Horne’s for the Holidays

When reminiscing about Pittsburgh’s golden age of department stores, the big clock at Kaufmann’s corner may be the most vibrant memory of that era. Certainly Pittsburgh was, from the mid-19th century onward, awash in such retailers, with names like Frank & Seder, Gimbels, Rosenbaum’s, Zayre, Boggs & Buhl, G. C. Murphy, and the iconic Kaufmann’s, strikingly defining the downtown shopping experience in the Steel City. But whether one recalls it as the Joseph Horne Company, Horne’s Department Store, or just plain Horne’s, this first department store in the city, retains a beloved place in the hearts of generations of Pittsburghers, with its annual holiday spectacle a particular source of nostalgic joy.

In 1849 Bedford County’s Joseph Horne purchased a local store (F. H. Eaton) in downtown Pittsburgh and established the Joseph Horne Company, thus innovating the revolutionary self-service shopping approach with specialty departments on seven floors (and a balcony!) in its imposing structure built in 1879 at Penn Avenue.
During the holiday season, it was typically expected that festive Christmas lights and animated window displays were the marks of any downtown department store’s promotions and celebration. Horne’s, perhaps more so than any other such establishment, provided what many Pittsburghers associate most with the season—including, since 1953, the 100-foot-tall, brightly lit Christmas “tree” prominently decorating its building’s corner at Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street.

Over the decades, at Christmastime Horne’s consistently offered unusual and ambitious holiday services that expanded on its reputation as the city’s most customer-oriented shopping destination.

Inspired by the Space Age and science-fiction movies, the season’s store visitors were whizzed in an elevator “spaceship” to the seventh floor. This rocket to Santa’s wonderland had the added benefit for kids of bypassing the boring floors of clothing and furniture and going directly from the street-level area—with its fun Tea Room restaurant, Santa’s Secret Gift Shop, candy, games, books, and gourmet items—to the top floor, all decked out for Christmas and with sporting goods, a pet shop, toys, and Santa Claus himself.

In mid-century, a brigade of Santa Belles (college women) were available to personal-shop for gifts, deliver them to waiting customers (possibly after a nice Tea Room lunch), and giftwrap those presents. Similarly, men were treated to a glass of sherry at the Stag Shop, where they lounged in club chairs while potential spousal presents were fetched for them from throughout the store.

Horne’s media-promoted 1950s attraction was a magical elf character called Christopher Candycane, who populated their holiday windows, helped (via his “radar”) Santa determine toy-worthy children, and hosted holiday parties and events such as an animal costume ball.

Horne’s closed in 1994, but its nearly 150 years of providing heart-warming shopping experiences is still brought to mind when regarding the historic retail building (today’s Highmark headquarters) at Penn Avenue Place, with its original glistening-metal name plaques (“Joseph Horne Co. Dry Goods, Exporters and Retailers”) and its iconic electric-lit Christmas tree that serves as the now-named Unity Tree for the city’s continuing annual Light-Up Night tradition.

Strip! editor Greg Suriano values all things Christmas, and nostalgically reminisces about long-lost downtowns in several states.