View source for Joslins

{{Short description|Defunct American department store}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Joslins
| logo = Joslins Department Store Final Logo.png
| type = [[Department store]]
| fate = Converted to [[Dillard's]]
| founded = {{Start date and age|1873}} in [[Denver, Colorado]], United States
| founder = John Jay Joslin
| defunct = {{End date|1998}}
| location = [[Denver, Colorado]]
| industry = [[Retail]]
| products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares
}}

'''Joslins''' was a chain of department stores that was based in [[Denver, Colorado]], United States.

==History==
'''Joslins Department Store''' began as '''J. Joslins Dry Goods Store''', founded by John Jay Joslin in 1873; it was a direct competitor to [[The Denver Dry Goods Company]] which commenced operations in 1888. The original [[Joslin Dry Goods Company Building]] is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and is currently a [[Courtyard by Marriott]] property.

Around 1910, Joslin sold the business to [[H.B. Claflin & Company]], which collapsed in 1914.<ref name="125years">{{cite news|first=John |last=Rebchook |title=J.J. Joslin started store 125 years ago downtown |work=Rocky Mountain News |date=19 May 1998 |page=4B }}</ref> Two store chains were created from the bankruptcy: [[Associated Dry Goods]] and [[Mercantile Stores Company, Inc.]] As a nameplate of Mercantile Stores, Joslins became the first Denver-based department store to build branch locations in the 1940s, later expanding the chain with larger anchor stores in malls in the 1960s and 1970s.
[[File:Joslins - 1969.svg|thumb|Logo from 1969 to 1994]]
In 1998, the [[Dillard's]] department store chain purchased Mercantile Stores, converting most of the then-existing Joslin's stores to Dillard's stores.<ref>{{cite news |first=Dina |last=Bunn |title=Curtain Falls on Joslins |page=1B |work=Rocky Mountain News |date=19 May 1998 |quote=The Little Rock, Ark., retailer announced Monday it is buying Mercantile for $3.14 billion in cash and assumed debt.Ten Joslins stores in the state and one in Cheyenne will close or be converted to Dillard's.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first= Henry |last=Dubroff |url= http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/1998/05/25/newscolumn1.html|title=  An unforgettable department store sale | publisher= American City Business Journals| work= Denver Business Journal | date= 23 May 1998 }}</ref> One former Joslin's store in Colorado Springs and the recently opened flagship store at Park Meadows in Lone Tree were sold by Dillard's to [[The May Department Stores Company]], which converted the Colorado Springs store to a [[Foley's]] and the Park Meadows	store to the Denver area's second [[Lord & Taylor]] store.<ref>{{cite news |first=Penny |last=Parker |title=Lord & Taylor coming to mall |page=C-1 |work=Denver Post |date=4 Aug 1998 |quote=The Joslins at Park Meadows is turning into a Lord & Taylor and the Joslins at Chapel Hills mall in Colorado Springs will become a Foley's, according to the terms of a deal announced Monday between Dillard's and May Department Stores Co.}}</ref>

==Locations==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Location
! Address
! Opened
! Closed
! Disposition
|-
| Downtown Denver
| 934 16th Street, Denver
| 1873
| 1995
| redeveloped into [[Courtyard by Marriott]], 1996 
building received National Historic Register designation, 1997
|-
| Greeley
| 825-827 Eighth St, Greeley
| 1944
| 1973
| moved to 1015 9th Ave, 1963
replaced by Greeley Mall location, 1973
<ref>{{cite news |first=Red |last=Edgerton |title=Joslins adds and expands merchandise in new store |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/greeley-daily-tribune-joslin-dry-goods/19338520/ |page=44 |work=Greeley Daily Tribune |date=29 Jun 1973}}</ref>
|-
| Englewood
| 3470 S Broadway, Englewood
| 1945
| 1954
| Nielsen's Department Store acquired in 1945<ref>{{cite web |title=Downtown History Tour |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9ed593c8b7ad4a4787e15a7dd48b8643#ref-n-ZEasta |publisher=City of Englewood / Englewood Historic Preservation Society |date=8 Oct 2021}}</ref>
replaced by 3315 South Broadway location
|-
| Lakewood
| 7308 W Colfax Ave, Lakewood
| 1946
| 1957
| replaced by JCRS Shopping Center location
|-
| Aurora
| 9620 E Colfax Ave, Aurora
| 1949
| 
| 
|-
| [[Broadway Plaza (Denver)|Merchants' Park Shopping Center]]
| 627 S Broadway, Denver
| 1952
| 
| 
|- 
| Englewood
| 3315 S Broadway, Englewood
| 1954
| 
| 
|-
| Boulder
| 1919 14th St, Boulder
| 1956
| 1980
| first three/four floors of Colorado Building remodeled into offices<ref>{{cite web |title=Joslin's exteriors: Photo 1 |url=https://localhistory.boulderlibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A34556/ |publisher=Boulder Historical Society/Museum of Boulder |quote=. . . plans were soon announced that the Colorado Building would be remodeled into a financial and office building. According to a 31 October 1979 Boulder Daily Camera article, the Boulder Joslin's location was due to close 31 January 1980 because of difficulty finding a new location.}}</ref>
|-
| Lakewood
| JCRS Shopping Center, 6715 W Colfax Ave, Lakewood
| 1957
| early 1970s
| space redeveloped into [[Casa Bonita]]<ref>{{cite web |first=Rosemary |last=Lewis |title=Fortress Commerce: Jefferson County's Malls |url=https://historicjeffco.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/historical_jeffco_2012_web.pdf |work=Historically Jeffco |publisher=Jefferson County Historical Commission |pages=3–7 |date=2012 |quote=Joslin's moved out of JCRS in the late 1970s and its space became the Casa Bonita restaurant.}}</ref>
|-
| Villa Italia
| 7200 W Alameda Ave, Lakewood
| 1966
| 2000
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
redeveloped for [[Belmar (Lakewood)|Belmar]]
|-
| Pueblo
| southeast corner of Main Street and W 4th Street, Pueblo 
| 1970
| 1976
| Crews-Beggs Dry Goods Co acquired in 1959, changed to Joslin's name in 1970
replaced by Pueblo Mall location, 1976
|-
| [[Cinderella City]]
| Englewood
| 1968
| 1995
| replaced by Southglenn Mall location, 1995
|-
| Buckingham Square Mall
| 1440 S Havana St, Aurora
| 1971
| 2005
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
redeveloped for [[The Gardens on Havana]]
|-
| Greeley Mall
| 2050 Greeley Mall, Greeley
| 1973
| 2008
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
closed, 2008
|-
| [[Pueblo Mall]]
| 3601 Dillon Dr, Pueblo
| 1976
| 
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
|-
| [[Westminster Mall (Colorado)|Westminster Mall]]
| 5433 W 88th Ave, Westminster
| 1977
| 2011
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
closed, 2011
|-
| [[Southwest Plaza]]
| 8501 W Bowles Ave, Littleton
| 1983
| 2006
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
converted to a [[Dick's Sporting Goods]] and [[Steve & Barry's]], 2006
|-
|[[Frontier Mall]]
|1400 Dell Range Blvd, Cheyenne, WY
|1983
|2021
|converted to a Dillard's store, 1998 
closed, 2021
location purchased by Appliance Factory & Mattress Kingdom, 2023<ref>{{cite news |title=Former Dillard’s in Cheyenne Purchased by Appliance Factory & Mattress Kingdom |url=https://www.thecheyennepost.com/business/former-dillard-s-in-cheyenne-purchased-by-appliance-factory-mattress-kingdom/article_04ecc24a-b6d4-11ed-8648-b3a3b2c6455c.html |work=Cheyenne Post |date=27 Feb 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[Chapel Hills Mall]]
|1750 Briargate Blvd, Colorado Springs
|1985
|1998
|location purchased by [[The May Department Stores Company|May]] and converted to [[Foley's]], 1998 
converted to a Macy's, 2006
|-
|Twin Peaks Mall
|1250 S Hover St, Longmont
|1985
|c. 2008<ref>{{cite news |title=Holiday shopping season will be 28th — and final — for Twin Peaks Mall |url=https://www.timescall.com/2013/12/07/holiday-shopping-season-will-be-28th-and-final-for-twin-peaks-mall/ |work=Longmont Times-Call |date=7 Dec 2013}}</ref>
|converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
redeveloped for Village at the Peaks, 2014
|-
| Southglenn Mall
| 6911 S University Blvd, Centennial
| 1994
| 2006
| converted to a Dillard's store, 1998
redeveloped for [[The Streets at SouthGlenn]], 2006<ref>{{cite news |last1=Arellano |first1=Kristi |title=Mall's closing buys a moment of nostalgia |url=https://www.denverpost.com/2006/02/28/malls-closing-buys-a-moment-of-nostalgia/ |work=Denver Post |date=1 Mar 2006 |page=C-01}}</ref>
|-
| [[Park Meadows]]
| 8425 Park Meadows Center Dr, Lone Tree
| 1997
| 1998
| location purchased by [[The May Department Stores Company|May]], 1998, and converted to [[Lord & Taylor]], 1999 
|}

==Further reading==
*Barnhouse, Mark A. (November 2018). ''Lost Department Stores of Denver''. Arcadia Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-439-66585-5}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Mercantile}}
{{Dillard's history}}

[[Category:Retail companies established in 1873]]
[[Category:Retail companies disestablished in 1998]]
[[Category:Companies based in Denver]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Colorado]]
[[Category:Defunct department stores based in Colorado]]


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