Malled to Death : Changing Times Doom Old-Fashioned Liebergs Store

You name it, Bill Hutton sold it during his four decades at Liebergs Department Store in Alhambra.

“Daniel Green” slippers were the rage for Christmas, 1950, the year Hutton, now 78, started as a shoe salesman. Then came Levi’s blue jeans, which went for $3.45 a pair.

When muumuus were trendy, Liebergs carried them. And, of course, there were alligator shoes.

“Hilo Hattie bought a pair of alligator pumps,” Hutton chuckled, remembering the ‘50s, when the Hawaiian singer and dancer would shop on Alhambra’s Main Street. “I never could figure out how to get her feet into a Size 7. They were so wide.”

Nowadays, Hutton said, the same people who bought penny loafers and poodle skirts in the old days are bringing their children and grandchildren to Liebergs. But sometimes, instead of greeting them with a smile, Hutton said, he hands them a handkerchief to wipe the tears away.

After all these years, Liebergs Department Store is quietly passing into oblivion, marking its final months with heavily discounted sales racks and dwindling stocks of merchandise. It will close its doors for good in the spring.

The 65-year-old store, the last of four Liebergs branches, will be edged out by a modern, Mediterranean-style commercial strip that city officials hope will lure back shoppers who, over the years, deserted Main Street for shiny new malls.

Members of the Lieberg family, who still run the department store and a nearby Hallmark card store, say they hope to open a women’s clothing store in the new shopping center, but it would be only one-sixth the size of the existing building.

The city’s Redevelopment Agency is contributing $8.5 million to help the developer, Dicker Warmington Properties in Fullerton, acquire land and clear the site, 6.25 acres of commercial land on the north side of Main Street between Almansor Street and Chapel Avenue.

The city has agreed to pay the Liebergs an undisclosed sum for their property and relocation costs. Family members said, however, that they are uncertain they can afford to rent any space in the new center, which is scheduled to open in about two years.

But one thing is certain: The passing of Liebergs marks the end of an era for shoppers at what was once one of the West San Gabriel Valley’s most prominent business establishments.

“It used to be the best store in the area,” said Alhambra resident Helen Wysong, 88, an honorary board member of the Chamber of Commerce and friend of the Lieberg family. “They had quality merchandise, good service, friendly employees. People came from all the surrounding towns.”

The Liebergs chain--which at its peak included stores in Pasadena and Temple City, a clothing shop for young adults in Alhambra called the Round Corner, and the Hallmark shop--began humbly as a dry-goods store.

But time, and the advent of the regional shopping mall and its “everything under one roof” concept, crippled businesses on Main Street. One by one, such popular retailers as Butler Brothers and JC Penney shut down, leaving empty storefronts in downtown Alhambra. Meanwhile, Liebergs in Temple City began to lose money as rising property values drove up taxes on Las Tunas Drive. The family closed that branch in 1989.

But Alhambra’s Liebergs, housed in a modest three-story building with a distinctive stone facade, stayed put at the corner of Main and Chapel Avenue. While newer chain department stores added lights, raised ceilings and tore down old signs to keep pace with changing architectural trends, Liebergs’ Alhambra building stayed pretty much the same, Leland Lieberg said, except for planters that were added near the front entrance.

While Liebergs’ women’s department has remained popular, all of the other departments have lost money over the last 10 years, said Leland Lieberg, 28, great-grandson of founder Peter Lieberg. And as business declined, the family’s interest waned.

Although many relatives hold stock in the company, the only family members who are still active in the business are Leland, his sister, Krista Lieberg Wong, and his cousin Bill.

“The father’s gone; the boys are doing other things,” said Wysong of the Chamber of Commerce. “Lee and Bill are the only ones in the store. The other boys in the meantime have taken up other careers and other things. They’re not interested in keeping the store.”

Now, butcher-paper signs advertising a liquidation sale and 33% to 60% discounts hang in the display windows facing Main Street. Plastic wrapping covers the mannequins, and cardboard boxes are strewn about.

Loyal employees ring up bargain merchandise and prepare to say goodby to the customers they greeted for so long as old friends.