Crews-Beggs Department Store window, SE corner 4th & Main—ca 1912

Crews-Beggs opened in Pueblo in 1888 in the basement of the Fifth Avenue Hotel at Fifth & Santa Fe. It was incorporated January 2, 1894, and in August 1895 moved to the Rettberg Building at 4th & Santa Fe and later to 2nd & Main. The location at 4th & Main was acquired and in 1897 the Guggenheims, pioneer Pueblo builders, erected a two-story building for Crews-Beggs. After a fire in 1901, it was rebuilt and enlarged to four stories.

During the next half century, Crews-Beggs became well-known throughout southern Colorado for its quality and quantity of merchandise and excellent service to its customers, including a huge mail order business. Beautifully dressed display windows and fashion shows were normal procedure. Many remember Christmas trees on the corner of the building extending from the sidewalk to the top floor during the holidays.

Eventually, after the deaths of the co-founders, the store passed into other hands. In April 1956, Jess Kortz of Denver acquired the business. The following month the assets were purchased by the Mercantile Stores of New York. The name remained as Crews-Beggs Store Inc., one of 55 stores owned by Mercantile. On March 1, 1971, it was renamed Joslins. In 1976, Joslins moved to the Pueblo Mall. In July 1982, the building at 4th & Main was demolished. Where the anchor of the busiest corner in Pueblo had been located is now a parking lot.

(Additional information may be found in the February 1994 Pueblo Lore, “Crews-Beggs Department Store—The Way it Used to Be” by Lorraine Engelbrecht, PCHS member and daughter of a former manager of the store.)

—Photo from PCHS collection