Hahne and Company Records

Collection

Identifier: MG NWK Hahne-(Offsite)

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 24 account books and 2 pay roll books recording the general expenses of Hahne and Co.

Dates

1897 - 1936

Creator

Hahne & Co. (Organization)

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff. Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.

Biographical / Historical

Julius Hahne and Adam Block founded Hahne and Company in Newark, in 1858. Beginning as a "specialty store," it grew into a full-service department store and eventually opened a number of branches. By 1897, Hahne was quoted as saying his Newark store was "bigger by six times than the next biggest store in New Jersey .... [W]e cover seven acres, with 300,000 feet of shopping space, have 100 departments, employ 1,200 people and 75 delivery wagons." Hahne's store at Broad and New Street, built in 1901, was the first commercial building in Newark to be built as a department store.

In 1911 an even larger Hahne's building, designed by architect Goldwin Starrett, opened at 609 Broad Street and was publicized as New Jersey's finest department store. Within a few years ownership of the store passed from the Hahne family to R. H. Macy. In 1933, Hahne's was sold again, to the New York-based Associated Dry Goods Corporation.

The Hahne's store in Newark was closed in 1987. Although the palatial building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, it remained vacant for 30 years. Eventually it was renovated through a public-private partnership, and now (2019) houses apartments, retail businesses, and space used by Rutgers University.