What remains of an East Harlem five and dime store that opened almost a century ago

It doesn’t look like much, just another semi-vacant commercial building—this one on the southeast corner of 106th Street and Third Avenue—now occupied by a Duane Reade.

But give it a closer look, and Art Deco decorative touches come in to view, like the patterns in the light bricks and small geometric shapes above the first and second floors. With its enormous windows, this space was meant to be welcoming and accessible.

On the 106th Street side is a slab in the middle of the facade by the roofline. It proudly carries a name: Kress. What was Kress?

Similar to Woolworth’s, S. W. Kress & Co was a five and dime retail chain that at its height had more than 250 stores across the country. Houseware, toys, accessories, candy, goldfish, underwear, notions, paper goods, and all kinds of random thingamajigs could be found in a Kress store.

The chain was founded by Samuel W. Kress in 1896 in Memphis. As stores expanded nationwide, Kress moved his company headquarters to New York City. He also purchased a Fifth Avenue penthouse for his family and his growing art collection.

Several Kress outlets soon opened in Gotham, including one on Fifth Avenue and 39th Street (shuttered in the late 1970s) and another at 256 West 125th Street. Opened in 1920, it was likely the very first New York City Kress store, according to Walter Grutchfield.

The Kress on East 106th Street made its debut five years later, stated Grutchfield, adding that it closed up in 1994. “It seems to have been the last surviving Kress store in New York,” he wrote.

Five and dimes were very popular in their 20th century heyday; they were utilitarian versions of more glamorous department stores that sold a variety of usually more expensive items under one roof.

Imagine this enormous Kress store in its 20th century prime, when the neighborhood was a shopping corridor bustling with middle- and working-class customers. The store would have been partly obscured by the Third Avenue Elevated tracks until the 1950s. (Above, in 1940)

Perhaps it’s fitting that Duane Reade now operates in the former Kress space. The pharmacy chain might be the closest replacement New Yorkers have for five and dimes like Kress and Woolworth—which had a store not too far away on Third Avenue and 121st Street.

[Third photo: NYC Department of Records & Information Services]