- Stone & Thomas
Infobox_Company
company_name = Stone and Thomas
company_
company_type =Department store
foundation =1847
location =Wheeling, West Virginia
industry =Retail
products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
homepage = NoneStone & Thomas was a
United States chain ofdepartment stores . Based inWheeling, West Virginia , the chain had stores located inWest Virginia ,Virginia ,Kentucky , andOhio . The company was bought out in 1998 byElder-Beerman , anOhio -based chain of department stores.History
Stone and Thomas was founded in 1847 in
Wheeling, West Virginia by Elijah J. Stone and Jacob C. Thomas. Also referred to as Stone's or "The People's Store", it was aWest Virginia institution for 150 years. From its flagship store in downtown Wheeling, it expanded into Huntington in the 1910's, Charleston in 1928, and in most of West Virginia's major cities. In 1956 Stone and Thomas bought out Broida's of Parkersburg, and for a short time it was called Broida's, Stone & Thomas. The chain grew up to 19 stores in West Virginia and 2 inVirginia .Stone's was a very teenager-friendly store. It sponsored high school fashion shows, held tea parties, and had a Stone-agers program for teens. Throughout the 1990's, the company wanted to focus more on its suburban stores and closed several of the older downtown stores in Huntington and Clarksburg.
In 1998 falling profits forced Stone & Thomas to sell itself to
Elder-Beerman for $38 million. All existing Stone & Thomas stores were converted to Elder-Beerman by 1999. Six locations were sold to Peebles and three more locations were sold toBelk . [ [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5589494_ITM Belk to Buy Three Stores from Dayton, Ohio-Based Elder-Beerman. | Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News (July, 1998) ] ] The store at the Charleston Town center retained its name but is now vacant. To this day, the Huntington store remains vacant awaiting use, still bearing the S & T logo, while the downtown Wheeling store is currently being converted into office space. [ [http://www.theintelligencer.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=13318] ] Also, the downtown Charleston store, built in 1948, is currently still remaining unoccupied.References
External links
* [http://www.theintelligencer.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=13318 Former Wheeling S&T currently being converted into office space; article posted 11/28/06]
* [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2930&purchase_type=ITM&item_id=0286-5589494 Belk to Buy Three Stores from Dayton, Ohio-Based Elder-Beerman.]
* [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0006700.htm Jacob C. Thomas Monument] at Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia
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