Emporium Capwell
former department store in the San Francisco Bay Area

Emporium Capwell Co. was an American department store chain operating under the trade names Capwell's, The Emporium, Emporium–Capwell, and Emporium in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its predecessors both were founded in San Francisco, California; Capwell's in 1889 by Harris Cebert Capwell, and The Emporium in 1896 by Adolph Feist. They merged into the single Emporium Capwell Co. company in 1927, however, maintained their individual brands until 1980. The combined Emporium–Capwell stores were rebranded as Emporium in 1990, and after parent company Carter Hawley Hale Stores was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1995, the remaining Emporium stores were converted to Macy's in 1996.
The Emporium flagship store on Market Street in San Francisco was a local institution for decades, and connected to the San Francisco Centre shopping mall that opened in 1988. It was briefly renamed the Emporium Centre San Francisco in recognition of local heritage in 2024.
History
Establishments
In February, 1871, The Golden Rule Bazaar, was founded in San Francisco at 419 Kearny Street, by Ansley G. Davis and his brothers (Percy L., Eugene G., and Andrew M. ).
In 1889, Capwell founded his Oakland store under the name The Lace House and changed it to his own name two years later.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Emporium Capwell” is former department store in the San Francisco Bay Area. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Emporium, Capwell and former, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emporium Capwell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.