DES MOINES
Illustrated Souvenir Album (1895)
THE HARRIS-EMERY COMPANY.
THE HARRIS EMERY DEPARTMENT STORE S. E. Corner of Seventh and Walnut Sts.
This is the largest department store in the State of Iowa. The building now occupied by this firm was built by the Rothwell estate, of Boston, in the winter of 1891-2. The structure was commenced on the 25th of November, 1891, and completed April 25, 1892, when the present firm became its occupants. A business of the magnitude proposed, in the city of Des Moines, was considered by many conservative merchants to be an extremely hazardous venture. But the Emerys, having had the experience of three years in a similar undertaking at St. Joseph, Mo., and being an off-shoot of the Kansas City house of Bullene, Moore, Emery & Co. (now the Emery-Bird-Thayer Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City), considered the venture entirely feasible, and their judgment has been sustained by the success of the business. Notwithstanding the perilous times of the panic of 1893, and the subsequent business depression, the business has shown a steady growth, with the balance each year on the right side of the ledger. Whether this business venture could have been successful in any other city of the size of Des Moines in the west may be questioned, for the people of the whole State have lent a loyal support to the enterprise from its inception.
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