Description
This collection includes the Smith & Lang Co.'s by-laws, a minute
book (1910-1947), a general ledger (1910-1929), stock book (1910-1943), bank
statements and checks (1945-1946), and other financial documents
(1922-1946).
Background
Smith & Lang was Stockton, California's oldest department store,
established in 1899 by Alfred B. Lang and John H. Smith. Alfred B. Lang
(b.1874), a founding partner, first worked at the Alexander Chalmers Dry Goods
Store where he met another clerk, John H. Smith, with whom he opened a store at
124 E. Main. The company was incorporated in 1910 and six years later John
Smith died leaving Alfred Lang President for over thiry-five years. The
partners took over the Hale Brothers building at Main and San Joaquin Street
(1915) and, in 1939, expanded this structure by an additional 7,700 feet. In
July 1945 Smith & Lang was sold to J. Wesley Hearne, a veteran buyer and
merchandise manager in California and New York, and Alfred Lang retired, but
Walter Sampson continued as manager and the name "Smith and Lang" was retained
by the new owner. In February 1946 C. M. Dicker of Redding bought J W Hearne's
interest in Smith & Lang and Dicker became the general manager. By 1950 the
company employed 125. On July 22, 1958 Smith & Lang burned to the ground in
a fire called the "worst national mercantile fire of 1958." Insurance claims
totalled $3,000,000. Plans were soon made to rebuild the store and, on August
25, 1959, it reopened in a building designed by Welton, Beckett and Associates
of Los Angeles. In February 1963 Weinstock-Lubin purchased Smith & Lang and
the company ceased business.