Historical Highway Markers

Miller & Rhoads

SA-119

Pennsylvanians Linton Miller, Webster Rhoads, and Simon Gerhart opened a dry goods shop several blocks west of here in 1885. Later known as Miller & Rhoads, the business moved here in 1888, became an upscale department store, and ultimately expanded to nearly half a million square feet of floor space. Miller & Rhoads, along with its friendly rival Thalhimers, anchored Richmond's retail district and drew shoppers from across the region. After African Americans picketed and boycotted downtown stores, Miller & Rhoads fully desegregated by 1961. The company opened more than 20 stores in Virginia and North Carolina before closing in 1990. This building reopened as a mixed-use facility in 2009.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Webster S. Rhoads, Jr., Miller & Rhoads: Seventy-five Years of Growth (The Newcomen Society in North America, 1960). Fifty Years of Progressive Merchandising (Richmond: Miller & Rhoads, 1935). Earle Dunford and George Bryson, Under the Clock: The Story of Miller & Rhoads (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008). http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/11/miller-rhoads-richmond-virginia.html Kristin Terbush Thrower, “The Miller & Rhoads Department Store: A Social History of a Richmond Institution,” (MA Thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1999). Elizabeth Thalhimer Smart, “Thalhimers Department Store: Story, History, and Theory,” (MA Thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2005). Richmond Dispatch, 11 Oct. 1885, 9, 14 Feb., 9 March 1890, 21 Apr. 1922. Richmond Daily Times, 14, 25 Oct. 1888. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 27 Apr. 1917, 23 Apr., 26 Nov. 1922, 14 Oct., 15 Dec. 1923, 17 May, 26 June 1928, 17 Feb. 1935, 25 March 1953, 31 Jan., 23 Feb., 1 Sept. 1960, 4 July 1965, 27 Oct. 1966, 12 Jan. 1975, 6 Jan. 1990, 7 July 1991. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 16 Apr. 1960. Manufacturers Record, 27 Apr. 1922. Jet, 13 March 1980. New York Times, 13 Dec. 1989.