Biography
He was born on April 13, 1852, in Rodman, New York, to John Hubbell Woolworth and Fanny McBrier. He had a brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth.
He attended a business college for two terms in Watertown, New York. In 1873 he worked as a stock boy in a general store. It was there that he got the idea for a 5 cent store. There was a table with items for just 5 cents that always sold what was on it.
On June 11, 1876, he married Jennie Creighton (1853–1924) and they had three daughters. One of them, Edna Woolworth (1883–1917), the mother of Barbara Hutton, later committed suicide.
He borrowed $300 and opened a five-cent store in Utica, New York, on February 22, 1879. It failed within weeks. His second store was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and it opened in April 1879. He expanded the concept to include merchandise priced at ten cents.
In 1911, the F. W. Woolworth Company was incorporated with 586 stores. In 1913, Woolworth built the Woolworth Building in New York City at a cost of $13.5 million in cash. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world, measuring 792 feet, or 241.4 meters.
He built Winfield Hall in Glen Cove, New York, on Long Island, in 1916. The grounds of the estate required 70 full-time gardeners and the 56 room mansion required dozens of servants. The home's decor included elements from Egyptology, Napoleon and spiritualism, pipe organ, and a planetarium.
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