For a brief period during the 1970s, Northern California became the testing ground for one of the most ambitious retail expansions in the West.
The company behind it was not Macy's, Emporium-Capwell, or another established California retailer. It was Amfac, a Hawaiian conglomerate whose businesses ranged from sugar plantations and agriculture to tourism, real estate, and retail.
Its department store division was Liberty House.
Over little more than a decade, Amfac acquired existing department store chains, converted older stores, constructed dramatic suburban anchors, and attempted to establish Liberty House as a major Northern California retailer.
The effort produced memorable stores, distinctive architecture, and loyal customers.
It also failed.
A Hawaiian retailer comes to the mainland
Liberty House traced its origins to Honolulu in 1849. By the mid-twentieth century, the company had become Hawaii's dominant department store and one of the best-known businesses in the islands.
Its parent company, Amfac, had evolved into one of Hawaii's largest corporations. As the company diversified during the 1960s, executives increasingly looked to the mainland for growth opportunities.
Northern California appeared particularly attractive. The region was growing rapidly, suburban shopping centers were expanding, and several established department store chains were available for acquisition.
Amfac entered mainland retailing in 1969 with the purchase of Rhodes Western Department Stores, itself a company that had spent decades consolidating smaller regional chains. The company also acquired Joseph Magnin and the City of Paris stores, assembling an increasingly complex collection of retail businesses.
Rather than expanding slowly, Amfac attempted to build a Northern California department store system almost overnight.
An assembled chain
Unlike Emporium-Capwell or Macy's California, Liberty House did not grow gradually within Northern California.
Many locations began as Rhodes stores.
Others had previously operated as City of Paris locations.
Some occupied downtown buildings that served long-established customers.
Others were entirely new stores built for emerging suburban malls.
As a result, Northern California shoppers encountered very different versions of Liberty House.
A customer entering the former City of Paris store in San Francisco experienced a different store than a shopper visiting a converted Rhodes in Dublin or Concord. The purpose-built suburban stores at Eastridge, Southland, Sunrise, and San Mateo represented yet another version of the company.
Liberty House was less a traditional department store chain than a collection of acquisitions and new construction assembled under a single name.
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| Liberty House invested heavily in San Francisco, replacing much of the historic City of Paris store with a modern store at Union Square. |
The suburban experiment
The company's most memorable stores were its new suburban locations.
Beginning with Eastridge in San Jose in 1971, Liberty House built dramatic stores that emphasized architecture and experience. Several were designed by Avner Naggar and featured soaring atriums, glass elevators, restaurants, and expansive interior spaces.
The Eucalyptus Room and the Anxious Grape encouraged shoppers to stay for lunch. Fashion shows, restaurants, and specialty departments transformed shopping into an afternoon activity.
The stores were visually distinctive.
Glass elevators carried mannequins between floors.
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| Liberty House's glass elevators at Eastridge Mall carried mannequins between floors, becoming one of the chain's most memorable features. Photo: San Francisco Chronicle, August 12, 1971. |
Restaurants overlooked the sales floor.
Open atriums created a sense of space unusual for department stores of the period.
For many shoppers, these features became the chain's defining memories.
Yet the stores also raised a larger question.
What exactly was Liberty House?
An uncertain identity
Liberty House entered one of the most competitive department store markets in the country.
Northern California already supported established regional chains such as Emporium-Capwell and Weinstock's, national retailers including Macy's, and specialty stores such as Joseph Magnin and I. Magnin.
At the same moment Liberty House arrived, Bullock's entered Northern California from Southern California with similarly ambitious plans.
Bullock's brought a clear fashion identity and a reputation for contemporary merchandising.
Liberty House brought Hawaii.
The association with Hawaii was appealing, but difficult to translate into a mainland department store strategy. Customers may have expected resort wear, island merchandise, or a distinctive Hawaiian approach to fashion.
Instead, they encountered a conventional department store selling much the same merchandise found elsewhere.
Perhaps the company's strongest identity in Hawaii became one of its greatest challenges on the mainland. Hawaii suggested island living and vacation culture, but not necessarily fashion leadership. While Bullock's sold a distinctly Southern California image, Liberty House struggled to translate its Hawaiian roots into a compelling Northern California retail identity.
The timing problem
The difficulties appeared early.
Eastridge, the company's first Bay Area store and one of its architectural showpieces, failed to achieve profitability and closed in 1978. The closure was particularly significant because Eastridge had served as Liberty House's introduction to Northern California shoppers
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| 1978 newspaper photo of the Liberty House sign on the Eastridge building, marking the store’s closure after years as an under-performing department store. |
Yet even as some locations struggled, Amfac continued investing.
New stores opened in Santa Rosa in 1980 and San Mateo Fashion Island in 1981. The San Francisco flagship had only recently been completed. The company was still building expensive new stores years after some earlier locations had begun underperforming.
Industry observers later argued that Amfac may not have remained committed long enough to establish a loyal customer base.
Department stores traditionally required decades to develop regional identities and customer relationships. Liberty House attempted to accomplish this in little more than a decade.
By 1983, however, Amfac decided to leave Northern California.
Most stores closed or were sold by 1984.
The last store
Ironically, Liberty House and Bullock's followed remarkably similar paths.
Both entered Northern California during the early 1970s.
Both built impressive suburban stores.
Both struggled against established competitors.
Both withdrew during the early 1980s.
And both maintained a single surviving Northern California location at San Mateo Fashion Island.
There, the two outsiders faced one another across the same mall long after their other stores had disappeared.
The Liberty House store finally closed on April 12, 1987.
Legacy of Liberty House
Today, most Liberty House buildings have been remodeled, demolished, or repurposed. Some became Macy's stores. Others became offices, discount retailers, or entirely new developments.
Yet the chain survives surprisingly well in memory.
People remember the Anxious Grape.
They remember the glass elevators.
They remember the restaurants.
For me, it was the Snoopy Shop in the Dublin store.
That small department was insignificant to Amfac's ambitions and irrelevant to the company's corporate strategy. Yet it survives more vividly than sales figures, acquisitions, or annual reports.
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| The Snoopy Shop introduced many young shoppers to Liberty House through Peanuts merchandise, toys, and clothing. |
Perhaps that is the final irony of Liberty House.
Amfac attempted to build a mainland department store empire through acquisitions, architecture, and ambitious expansion.
The mainland empire never fully took hold.
But the stores themselves — and the memories they created — proved more durable than the business that built them.
Comments
I've been researching exact dates. Harder than I thought!
The City of Paris Stonestown opening and closing dates are sketchy. I'll keep looking!
Scott