On Valentine’s On Valentine’s Day 1992, one of Corpus Christi’s oldest downtown retailers was closing its doors for the last time.. S.H. Kress had been in business in the city since December 16, 1916. The “5-10 and 25 Cent Store” had operated for almost 76 years, and all of those years from the same store location on Chaparral Street near Starr.
The building at 619 Chaparral was designed by Seymour Burrell and constructed for Mr. C. E. Coleman, the city’s leading produce dealer. It was then leased to the S. H. Kress Company. At the time, Kress was a national chain of 150 five-and-dime stores located mainly in the South. Coleman was the owner of a wholesale produce company who also owned commercial real estate in Corpus Christi and Calallen. In 1928, he would construct a new building on Leopard that would be leased to Sears and Roebuck when that company first came to the city. The Kress store on Chaparral was an instant hit with the public and was open for business for decades.
With the opening of the new Port of Corpus Christi in 1926, Kress realized that the City would be entering a new era in growth and prosperity. The company decided to vastly increase its investment in Corpus Christi. In October 1927, the company purchased its building on Chaparral from Mr. Coleman and laid plans for a substantial renovation and expansion of its store.
The company would spend $90,000 adding a third story and a basement to their building. The entire building would also undergo a total renovation, inside and out. The Bowen Construction Co. of El Paso was awarded the contract for the work, which began on February 11, 1928. By the end of May 1928, the store had new, modern lighting, new maple floors, all new furnishings and public restrooms, and new elevators.
Another major expansion of the Chaparral Street store took place in 1954 when Kress acquired the adjoining W.T. Grant building at Chaparral and Starr. The acquisition doubled the size of the Kress store downtown.
Kress continued to be one of downtown’s most successful businesses throughout the 1950s and ’60s. Even when many downtown stores began to move out of the downtown area, the Kress store remained.
In 1964, Kress would open a large store in the new Cullen Mall on the southside, but the downtown store on Chaparral remained open. The S. H. Kress chain had grown to 279 stores nationwide, but retail shopping was changing rapidly.
By the late 1980s, Kress only had 24 stores nationwide.. The Corpus Christi store on Chaparral was one of those last 24 stores. The Cullen Mall Kress had closed in 1974. Many of the employees of the downtown store had worked there for over 30 years, and they served some very loyal customers, some of whom had shopped there for over 50 years.
When the end came for the downtown Kress store in 1992, it was a sad day for many downtown residents and for the last of the long-time staff at Kress. Part of the old Kress building would become home to a number of Corpus Christi artists in the “K-Space Art Gallery” in 1998.
K-Space operates in the building to this day. Mulligan’s Pub opened in the original Kress building in 2000. Today, “Mully’s Pub” and “Old Kress Live” operate in the historic, 109-year-old Kress Building.
Mr. C. E. Coleman, who built and owned the Kress Building on Chaparral in 1916, was a lifelong Baptist. He passed away in 1944. When the new First Baptist Church on Ocean Drive opened in 1950, it included a tall carillon of bells, dedicated to the memory of Mr. Coleman. The bell tower was a gift to the church by Mrs. Coleman.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.
