Building 19

Jerry Ellis (born Gerald Elovitz) founded the original store in 1964 with Harry Andler, when the two joined to sell a stock of appliances. In 1979, retailers Building #19 and Bloomingdales both appeared as contrasting locations in the film Starting Over. In the 1980s, the original Building #19 moved to the former GEM (Government Employee Merchandise) building on Derby Street in Hingham, Massachusetts. Later, Building #19 1/8 opened in the old Stuart's store in the Harborlight Mall on Rt 3A in Weymouth, Massachusetts; still later that store was closed to build a Lowe's Store. The main store Building #19 moved from Derby Street in Hingham and was situated in Weymouth at the old Caldor/Zayre's/Ames building on Massachusetts Route 18. In 2002, Building #19 bought out the independent discount store Spag's in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and renamed the acquisition "Spag's 19". The store format and configuration were changed after the purchase, to more closely resemble the other Building #19 operations. However, the store was closed in May 2013. Several years after the chain shut, formerly competing Ollie's Bargain Outlet opened a store in Worcester, Massachusetts which is branded as "Ollie's Bargain Outlet @ Building #19." It is an actual former Building #19 location and is intended to pay homage to the now-defunct chain. Additionally, the Plymouth, MA store has the same branding as the Worcester location, even though the location is in a former Kmart store. The assets of Building #19 were acquired by Ollie's. As of June 2022, nearly all Building #19 locations have been demolished or redeveloped into supermarkets, storage facilities, or other discount stores. The Pawtucket location and its signage still stands. The signage in Haverhill, featuring cartoon figures from locally inspired Archie comics, remained until at least October 2015, and the location still retains an awning and exterior paint job in the chain's color scheme. As of 2025, this location is being converted into self storage ==Corporate culture==

The chain was known for its often self-deprecating humor, both in their advertising and throughout their store interiors. Their weekly ad circulars often featured caricatures of founder Jerry Ellis with a number of sarcastic captions, many of which were repeated in their in-store advertising. The early circulars featured the "free-spirit" Ellis sternly commanded to work harder by the "skinflint" Andler. , Ellis still wrote most of the ad copy used in the ad flyers. Each Building #19 location offered free coffee with "free fake cream". Signs near the free coffee stand warned customers not to make fun of the poor quality of the coffee, because "someday you'll be old and weak too". Two years later, a flier poked fun at the 2006 controversy, and was similarly criticized. The main Building #19 store was located in Hingham, Massachusetts; other stores had a numerical fraction appended to their name (such as Building #19½, in Burlington or Building #19¾, in Norwood). Building #19 1/9, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, used the old grandstand portion of Narragansett Park - a former horse racing venue that had closed in 1978. Slogans • "Good Stuff... Cheap" • "Suffer a Little, Save a Lot" • "The Humble Department Store" • "Free admission on all days ending with the letter Y" • "We Now Accept Credit Cods" ==See also==