Woolf Brothers Clothing Company Building

Woolf Brothers was a Kansas City-based clothing company founded in 1865. In 1922, after taking over the company, the founder's son Herbert Woolf expanded its reach to cities across the south and midwest including Tulsa, Memphis, and Wichita. The location here on Douglas Avenue quickly became a core of the downtown shopping district which encouraged other out-of-state companies to expand their business to the Wichita market. However, as shopping trends over towards malls and away from the downtown in the 1980s, this store closed in 1985 after sixty years of serving the downtown area. The building was repurposed into office space.

Kansas City-based clothing and furniture company Woolf Brothers was founded in 1865 by brothers Alfred and Samuel Woolf. Alfred's son, Herbert, took over the company after his father's death in 1915. He expanded the company's operations, opening the company's first store at 11th and Walnut in Kansas City and planning to expand across the midwest and south, with eyes on cities like Tulsa, Dallas, Memphis, and Wichita.

The Wichita store's location was selected in 1922. The new building was designed by Lorentz Schmidt and Company and built by George H. Sidehoff Construction Company, both renowned, Wichita-based organizations. The stone, steel, and terra cotta building belongs to the Chicago School of Architecture, noted for "tripartite fenestration, large display windows at the first story, and overall composition with base, shaft and highly ornamented cornice." The ornamentation is influenced by the Classical style. When the building was completed in 1923, it was the biggest building in the state of Kansas used exclusively to sell clothing.

Once the new location was finished, Wichita proved to be one of Woolf Brothers' most successful markets. The store quickly established itself as an important part of Wichita's economy. Its success is shown in the many ads taken out by the company welcoming other new businesses to the city; this is proof that the company was not only popular with the people, but a significant contributor to the city's expansion, encouraging more new businesses to come. By 1938 the store had grown from 30 employees to 60 and in 1948 it underwent a major modernization project, improving the entire building.

In 1985 the eight remaining Woolf Brothers stores across the country were sold to David Carpenter of Kansas City. This included the Wichita location which had served the downtown area for more than sixty years. Sadly, the store's new management quickly decided to close the store, with the holiday season of 1985 being the building's last. The decision to shut down this store was made for several reasons. The aging building was becoming an inconvenience for shoppers, as was parking in the increasingly crowded downtown area. Most importantly, sales had dropped so much the store had been forced to close at least one of its sales floors. The building has served as office space ever since, and today it houses World Impact, a Christian mission organization.

Conrads, David. Herbert M. Woolf, The Pendergast Years. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/herbert-m-woolf.

Millstein, Cydney E.. Woolf Brothers Clothing Company - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, NPS.gov. November 20th, 2012. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20170215224959/http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/13000221.pdf.

Woolf Brothers acquired by Kansas City retailer, UPI. August 16th, 1985. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/08/16/Woolf-Brothers-acquired-by-Kansas-City-retailer/2386493012800/.

Woolf Brothers Clothing Company Building, Kansas Historical Society. May 1st, 2013. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://www.kshs.org/natreg/natreg_listings/search/page:16/county:SG/records:all.

Lorentz Schmidt Architect (1884-1952), Kansas Historical Society. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/lorentz-schmidt/16797.

Herbert M. Woolf Founder of Woolf Brothers Clothing Store 1880-1964, KC History. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://kchistory.org/document/biography-herbert-m-woolf-1880-1964-founder-woolf-brothers-clothing-store.