Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company, known informally as Sibley's, was a Rochester, New York-based department store chain with stores located exclusively in the state of New York. Its flagship store, at 228 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, also housed its headquarters and featured an elegant executive dining room on the top floor.
, Alexander Lindsay, and John Curr were employees at the Hogg, Brown & Taylor dry-goods store in Boston. Wishing to go into business for themselves, they investigated potential sites and settled on the growing city of Rochester. Their first storefront, often called "the Boston store" by locals, opened in 1868. When the company opened a new 12-story, flagship store in the Granite Building, it was among the five largest department stores in the country at the time. In 1905, after the disastrous 1904 "Sibley fire" gutted the Granite Building and much of Rochester's dry goods district, Sibley's moved to its final location, the Sibley Building at the northeast corner of East Main Street and Clinton Avenue. By 1939, Sibley's was the largest department store between New York City and Chicago. In 1962, competitors B. Forman Co. and McCurdy's collaborated to construct Midtown Plaza, right across Main Street from Sibley's. Sibley's was connected to the new mall by an enclosed third-floor walkway, part of the Rochester Skyway system. The company was acquired by the Associated Dry Goods Corporation in 1957, which, in turn, was acquired by May Department Stores in 1986. The Sibley's name was merged into May Company's Kaufmann's name in 1990. Most of its suburban locations, after converting to Kaufmann's, became part of Macy's by 2006.
In 1991 the State University of New York's Monroe Community College, also known as MCC, opened its second campus at the Sibley Building. The downtown campus continued to operate here until the completion of a new downtown campus in 2017, which is now located at nearby Kodak Tower, the headquarters of the Kodak Company.
Today - Sibley Square
Now under a new name, , the iconic Sibley Building is undergoing a major overhaul, transforming the historic site into a combination of retail, commercial, and upscale residential units. The renovations seek to combine the historic treasure of this architectural space while also creating a sleek, modern atmosphere for today's standards.
Developer
The current project is being developed by , a Boston, Massachusetts-based award winning development firm. was founded in 1971 by Arthur Winn.
