Mr. J. C. Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. At the time, he called it the Golden Rule. In 1913, as his company added more stores, he changed the name to J. C. Penney’s. By 1928, there were more than 1,000 stores nationwide.
In 1913, the Dallas store opened on the first floor of the Gail Hotel Annex (currently at 186 SW Court Street) under the name of the Golden Rule. The name was quickly changed to J. C. Penney’s, and in 1924, the store moved to the corner of Washington and Main Streets just south of the Majestic Theater. This new location was another David Riley building, constructed of wood with a brick front. Riley co-owned Coad and Riley, a local sash and planing mill, and was involved in several Main Street projects.
Penney’s soon outgrew the available space in this building and sought larger quarters. In 1928, Ralph E. Williams constructed the present building half a block north at what was then 508 Main Street. The Penney’s store moved into this new space in 1929. The building style was typical for several Main Street structures–commercial, two stories, with brick cladding. The interior of this store consisted of a first-floor retail space with a mezzanine-like second floor in the back part of the building. This was the accounting area where the cash was kept and the cashiers worked. Communication between the sales floor and the accounting floor involved a pneumatic tube and cannister system. Sales transactions originated on the first floor while cash was received and receipts were sent via the cannisters moving back and forth between the two floors. Purchases were then routinely wrapped, in Penney’s standard practice, in brown craft paper and tied with a string.
The Dallas Penney’s remained at this location for several decades as a popular department store before it closed permanently in 1986. The building is now occupied by the Dallas Event Center, which opened here in 2007 and hosts community events, weddings, dance classes, and other celebrations of the arts.