Gimbels’ Department Store

Inscription

Side One: Gimbels’ Department Store

Bavarian Jewish immigrants Adam and Solomon Gimbel worked as peddlers before establishing a dry goods and clothing store here by 1848. Regular advertising and quality goods drew customers, and the business prospered. The company moved to Milwaukee in 1888, expanding to Philadelphia (1894) and New York City (1910). In the 1920s, Gimbels’ went public and acquired Saks & Co.

Side Two: Gimbels’ Department Store

Gimbels’ became one of the largest department stores in the U.S. by the late 1920s with over fifty locations nationwide by the 1960s. It appeared in film and television shows such as Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and I Love Lucy (1950s). Local business owners used the “Gimbel” name for stores here into the 1980s, though they were separate from the iconic national chain.

Installed 2024 Indiana Historical Bureau, William G. Pomeroy Foundation, Jewish American Soc. for Historic Preservation, Indiana Jewish Historical Soc., & Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Soc.