For anyone over the age of 30 who grew up in Seattle, the holiday season evokes memories of Frederick & Nelson (F&N): taking photos with Santa in a store window (the first store in the country to do so), the train that could only be activated by pressing your hand on the window pane, Freddy the Doorman, Frango mints.
Just in time for this year's holiday season, the department store synonymous with Christmas is spotlighted in Ann Wendell's book bearing the store's name.
UNPARALLELED CUSTOMER SERVICE
Stories abound of F&N's generosity. How the store would deliver even the smallest spool of thread to one's home.
How the store re-created photos of a trip to Ireland after a customer's roll of film was lost in the mail.
How it took in a return of frayed shirts 25 years after they were purchased.
How employees sorted through thousands of sales slips to duplicate every order that was ruined on a boat trip to Alaska during a mid-December snowstorm and delivered the items in time for Christmas.
How they found copies of Santa photos for a woman who lost 28 years' worth of photos in a house fire.
Such customer service endeared the store to its customers, who walked out its doors with a lifetime of fond memories. Many celebrated milestones in the store's Tea Room, Men's Grill and Paul Bunyan Room and on the sales floor, where many couples bought their wedding attire, registered for gifts, booked their travel and took their photos.
Through the years, F&N owners also helped with the war-bond effort and helped to found the Downtown Seattle Association, Seafair and the Seattle Symphony.
"It was very much so the center of civic activity," Wendell said.
A 'GUARDIAN OF MEMORIES'
The idea for the book came from Wendell's longtime friend Julie Pheasant-Albright, the former editor of Arcadia Publishing's Northwest Division.
"The Early Ballard" author recalled, "Everybody I know in Seattle has a story about Frederick & Nelson, especially about Christmas. I knew it would be a great book. I forced [Wendell] to write it. I even wrote the proposal for her."
Wendell, who published "Seattle's Ravenna Neighborhood" last year as part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series, spent a year compiling the more than 200 photos and anecdotes for the book.
She perused the numerous boxes in her basement of her father's mementos of his 35 years working at F&N, and she scrutinized the 47 boxes at the Museum of History & Industry, the recipient of all of F&N's displays, fixtures and other items after the store closed. This included the 3,500 letters F&N received during a 1986 ad campaign
Photos also came from the city's archives.
"I tried to pick things I thought most people would relate to - they were specific yet had general appeal," Wendell explained.
She estimates she ultimately provided about 70 percent of the photos from her father's collection.
"It's a big responsibility to be a guardian of Frederick & Nelson memories," she said.
OWING TO HISTORY
Wendell and Julie Pheasant-Albright skipped work to attend the store's closing auction in 1992. They wandered through the deserted store and burst into tears when they walked into F&N's day care, where they spent many hours playing in the sandbox while their mothers shopped.
Pheasant-Albright said she still has a quarter-tin left of Frango mint cocoa, which she uses only sparingly at Christmastime. She said she has spent 20 years looking for a Christmas ornament featuring Freddy the Doorman, as well as a Freddy the Doorman doorstop.
"I'd give my left pinky for it," she said of the ornament.
Wendell has such a bond with F&N that she recently headed to the downtown Nordstrom store, the former F&N flagship, after being laid-off from work. She headed straight to the first-floor ladies lounge, where she usually went when she was upset during her adolescence.
Pheasant-Albright said of the building, "The saddest thing I ever saw was that Nordstrom had remodeled the first floor. They sold the brass railings. It's lost a great deal of elegance."
"Nordstrom has not acknowledged the depth of what they owe to Frederick & Nelson," Wendell added.
A STORY TO TELL
Though Wendell is doing her own marketing for "Frederick & Nelson," she and Pheasant-Albright are optimistic the book will sell as well as Clark Humphrey's "Vanishing Seattle" (also through Arcadia Publishing), which has sold 20,000 copies so far.
"People are still fascinated by it, and people miss it desperately," Pheasant-Albright said. "There's an emotional connection with the store that they don't have with others. It's an institution."
Wendell is targeting the thousands of other Frederick & Nelson "brats" who considered the store their second home while growing up, as well as antique stores, tea rooms and former customers who now live in retirement communities.
"I can't get out of a room without someone sharing a memory [of F&N]," she said of her speaking engagements promoting the book.
Since there are so many F&N stories still out there, Wendell is soliciting them through her website (www.annwendellbooks.com) and posting them on her blog so that they "can still be immortal," she said.
"If you ever want to start a conversation in Seattle, mention Frederick & Nelson. I guarantee everyone has a story," Pheasant-Albright said.
Wendell is planning possible reading events at Fremont Books, Ballard's Epilogue Books and the Museum of History & Industry.
The Ravenna author also is working on a comedy about friendship, death and cancer, tentatively titled "State of Grace." There's even a mention of Frango mints in the novel.
Editor Vera M. Chan-Pool can be reached at 461-1346 or needitor@nwlink.com.
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Article comment by:
Brian Doyle
I spent my young years in Seattle, with many fond memories of FN. Often times, Mom would take us kids to get our school clothes, etc there! Most of all, I miss the 8th floor with all the scrumptious food! My favorite was the Frango Mint Chocolate Cake! How I would just die for a nice large piece with a tall glass of milk!! I would love to have that recipe! I would come home from school and would notice the yellow paper cartons in the reefer, with salads in them... This was usually a pretty good indicator that company would be coming for supper! Somebody, please buy out Nordstroms, and take the building back, and reopen FN! I have absolutely no desire to go there now...i would be depressed to see it now...just keep those fond memories in my heart!
