Luckey, Platt & Company Department Store facts for kids

Luckey, Platt & Company Department Store
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Vacant store building in 2008
Location	Poughkeepsie, NY
Built	1923
Architect	Edward C. Smith
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	82001146
Added to NRHP	1982

The Luckey, Platt & Company Department Store building is a famous landmark in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York. For many years, it was a very popular department store. People from all over the Hudson Valley came to shop here.

The store closed in 1981 because people started shopping more at shopping malls. This was a big change for Poughkeepsie's downtown area. The building was empty for a long time. But in 2008, it reopened with 143 apartments and some shops. This helped bring new life back to the downtown area.

About the Building

This large, gray building has five floors. It was designed by Edward C. Smith. He was a well-known architect in Poughkeepsie. The building opened in 1923.

The style of the building is called Classical Revival. This means it looks like old Greek and Roman buildings. You can see this in its fancy roofline and decorative columns.

Next to the main building are older buildings. These were also part of the store's operations. They have an Italianate style. These older buildings are also important to the building's history. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The Store's History

The Luckey, Platt & Company store started a long time before this building was built. It began in 1835 as "Crandle & Smith." Later, it was called "Dribble's." Finally, it became Luckey's.

Luckey's was special because it had fixed prices for everything. You also had to pay in cash. This was new for stores back then.

In 1869, Edmund Platt bought Luckey's. Five years later, the store moved to Main Street. It grew very quickly over the next 50 years. A third partner, Smith DeGarmo, helped with this growth. In 1882, they even added an elevator to make shopping easier.

By 1901, the store needed more space. They bought two more buildings. In 1910, they added a special area just for selling furniture. The store proudly said it was "the best store of its kind" in any city Poughkeepsie's size. They claimed to have 30 stores under one roof. They also had 175 sales clerks and 2 miles of counter space!

The new, big building was finished in 1923. For almost 50 years, Luckey Platt was the main place to shop in the area. However, things started to change in the 1970s. More people were moving to the suburbs. They started driving to new shopping malls.

Luckey Platt tried to keep up. They opened a branch store at the Dutchess Mall. This mall was about 10 miles south of Poughkeepsie. But the store still lost customers.

In the early 1970s, Poughkeepsie tried to help its downtown. They closed off two blocks of Main Street to cars. This created a pedestrian mall called Main Mall. The idea was to make it feel like the new suburban malls. But this plan didn't really help.

Seven years after the mall was created, in 1981, Luckey Platt closed both its main store and the Dutchess Mall branch.

What Happened Next

After closing, the building stayed empty for many years. The city eventually owned it. In the early 1990s, Dutchess County thought about using the building. They needed more space for their nearby courthouse. But they decided to build a new annex instead.

Later, in the early 2000s, artist Peter Max considered opening a museum there. But that plan didn't work out. The next year, parts of the upper floors of the building collapsed. In 2004, the city received a $250,000 grant to help fix up the building.

In 2006, a company called Alma Realty bought the building for just $1. They had a big plan to turn it into apartments and shops. There were some delays, but work continued. In December 2008, the building finally reopened. People could start renting apartments there. This was a big step in bringing the historic building back to life.