commercial buildings. Root's brother, John. W. Root was one of the founding developers of the Chicago Commercial Style, known for its steel frames and terra cotta cladding, large plate-glass window areas, and minimal exterior ornamentation. The George B. Peck Dry Goods personifies those Chicago Commercial Style traits.

In addition to the aforementioned reputation Peck gained as a generous man, demonstrated by the in-store school he created, Peck's store evolved into one of the city's most prominent retail establishments. Indeed, Peck Dry Goods Store possessed the city's first automobile delivery wagon; W. T. Irvin of the Day Automobile Company designed and produced the car specifically for Peck's store. 

The store closed in 1964, seventy-seven years after Doggett opened the original facility. Today, known as Peck's Plaza, the historic building serves as an office complex. 

Achilles, Rolf. The Chicago School of Architecture: Building the Modern City, 1880-1910. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2013.

"Auto Delivery Wagons." Kansas City Public Library. kchistory.org. Accessed September 6, 2022. https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A78462.

"George B. Peck." Find A Grave. findagrave.com. Accessed September 6, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15103869/george-b-peck.

"George B. Peck Dry Goods Company." Kansas City Public Library. kchistory.org. Accessed September 6, 2022. https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A108698.

Michalak, Joan. "Registration Form: George B. Peck Dry Goods Company Building." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 1980. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Peck%2C%20George%20B.%2C%20Dry%20Goods%20Co.%20Bldg.pdf.