This collection documents the activities of the Walker Scott Department Store Company, run by George A. Scott. The records date from 1915-1993, with the bulk of the documents created in the 1960s during the company’s expansion to other branch stores. The series are Management Files, Minutes, Newsletters, News Clippings, Photographs and Artifacts. The Management Files are further divided into Business files and Civic files. The Minutes include records of company meetings. The Newsletters include various company publications. The News Clippings include articles from local newspapers. The Photographs include pictures from formal events. The Artifacts include various audiovisual materials, attire, scrapbooks and portraits.

The Walker Scott Department Store was founded in downtown San Diego in 1935. The store's original owner, Ralf M. Walker, who already owned and ran Walker's Department Store in Los Angeles, passed away in New York six weeks before the San Diego store's opening. A former stock boy at the Los Angeles store, George A Scott, whom Mr. Walker had sent to the New York University of Retailing (1930) opened the San Diego store with Mr. Walker's widow, Eliza Fitzgerald Walker. Eliza Walker became president of the company while Scott held the title of vice president. Walker’s Downtown store opened on October 3, 1935, situated on 5th and Broadway. It eventually expanded to eight stories, and held San Diego County’s first escalators.

16.61 linear ft

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