Frank Winfield Woolworth

Franklin Winfield Woolworth ( born April 13, 1852 in Rodman, New York, † April 8, 1919 in Glen Cove, New York) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the department store and supermarket chain Woolworths.

Life

Winfield Woolworth was the son of John Hubbell Woolworth potato farmer and his wife Fanny McBrier. The farmer's son trained as a retail merchant. On June 11, 1876, he married Jennie Creighton ( 1853-1924 ), with whom he had three daughters: Maud Helena Woolworth McCann ( 1878-1938 ), Edna Woolworth Hutton ( 1883-1918 ) and Jessie May Woolworth Donahue (1886 - unknown).

1879 Woolworth borrowed $ 300 and started with his first five- cent store in Utica (New York) independently on February 22, 1879, but within a few weeks, a failure loomed. On his second shop in Lancaster (Pennsylvania), founded in April 1879, he expanded the concept to integrate goods whose price was set at 10 cents. This load was successful, and Woolworth and his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, opened as a result many more five-and - 10-cent stores ( five and dime stores ), so cheap shops offering a full range. The business model has been extremely successful in the time of the great waves of immigrants in the United States. In 1904 he owned 76 stores in ten states, in 1905 his company went public.

Woolworth was built in 1913 as the company headquarters in New York Woolworth Building; until 1930 it was the tallest building in the world with 241 meters height. Winfield Woolworth paid the then 13.5 million U.S. dollars expensive construction in cash. 1893 Woolworth had let the house Woolworth Mansion building at the corner of 80th Street / Fifth Avenue in New York. With a purchase price of 90 million U.S. dollars (about 66.6 million euros ) in 2013, it is one of the most expensive properties worldwide.

The aging entrepreneur in 1916 built the 56- room Manor Winfield Hall on the so-called Gold Coast on Long Iceland. There, his unhappily married daughter Edna in 1918 took his own life so that his granddaughter Barbara Hutton was his sole heir. Woolworth launched his company until his death in 1919. At this time he owned 65 million U.S. dollars, and the company consisted of more than 1,000 stores worldwide.