A J C Penney Store Mystery For You To Solve.

Owosso Mi. – Where was J C Penney’s first store located in Owosso? Although it has only been 102 years since the store opened on March 30, 1918, there is now some historical discrepancy in the location of that first store.

Here is what we do know about J C Penney. On April 14, 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer Wyoming. It was an instant success and he started to expand building new stores.

In 1917 J C Penney opened its first store East of the Mississippi. And in 1918 J C Penney opened a store in Owosso Michigan. This was only their second store in Michigan. By the end of 1918, there were 197 stores in the United States.

We know that Robert Ploger was the first manager of the store and stayed until he retired in 1950, serving the store 32 years.

The next manager, Elmer Fisk served until 1958 when Shirley St. Peters took over serving for 5 years.

Since 1963 until 1985, 8 more managers served the store.

In 2018 when the store celebrated its 100^th Anniversary in Owosso Robin Wackerly was at its helm as manager.

We learned this week that even though the store has always been profitable it was named as a store to be closed this year.

We know that the building J C Penney is in today at the corner of S. Washington St. and Comstock St was built for J C Penney in the mid-1980s.

Graham Sturgeon, co-editor of the Independent in Owosso wrote on January 8, 2018, “A local development/investment group led by Brent Mowinski, the owner of Mowinski Financial in Owosso, purchased the JCPenney building in Owosso on Oct. 18 from W.H. Partnership, which was formed by former Indian Trails Inc. CEO Bill Himburg and Owosso businessman Bill Howe in the mid-1980s. JCPenney was looking to expand in the Owosso area at the time, so Himburg and Howe formed W.H. Partnership and built the JCPenney building on the southeast corner of S. Washington and E. Comstock Streets.”

The story continues that since both Himburg and Howe had passed away that Indian Trails wanted to diverse itself from owning the property.

J C Penney released the information this week that they were going to be closed and out of the building by the end of September 2020.

I reached out to Brent Mowinski’s office asking what Mr. Mowinski’s plans were for the building. As of this time on Friday we have not received a response.

Now here is the mystery. We know that J C Penney had been located at 115 S. Washington St and had relocated 1 bock South to 201 S. Washington St. What we don’t know is if J C Penney also occupied another building in Owosso from 1918 to 1922 before moving into the building built for them at 115 S. Washington St.?

According to historical records including a story that Historian Helen Harrelson published in the book, “Souvenir of Owosso Michigan”, 1986. J C Penney opened their first store on W. Main St in 1918 in a building next to the Center Theater. She stated as other city records state that in 1922 the building on S. Washington was built and they moved into that building at that time.

Here is where the dilemma comes in. In 2018, J C Penney Manager Robin Wackerly told reporter Sally York of The Argus-Press that the store never was on Main St. but had moved into the new building built for them at 115 S. Washington St. on March 30, 1918.

Wackerly stated the store had only occupied two buildings in Owosso in its 100-year history.

The easiest way to solve the mystery is to check the Polk Directory of 1918 and see where the store was located. The problem is, the Owosso Library does not have the 1917, 18, 19, or 1920 Directory.

It does have the 1921 Directory that lists the address at 115 S. Washington St.

So, the Directory shows that the building was there in 1921, a year before it was supposed to have been built.

This is what we need to know to solve this mystery, who has a photo of the buildings next to the Center Theater, now a parking lot next to Gilberts Hardware in 1918 to 1922. Or who has the proof that the building at 115 S. Washington St was built in 1918 and not in 1922?

Some people may rationally ask, “Who Cares?”

Historians are OCD in that Historians want all historical records to be accurate. It is hard for most rational people to understand why a question like this would keep some Historians from being able to get a good night’s sleep. The reality is that until the historical records are corrected many Historians are just wired to be hyper-focused on the problem until it is solved.

So, there is a mystery, who has the proof to solve it?