User:Rsgoodlawster/sandbox

Goodman Department Store - Was Pictou County's first Department store located in, New Glasgow, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. It operated 34 departments between 1904 and 1985. Goodmans as it was known was founded by European Brothers Harry and Sol Goodman and Harry's in-laws Vinebergs of Quebec. Funding capital came from the proceeds of fur and fish trading and the transfer of inventory from three small Quebéc stores established earlier.

Located in downtown New Glasgow the original store was known as Vineberg, Goodman & Co and by 1931 had expanded to three buildings from its Provost Street location incorporating the original Itiz Movie Theatre.The buildings were connected by a tunnel constructed in 1917 underneath the mainline railway running across Nova Scotia. The Tunnel was built to connect the box office of the theatre on Provost St with the theatre itself.Goodman's lined the tunnel with lighted promotional display windows.Department store Branches were established in Truro, Nova Scotia 1929 and in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 1932. By 1931 Harry and Sol Goodman took over the Nova Scotia operation leaving the Vinebergs to continue with a retail business which by that time operated stores in Montréal and Ottawa under the name Larocque. . Goodmans established a mail order business serving Eastern Canada and supported by a large stock room on the second floor of the former theatre building. Sol and Harry Goodman divided their business in 1946, and thereafter Goodmans operated under the direction of Harry and then his four sons: Hyman, Waldo, Bernie, and Dr. Nordau Goodman until its closure in 1985 except as interrupted by wartime service .The third floor of the building operated as a public auditorium. During the second world war Goodman Auditorium as it was called served as an Armoury and drill hall.“Goodmans” occupied a physically central location in the downtown area of New Glasgow providing a public bus stop for the community,, .In 1988 the New Glasgow structures were re-purposed into a shopping centre by Antigonish entrepreneur Brian MacLeod and lawyers Richard Goodman Q.C., and Gregory MacDonald Q.C. whose firm became occupants on the second floor. The buildings, now called Goodman Place, have passed out of the ownership the Goodman family.The Goodman Rotary Park on the west side of the East River of New Glasgow offers a viewpoint of this former Department Store.”