The downtown trade in brief

The Michigan Street retail block, in outline

The block: Between the two great stores the rest of the downtown trade stood shoulder to shoulder on and around South Michigan Street, and its outline is carried here at the size the sources support — the recollections and photo captions of the local history accounts rather than company histories, and printed at that tier. J. C. Penney opened its South Bend store in November 1937 at Michigan and Wayne, in the last full season of the prewar downtown; it closed in the early 1980s. A large Penney store also stood across from Robertson's, and S. S. Kresge's five-and-ten bordered Robertson's on the north. Sears traded on Western Avenue. Ellsworth's, next to Wyman's until Wyman's bought it in 1951, and the Grand Leader — later the site of the Francis Shop — stood south of Robertson's. When the suburban malls took the trade in the 1970s and 1980s, the downtown stores went in sequence: Wyman's in 1972, Penney's in the early 1980s, Robertson's last, in 1986.

Sources:

1. Department Store Museum, "Robertson's, South Bend, Indiana" — the 209 South Michigan store, its later suburban addresses including Scottsdale Mall and University Park; the neighboring J. C. Penney across the street and Kresge's to the north; the Grand Leader and Francis Shop to the south.
2. The History Museum, South Bend, local-history answers — J. C. Penney opened in November 1937 at Michigan and Wayne and closed in the early 1980s; the Sears store on Western Avenue.
3. Round the Bend 574 photographic accounts — the South Michigan retail block in the department-store years.