The Expanded “Texas Size” Titche’s Building: Twelve Glamorous Acres of Department Store — 1955

by Paula Bosse

titches_utaDallas’ largest department store, ca. 1955… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

This photo of the Titche-Goettinger department store (Main and St. Paul) was taken soon after the store’s expansion which increased its size from 250,000 square feet to a whopping 504,000 square feet. When the greatly enlarged store introduced itself to the Dallas public at an open house in March, 1955, one of the most notable things about it (for me, anyway) was the fact that 93-year old Max Goettinger — founder of the department store in 1902, along with Edward Titche — attended the festivities.

The beautiful original building — designed by George Dahl — was built in the late 1920s and was a commanding presence at only half its later size. (Click pictures to see larger images.)

titches_night

The postcard view above has handily erased most of the other buildings in that block which one would have seen in a photograph, including the Pollock Trunk Co. and the old Hilton Hotel (later the White Plaza, currently the Indigo). A 1942 view of the block, looking west from Harwood, looked like this:

main-street-canyon_ebay

When construction of the new part of the store was completed in 1955, this new 12-acre “Texas Size” Titche’s was the largest store in Dallas, a head-spinning prospect for a city that loves to shop.

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If you want a much more comprehensive overview of the Titche’s building — and want to see wonderful photos of the building, inside and out — I highly recommend Noah Jeppson’s Unvisited Dallas post, “Titche-Goettinger Building,” here. My favorite part? Its innovative system of pneumatic tubes!

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Sources & Notes

Top photo by Squire Haskins, from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, UTA Libraries, Special Collections — more info here) (click on the thumbnail image on the page to see this photo BIG).

Postcards are from previous Flashback Dallas Posts: “George Dahl’s Titche-Goettinger Building,” here; and “Main Street — ca. 1942,” here.

Read more on the expansion at the Dallas Morning News archives:

  • “Titche’s Reports Plans to Double Present Size” by Edd Rout (DMN, Sept. 7, 1952)
  • “Visitors Jam Opening of Texas-Sized Titche’s” by James A. Cockrell (DMN, March 15, 1955)

This wonderful building is still standing, modified to accommodate its current owners, the University of North Texas. Here’s how the building looks these days, via Google Street View, here.

More on the Titche-Goettinger Building on Wikipedia, here.

Images and clipping are larger when clicked.

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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.