Lost Department Stores of Denver by Mark A. Barnhouse

Author:Mark A. Barnhouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2018-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

A.T. LEWIS & SON

Colorado’s Home Store

Life still is a joyful experience for Lewis because he has not lost his love for his work. To him the dry goods business is the greatest adventure in the world. It still finds him as enthusiastic as was young Dennie Lewis who wouldn’t let the boss talk him out of a job.

—Rocky Mountain News, 1931156

HE KNEW WHAT HE WANTED

The shortest-lived of Denver’s great stores, A.T. Lewis & Son is not well remembered today, but in its time it ranked with Gano-Downs and Neusteter’s as one of the city’s most exclusive. A mild-mannered yet keenly ambitious, blond-haired and blue-eyed Illinois native, Aaron Dennison Lewis, “Dennie” to his close friends and family members, knew at an early age that he wanted a career in dry goods. Born in 1865 to Aaron Thompson Lewis and Amy Josephine (Russell) Lewis, young Aaron arrived in Denver in 1879 with his parents. His mother’s family had been present in North America since 1620, her ancestor Edward Doty having been a Mayflower passenger. His father traced his ancestry to a 1732 Welsh migrant to New Jersey, Samuel Lewis. Aaron Dennison Lewis was always proud of his roots and close to his family.157

Having graduated from Denver schools, one day in 1883 Lewis paid a visit to a former classmate employed at Daniels and Fisher. As Lewis later recounted, as he looked around at the rich array of merchandise, he discovered in a flash what he wanted to do. His friend told him how to find William Bradley Daniels’s office, and after being admitted, he approached the merchant prince and said, “Mr. Daniels, I’d like to get a job here.” Daniels, paying him little attention, responded, “I don’t want a boy.” Lewis persisted, and growing annoyed, Daniels reiterated, “I tell you I don’t want a boy.” Finally seeing that Lewis would not be dissuaded, Daniels told him, “All right, go to work. But I won’t pay you anything.” Still living with his well-off parents, Lewis didn’t mind the money, so eager was he to learn the trade, and was undoubtedly surprised when after three months the amused Daniels called him into his office and paid him his accumulated wages. Lewis laughed when he told an interviewer, “It wasn’t a very big salary, but it looked big to me, especially when I thought I was working during all those weeks just for the experience.” He remained at Daniels and Fisher for five years.158

The next chapter in Lewis’s life began in 1888, when he and a friend, Dave Curtis (possibly his friend from Daniels and Fisher, but this is unknown), decided to venture, for fun, to the gold mining town of Breckenridge in Summit County. They arrived on horseback and stopped on Main Street in front of a two-story mercantile. A man Lewis later described as a “grizzled mountaineer,” chewing tobacco, sat in front, and he struck up a conversation with the men. He owned the store but wanted a change, and he offered to sell it to them.

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