Fred Meyer's 'Mistake' Earning Acclaim

Jan. 29, 2024
By: Fred Leeson

Alderway Building

The economy was booming in 1927 when a Portland entrepreneur with a background in selling groceries undertook his real desire at the time: property development.

Fred G. Meyer assumed the 99-year lease on the Pantages Theater at the corner of SW Broadway and Alder Street.  He used the steel structure of the former 1400-seat vaudeville theater to build a four story building with ground floor retail – still a somewhat novel idea for SW Broadway as Portland’s retail core was shifting westward from Third and Fourth Avenues.

Today the Alderway Building is Portland’s latest nomination to be considered for the National Register of Historic Places.  Completed in 1928, its upper stories with large Chicago-style windows, metal spandrels and brick pilasters are substanti8ally unchanged.  The nomination form finds the building notable for its architecture and for its history in the evolution of downtown retailing.

Alas, the timing wasn’t good for Fred Meyer.  The building had been completed for hardy one year when the Great Depression heavily crippled the national economy for more than a decade.  One of the Alderway’s successful ground floor tenants, however, was Fred Meyer Toiletries and Remedies, an early venture into self-service sales of nostrums and cosmetics. 

(National Register Nomination Form)

Meyer eventually convinced druggists to join his stores as prescription-selling pharmacies, which became a key ingredient in Meyer’s slowly evolving concept of one-stop shopping. His tenure at the Alderway Building also included a dry-cleaning and laundry outlet, from which he began selling men’s underwear – and got him interest in the apparel business.

Meyer was asked once when he first thought of the one-stop shopping concept.  His answer: Never – he was taking advantage of opportunities as he came across them.

With his growing success as a regional merchandising giant, Meyer seldom mentioned his failures.  His mindset was always looking ahead.  At some point in the Depression, he gave up control of the Alderway lease and once said he lost $50,000 – likely his largest business “mistake” in his long career.  The episode terminated his interest in property development for its own sake.  All his “development” thereafter was building Fred Meyer stores.

Architects for the Alderway Building were Claussen & Claussen, two brothers who operated successfully in Portland for many years.  During the Depression the Claussens renovated a few buildings that Meyer purchased and converted to Fred Meyer stores before his big Post World War II boom. 

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Fred Leeson is a former president of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation and a member of the foundation's Board of Advisors.