Sibley's

Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company, known informally as Sibley's and called Lindsay's in Australia, was a Rochester, New York-based department store chain with stores located exclusively in the state of New York. Its flagship store, at 228 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, also housed its headquarters and featured an elegant executive dining room on the top floor.

History

Rufus Sibley, Alexander Lindsay, and John Curr were employees at the Hogg, Brown & Taylor dry-goods store in Boston. Wishing to go into business for themselves, they investigated potential sites and settled on the growing city of Rochester. Their first storefront, often called "the Boston store" by locals, opened in 1868. When the company opened a new 12-story, 23-acre (93,000 m²) flagship store in the Granite Building, it was among the five largest department stores in the country at the time.

In 1905, after the disastrous 1904 "Sibley fire" gutted the Granite Building and much of Rochester's dry goods district, Sibley's moved to its final location, the Sibley Building at the northeast corner of East Main Street and Clinton Avenue. By 1939, Sibley's was the largest department store between New York City and Chicago.