Macy's Downtown Pittsburgh store closing for final time

Everything must go.

That sentiment was both mercantile and melancholy Sunday, as the Downtown Pittsburgh Macy's drew a mix of bargain-hunters and memory-chasers to its final hours before closing, nearly 130 years after the Kaufmann family opened their store at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Smithfield Street.

Cincinnati-based Macy's announced in July that it had sold the building to a Philadelphia developer for $15 million. Though Macy's had initially expressed interest in keeping a smaller presence in the building that stands 13 stories and occupies an entire block, the retailer decided to close the store entirely so Core Realty could convert the whole building into a hotel, retail space and high-end apartments.

“I grew up here, and it was Kaufmann's back in the day. It's weird to see it finally going,” said Harold Davis, 50, of New Castle, who grew up in the Hill District and stopped by Sunday to see the store one last time. “It's weird walking through and there's nothing here.”

One entire floor was empty but bright with flourescent lights and mirrors still on the walls. Another was a forest of metal clothes racks and shelves taped off for transfer to other stores; yet another floor was a bazaar of old fixtures and furniture being sold off and loaded onto trucks along Forbes and Smithfield.

“I used to skip school and spend the entire day here,” said William Cox, owner of the Antique Mall Ohio River in Bellevue. “I would eat at the Tic-Toc and spend all day riding the escalators.”

For weeks, Cox had been buying up old furniture and fixtures from the store. Some of the “industrial” fixtures would end up in his shop, but he planned to keep most of the stuff that still said “Kaufmann's” for himself, he said.

Other shoppers picked over padded salon chairs, ornate desks and tables, seeking souvenirs of the old store. A large metal safe, marked down to half-off its $500 price tag, lay on its back awaiting sale.

Jackie Wentzel, who worked at a bank Downtown, said she used to spend her lunch breaks shopping at Macy's. Sunday, she hefted an armful of clothes marked down to $1 apiece, as the last of the store's clothing had been condensed to a small space on a single floor.

“I'm here for the sales, though it's just a little sad,” said Wentzel, 48, of Overbrook. “It'll be better for my credit card.”

Glenn Walsh, 59, of Mt. Lebanon, weighed himself one last time on the antique scale between two of the escalators, though he noted you had to add 1.75 lbs to get your true weight after decades of use left the scale slightly off. In addition to people's memories of places like the Arcade Bakery and Tic-Toc Restaurant, the store held other antiques, including the giant grandfather clock in Menswear that was marked with a “transfer” tag but its destination left blank.

Even as brick-and-mortar retailers struggled — Macy's closed 14 other stores and laid off 1,300 workers in January — Walsh and others were surprised the venerable store would become a casualty in the midst of Downtown's residential boom.

“I think it's really a shame. ... Downtown Pittsburgh's booming right now; why (Macy's) would close Downtown makes no sense,” Walsh said.

Francine Wahler, 60, of Mt. Washington, said she had visited other downtown Macy's locations in cities like New York and San Francisco — she'd lived in San Francisco until about a year ago, she said. Pittsburgh's best comparison to those stores was during the holidays, when elaborate window displays were set up along Smithfield Street and the store was the focus of ceremonies and parades, she said.

“With all the people on the streets and all the families here, for Macy's to put on that kind of performance, that's what the holidays were all about,” Wahler said.

Rene Oliver, 89, of Castle Shannon, sat in what was once the handbag and luggage department after shopping the liquidation sale on Sunday. He said, “I come here, it was beautiful. Now it's so ­— gone.”

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.