Walker Scott

Trained under Arthur Letts at Los Angeles' Broadway department store,[https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19120608.2.214&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 "$20,000,000 Invested Here in the Dry Goods Business", Los Angeles Herald, vol. XXXVIII, no. 220, June 8, 1912] Ralf Marc Walker was the co-founder/co-worker owner of the 125,000-square-foot department store known as the Fifth Street Store at Fifth and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, established in 1905.{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66-IA7 |title = Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Sea: With Selected Biography of Actors and Witnesses to the Period of Growth and Achievement|last1 = McGroarty|first1 = John Steven|year = 1921}} Walker also owned what would later become known as the Houdini Mansion in Laurel Canyon. He died six months before the opening of the San Diego store on October 3, 1935.

George A. Scott (b. Scotland, 1907 — d. United States, 1993) was a protégé of Walker, who had sent him to the New York University of Retailing and had treated him as a son; the two men had a very close personal relationship.

In 1935, the former Holzwasser's department store building, in San Diego's downtown shopping district at the northwest corner of 5th and Broadway, had been sitting empty for over two years after the 1933 liquidation of Holzwasser's, once San Diego's largest department store.{{cite news |title=Walker's to Open in San Diego |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56733189/walkers-to-open-in-san-diego/ |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 21, 1935 |page=39}} The Spanish Colonial Revival building had been built in 1919; John Terrel Vawter was the architect.

Scott and Walker traveled to San Diego to investigate the possibilities of opening a branch of Walker's in the ex-Holzwasser space, and decided to do so. They renovated the interior and the first and second floors of the exterior; the Quayle Brothers were the architects for this renovation.{{cite book |title=National Register of Historic Places Application for Holzwasser/Walker Scott and Owl Drug building |date=2004 |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/f6925335-c2f0-4f79-9c17-b1f32e484c4a}} Seven days before the planned grand opening, Walker died, on September 25, 1935.

Seven days later, on October 2, Scott opened the store with Mr. Walker's widow, Eliza Fitzgerald Walker, who became president of the company while Scott took the position of vice president. Present at the opening reception were Arthur H. Marston, son of George W. Marston, who had attended the Holzwasser's opening fifteen years before, and Charles S. Holzwasser, who had owned the by-then-defunct Holzwasser store that had occupied the site.

The store employed 503 people at opening of which 482 were local from San Diego. First year sales volume was $800,000. Escalators were added and the store was expanded into the Owl Drug building to the west. in 1954, the store was renamed Walker Scott.

Three full-line stores opened in the 1970 fiscal year, and sales for that year were around $36 million, with earnings of $850,000. There were {{convert|525000|sqft|sqm}} of retail space across the stores, with an expected 70% increase in the year to follow, with new stores planned for Solana Beach, Palm Springs, Genessee Shopping Center in Clairemont, City of Orange (The City Shopping Center), Point Loma at Sport Arena Way Shopping Center, a small store in Coronado and College Grove Shopping Center near Lemon Grove.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/350560744 "New outlets boost walker-scott profits for the ninth year in a row" (September 1, 1969). Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly]

In 1984-5 Walker Scott eliminated major-appliance departments and de-emphasizing hardline areas such as housewares and small appliances. In January 1985, facing competition from other stores, the firm closed its downtown and La Jolla stores, leaving it with 12 outlets. Later that same year, Walker Scott sold to Los Angeles retailer Desmond's & Associates. In November 1986 Walker Scott closed its remaining stores.{{cite news |last1=Ritter |first1=Bill |title=Walker Scott to Close All 6 of its San Diego Stores |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56047819/walker-scott-to-close-all-6-of-its-san/ |date=November 8, 1986 |page=44}}

Branches and their years of opening:{{Cite web | url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt529034jk/entire_text/ |title = Guide to the Walker Scott Department Store Records}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-11-08-fi-28448-story.html | title=Walker-Scott to Close All 6 of Its San Diego Stores| website=Los Angeles Times| date=November 8, 1986}}

• 1935 downtown San Diego, 1014 Fifth Avenue, NW corner of 5th and Broadway (formerly Holzwasser's department store)
• 1959 La Jolla (Walker's purchased Stevenson's Department Store, which it operated under its original name for a time).[https://www.newspapers.com/image/238516669/ Walker Scott Making Top Level Changes", The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), February 19, 1975, p. 15] Closed in 1985.
• 1960 College Grove Shopping Center, in eastern San Diego adjacent to Lemon Grove; upon opening it was the largest Walker's store.
• 1963 Linda Vista Shopping Center
• 1964 Escondido Village: The {{convert|60000|sqft|sqm|abbr=on|adj=on}} cost $3,750,000, and officially opened with a ribbon-cutting at 11 A.M. on Monday, April 6, 1964. The store's interior design was by Brand-Worth & Associates. Walls, floors and fixtures were color coordinated. The signage was custom-made in classic raised Roman alphabet. The store featured a specially-made multi-color carpet in eight related shades around the perimeter of the store, in a progressive spectrum from red to blue. The men's department carpet was dark blue, the dress department reds and purples, the juniors and lingerie departments pink and orchid colors, and in ladies' sportswear, vermilion and lavender. There were wall murals in classic Roman themes by Rick Chase, a Southern California muralist. Other walls were covered in metal sculptures, including acid-etched brass trees in recesses in the walls of the apparel areas. In the sportswear department, three sculptured metal trees were made with more than 9,000 stylized leaves. Decorative grill work enclosed the glass well of the escalators.{{cite news |title=Walker-Scott columns |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56657015/walker-scott-escondido/ |publisher=Times-Advocate (Escondido, CA) |date=April 3, 1964}}
• 1968 Clairemont and El Cajon (bought Whitney's Department Stores and operated them by that name for a time). Clairemont store was relocated to Clairemont Square. A third Whitney's outlet was converted to a Walker-Scott home and gift center.
• 1970, added fabric stores in Lakeside, Ocean Beach (later a men's a women's sportswear specialty shop) and El Cajon
• 1970 City of Orange, The City shopping center, 160,000 sq. ft.,{{cite news |title=Walker Scott Plans Opening of Major Store |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anaheim-bulletin-walker-scott-plans-open/143904176/ |access-date=22 March 2024 |work=Anaheim Bulletin |date=30 September 1970 |pages=23}} replaced by May Company in 1974."Retail Briefs". Women's Wear Daily. 126 (117). June 14, 1973. p. 28.{{cite news |title=Walker Scott advertisement |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/384785906 |access-date=May 5, 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=September 24, 1970 |page=19}}
• 1970 Palm Springs (Palm Springs Mall), replaced by Buffums in 1989, later Harris Gottschalks in 1990.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/244703663/ Walker Scott advertising supplement, Palm Springs Desert Sun, December 26, 1978, pp.46–50]
• 1970: Solana Beach, Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, which in 1988 or 1989 was bought by and opened as Buffums{{Cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19890328.2.114&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title = Desert Sun 28 March 1989 — California Digital Newspaper Collection}}
• 1973 San Carlos
• 1973 Mission Valley Shopping Center
• 1975 Mira Mesa, {{convert|63000|sqft|sqm}}
• 1976 Oceanside
• 1982 National City
• 1983 Pacific Beach

{{reflist}}

{{History of Retail in Southern California}}

Category:Defunct department stores based in San Diego

Category:Retail companies established in 1935

Category:Retail companies disestablished in 1986

Category:Companies based in San Diego

Category:Buildings and structures in San Diego