J. W. Robinson Co., Robinson's, was a chain of department stores operating in the Southern California and Arizona area, previously with headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Through the middle of the 20th century It was a division of Associated Dry Goods family of stores. The original store was located downtown Los Angeles on West Seventh Street. The second Robinson's store was opened in Beverly Hills in 1952 on Wilshire Boulevard at Santa Monica Boulevard, next to the Beverly Hilton Hotel . A small Mid-Century modern style "open in winter only" store followed in Palm Springs. A store on... Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena followed. The store in Pasadena was the last free standing store as the concept of the shopping mall began to take off. The first stores adjacent or connected to shopping malls opened in Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley , Anaheim, on upper State Street in Santa Barbara , and Glendale. By the time J.W. Robinson's was dissolved into Robinson's-May there were almost 30 stores spread all across Southern California from San Diego to Palm Desert to Santa Barbara.
more