The W.T. Grant Company

Possessed with a spirit of optimism and an innate gift for retailing savvy, entrepreneur William T. Grant revolutionized the nation’s retailing industry with the 1906 debut of his W.T. Grant Company department store in Lynn, Massachusetts. Taking aim at the lucrative yet untapped middle ground between the discount five-and-dime variety stores and traditional department stores of the era, he built a well-deserved reputation as the store “Known for Values.” Grants quickly became one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most beloved department store chains, encompassing 1,238 stores in forty-six states at its height in 1972. While the Grants stores are now just a fond memory, the legacy of William T. Grant continues to be remembered today, along with the vibrant philanthropic nonprofit William T. Grant Foundation, which he started in 1936.

Author Biography

A native of Milwaukee now living in Rockford, Illinois, award-winning Midwest journalist Eric A. Johnson has earned more than forty writing, photography and community service awards from a variety of organizations over his career, including those awarded by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association. An alumnus of Marquette University in Milwaukee, he is the author of three other Arcadia Publishing books: Rockford: 1900-World War I (2003), Rockford: 1920 and Beyond (2004) and Ashtabula Firefighting (2006).