The first JC Penney Store in the Antelope Valley

During the late 19th century, long before shopping malls or online giants like Amazon existed, Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck Company implemented mail order catalogs from which one could purchase a variety of items from clothing, kitchen items to build-it-yourself home kits (there are still a few of these bungalows in the AV).

These catalogs became “wish books” for the entire family. Another store giant, JC Penney, did not venture into the catalog business until quite late — 1963. However, JC Penney was much more important for the old Antelope Valley, as this company constructed the first national department store here.

In 1902, with only $500, James Cash “JC” Penney opened his first store in the frontier town of Kemmerer, Wyo., which had a population of 1,000. He named it “The Golden Rule,” which set the standard for his operations — to treat others as we would like to be treated.

New Penney stores started to appear in the country and in 1929, it was announced that Lancaster, which had a population of about 1,550 residents, would soon be the site of a Penney’s store—the Valley’s first national chain department store.

Valley Realty Company will erect a tiled building measuring 50x100 feet at the southwest corner of Tenth Street [Lancaster Blvd] and Beech Avenue, to be occupied under lease by the JC Penney Company and the Sprouse-Reitz Company, both with many other stores in California. It will cost about $21,000 to build. Fuller has hired about 20 valley men to work on it. The new building will be ready for occupancy sometime in the latter part of June or early in July. Los Angeles Times (October 20,1929).

Although it was the Depression Era, nevertheless the community was ready for new businesses operating in contemporary structures. To keep up with these revitalization efforts, older buildings were demolished and existing structures such as the Bank of Italy also on the south side of Lancaster Boulevard (this building also still exists) were modernized.

This JC Penney store was partially responsible for downtown Lancaster’s physical alterations. To pave the way for the proposed Penney department store, the offices of Drs. Gaskill, Tannen and Cunningham were relocated from their old location several doors west to make way for the store.

Described as “a new, modernly equipped store,” Penney’s opened in March.