Our third Big Three retail chain was founded by James Cash Penney. The original location, called the Golden Rule, opened for business, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, on April 14, 1902.
A latter-day portrait of James Cash Penney (1875-1971), who hailed from Hamilton, Missouri. Known as "King of the Soft Goods," he was the only Big Three founding father to live long enough to see the retail chain he created reach its full potential.
Photo from http://www.biography.com
Drawing from the J.C. Penney Company
An interior view of a Golden Rule mercantile. That's a very young James Cash Penney on the right.
Photo from the J.C. Penney Archives, DeGolyer Library
J.C. Penney's present-day Kemmerer, Wyoming unit -or Mother Store- is often said to have been in business since 1904. However, the company did not operate out of this building until 1929. There have been three different Kemmerer locations over the years. The Mother Store was slotted for closure in 2020, but has been given a retail stay of execution.
Photo from Wikipedia / "Bernd00"
The corporate headquarters was located in Salt Lake City, Utah between 1909 and 1914, when it was moved to New York City. The first stores east of the Mississippi followed, in 1915, with new operations in Wausua and Watertown, Wisconsin. The Golden Rule co-branding had been dropped by 1919.
Circa-1916
Circa-1919
Growth of the chain was explosive during the 1920s. By 1921, the J.C. Penney Company had become the nation's first transcontinental retail chain. In 1927, 750 stores were in operation in 45 states. The 1,000th was dedicated, in Beloit, Kansas, in April 1928.
In spite of The Great Depression, the company continued to expand. The store count in 1936 had reached 1,496. By August 1956, there were 1,709 J.C. Penney stores across the 48 states.