John A. Brown

History

The department store had its start in 1915, when the Rorabaugh Company acquired Brock's Dry Goods in Oklahoma City, and changed its name to Rorabaugh-Brown Dry Goods Co. when John Albert Brown bought the business from his cousin and partner, A. O. Rorabaugh in 1932 and named the store after himself.

After founder and owner, John A. Brown, died in 1940, his widow, Della Dunkin Brown, took over as CEO. She died in 1967, and ownership of the company passed to a trust. By that time, retail competition had greatly intensified, and was moving from large downtown stores to smaller stores in suburban shopping malls. The John A. Brown company was acquired by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation) in 1971, and continued to operate under the John A. Brown name. The downtown store closed and was demolished in 1977. The chain was acquired by Dillard's in 1984. The six Brown stores were quickly renamed as Dillard's.

The store's original location was in downtown Oklahoma City, and opened in the 1930s. Its location was bounded by Harvey and Robinson on the west and east, and Park and Main on the north and south.

A book about Brown's, and the other main downtown Oklahoma City department stores, Kerr's and Halliburton's, was released in 2016 under the title "John A. Brown's, Kerr's, and Halliburton's: Where Oklahoma City Loved to Shop." The book was written by local historians Ajax Delvecki and Larry Johnson.

The company also operated many other stores throughout Oklahoma. These include locations that are either stand alone or in outdoor shopping centers, such as one at Campus Corner in Norman and one in Oklahoma City's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The chain opened stores in enclosed shopping malls in its later years, including Quail Springs Mall 1980-1985 (later became a Sanger Harris 1986-1987. Foley's 1987-2006, Macy's 2006-2016, demolished 2017, replaced by a free standing Life Time Fitness in 2018), Penn Square Mall 1960-1984 (still operating but as Dillard's Women and Children's store, in 1988 the store building was heavily remodeled inside and out with a brand-new interior-exterior installed), and Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City 1974-1985 (the Crossroads Mall location replaced the original Downtown Oklahoma City location in 1974, it later became a Sanger Harris 1986-1987. Foley's 1987-2006, Macy's 2006-2008, was used as a warehouse for several years, now operating as a local area charter school), as well as Woodland Hills Mall (now operating as JCPenney since 1985), Utica Square (converted to Dillard's 1984-2001, current use or tenant unknown) and Promenade Mall in Tulsa (still operating but as Dillard's Clearance Center store).