Sears on the Bayou
by Louis F. Aulbach and Linda Gorski
By the end of the 1920's, Houston, as an American city, was showing signs of the changes in society that were happening across the United States. Some of these broad patterns can be seen in the development along Buffalo Bayou.
If River Oaks ushered in the surburban residential way of life that was connected to the business center by modern roadways, like Buffalo Drive, and a dependence on the private automobile, then the suburban retail department store concept began with the opening of the Sears, Roebuck and Company store on Buffalo Drive (now named Allen Parkway).
By 1920, the population of the United States living in cities outnumbered the rural population. At the turn of the twentieth century, the situation had been the reverse. Robert E. Wood, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company saw this change and recognized the effect on retail merchandising. He opened an experimental retail store in Chicago in early 1927, and by the end of the year, he had twenty-seven retail outlets to complement the mail order catalog operations. By 1929, Sears had 319 retail stores and by the country's entry into World War II in 1941, there were more than 600 Sears stores nationwide.
Houston's Sears, Roebuck and Company store was built in 1929 on a three-acre site at the present day intersection of Allen Parkway and Montrose Boulevard. It was the first suburban department store in Houston.
Designed by the firm of Nimmons, Carr and Wright, the Sears store building is an architectural example of the type of high quality development along Buffalo Drive as it emerged as the major corridor between downtown and River Oaks. The new $1,000,000 retail department store opened for business on the corner of Buffalo Drive and Lincoln Street in August, 1929.
Situated in a prominent position on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou, located adjacent to the railroad spur from Chaney Junction, and convenient to residential neighborhoods that strecthed in a broad arch across the southwest side of the city from South Main Street to River Oaks, the Sears, Roebuck store seemed to ideally positioned for success. Yet, after only a decade, the store was relocated to South Main Street, near its current day intersection with US 59. The unpredictable nature of the bayou had shown its hand. On December 9, 1935, Buffalo Bayou rose in flood to its historic high level, reaching an estimated flow of 40,000 cfs. The first floor of the Sears store flooded, and substantial losses were incurred. The subsequent 'flood' sale, in which damaged goods were displayed and sold on the second floor of the building, was an event to remember and was well patronized by bargain-seeking shoppers.
By 1942, the Olympia Arena was operating on the site of the old Sears store. Then, in 1943, the building was the temporary, first home of the Baylor College of Medicine. Baylor College of Medicine moved from Dallas to Houston before the Texas Medical Center could construct the building it had promised, so students at Baylor attended classes during the first four years, until 1947, in the old Sears warehouse.