Jenss

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Jenss began in 1887, when German immigrant brothers Frank A. and William Jenss established a dry-goods business in Lockport, New York. After operating several Lockport stores, the brothers consolidated the operation and moved it to 1708 Main Street in Niagara Falls in 1916. That building became the company’s longtime home and a Main Street landmark.

The store sold the department-store essentials: apparel, accessories, gifts, and fine jewelry, with the sort of customer loyalty that made a local retailer feel less like a chain and more like a family ritual with better wrapping paper. Frank Jenss also helped shape Niagara Falls civic life, serving as mayor from 1932 to 1935.

Harold Dautch bought the company in 1951 and retained the Jenss name. Under Dautch, Jenss grew into a Western New York chain, including a flagship at Amherst’s Boulevard Mall when it opened in 1962, plus locations at Eastern Hills Mall, Summit Park Mall, downtown Tonawanda, and Niagara Falls.

The original Niagara Falls store closed in 1995 amid the hard slide of Main Street retail. Jenss then closed its remaining department stores on September 15, 2000. In 2002, the Dautch family shifted the Jenss retail presence to stores operated exclusively with Reeds Jewelers.

Our Jenss collection celebrates the polished, hometown department-store era: mall anchors, downtown window displays, gift boxes, and the stubbornly stylish ghost sign still watching Main Street.