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| Formerly | Hackfeld's Dry Goods (1849-1852) B. F. Ehlers (1852-1898) H. Hackfeld & Co. (1898-1918) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Department store |
| Founded | 1849; 176 years ago (1849) |
| Founder | Heinrich Hackfeld |
| Defunct | 2001; 24 years ago (2001) |
| Fate | Acquired byFederated Department Stores; merged intoMacy's West |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 45-50 (at its peak) |
Number of employees | 4,200 (at its peak) |
| Parent | Amfac (1918-1988) JMB Realty (1988-2001) |
Liberty House, headquartered inHonolulu, Hawaii, was adepartment store and specialty store chain with locations throughout the Hawaiian Islands and onGuam, as well as several locations on the United States mainland.
Tracing its antecedents toHackfeld's Dry Goods formed by German trader Heinrich Hackfeld in 1849, in 1852 the retail location was renamed for Hackfeld's nephew,B. F. Ehlers. Hackfeld continued to maintain an interest in the store, while he concentrated on his trading, shipping and real-estate interests. In 1881,Paul Isenberg (1837–1903) became half partner in the business. In 1898 the Hackfeld and Isenberg family interests in Hawaii were officially reorganized as H. Hackfeld & Co.[1]
In 1918 at the height ofWorld War I, H. Hackfeld & Co. was seized by the American government as alien property (since many of the Hackfeld and Isenberg heirs still lived in Germany), and was sold to a newly formed consortium, American Factors. At the same time the B.F. Ehlers store was renamed The Liberty House in response to anti-German sentiment. With Hackfeld's hugesugarcaneplantations and land interests, American Factors (later known asAmfac) became one of Hawaii'sBig Five landowners.[2]
In 1969 Liberty House expanded onto themainland with Amfac's purchase of theRhodes Western department stores, a long-time consolidator of department stores. The former Rhodes' stores were renamed Liberty House between 1971 and 1974. The mainland operation eventually included stores inArizona,California,Nevada,Oregon,Texas,New Mexico andWashington. This expansion culminated with the construction of a newSan Francisco flagship store in 1974 at Stockton and O'Farrell streets. Poor results and a scattered footprint caused the rethinking of future investment, and in 1978 Liberty House began winding down the mainland stores, with the remaining ten being sold in 1984.
Liberty House closed nine of its ten California stores in 1984 due to poor sales. The only one not closed at the time wasSan Mateo Fashion Island inSan Mateo, California, which stayed open until 1986.[3]
In 1988 Amfac was acquired in a leveraged-buyout byJMB Realty Corp., aChicago real estate investment company, under whose ownership Liberty House expanded toMicronesia Mall inGuam in 1994. In 1998 Liberty House filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, under which it closed most of its resort store business, which had totaled over 40 stores at one point. In 2001, after emerging from bankruptcy, the company was acquired byFederated Department Stores and merged intoMacy's West. Macy's currently maintains a common law trademark by using the LibertyHouse.com domain which forwards to theMacy's website. The San Francisco Liberty House would become the Men's Store ofMacy's Union Square until 2017, when Macy's would close it and it would be renovated for mixed-use.[4]