The Crescent Department Store

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Founded in Spokane, Washington, on August 5, 1889, The Crescent began as Spokane Dry Goods, the venture of Robert B. Paterson and James M. Comstock. It opened the day after Spokane’s catastrophic Great Fire, when its stock reportedly sold out on the first day. Not exactly a soft launch.

The store adopted The Crescent as its familiar retail name and grew into a downtown institution. Its landmark seven-story Main Avenue store was completed in 1919, while later additions and connected buildings helped create a sprawling retail block. Spokane shoppers came for apparel, home goods, dining, fashion shows and the annual holiday ritual—department stores once understood spectacle.

The Crescent expanded beyond downtown with suburban Spokane locations and eventually stores in Washington and Oregon. Marshall Field & Company acquired the chain in 1962. When BATUS acquired Marshall Field in 1982, The Crescent entered another corporate orbit; BATUS sold The Crescent and Frederick & Nelson to local investors in 1986.

In 1988, The Crescent name was folded into Frederick & Nelson. The renamed operation ultimately entered bankruptcy, and its remaining stores closed in 1992. The old downtown Crescent complex survives as a stubbornly handsome reminder that shopping used to require several floors and a plan.

Our The Crescent Department Store collection celebrates Spokane’s grand hometown emporium: fire-born, fashion-forward, holiday-lit and ultimately swallowed by the retail cosmos.