Photo of the Month

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December 2007:
Store No. 5409, McAllen, Texas


(Photo courtesy Edwin Davis)

	Past Photos of the Month: 2007 October September August July June May April March February

IT WAS BEGINNING to look a lot like Christmas when Linn Studios of McAllen, Texas, took this photo of the Terry Farris department store at 123 S. Main St. in that city.

The 17-store Terry Farris chain, based in McAllen, was purchased in early 1961 by G.C. Murphy Co. of McKeesport, Pa., some 1,430 miles away. The five-and-10 chain, which then operated more than 400 variety stores (mainly east of the Mississippi), was looking to diversify its business, gain market share in the southern United States, and expand into fashion apparel.

Besides Terry Farris, Murphy's acquired more than 40 department stores in Texas between 1960 and 1962, including Odessa-based Cobb Department Stores, San Antonio’s Bruner’s Department Stores, and the Morris Department Stores of Dallas.

All were merged into Murphy’s new “Terry Farris Division,” with offices in McAllen.

It was never a comfortable combination. The department stores were used to selling high-fashion, name-brand apparel, but Murphy’s attempted to sell its own house-brand toiletries and clothing.

And after the G.C. Murphy Co. takeover, some big manufacturers wouldn’t sell to Terry Farris for fear their name-brand items—which weren’t then available to discounters—might turn up in the parent company’s five-and-10s.

The distance between McKeesport and McAllen—both physically and psychologically—didn’t help, either.

Though Murphy’s tried to expand the department store division, it gradually withered away through the 1970s and ’80s, and only a handful were left when Ames took over the G.C. Murphy Co. in 1985. The remaining Terry Farris and Bruner’s stores were quickly sold or closed.

(Previous photo: October 2007, Mercersburg, Pa., store)