Time of the Season: Sibley’s Toyland

When Rochesterians hear the word “Toyland,” they almost invariably think of Sibley’s.

Sibley’s wasn’t the first American store to create such a toy department, nor was it the only one in Rochester to have a floor by that name, but the erstwhile store’s elaborate toy section nevertheless became seemingly synonymous with the Christmas season for generations of area residents.

Department store pioneers such as Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia and Siegel-Cooper in Chicago were among the first to cater to children’s Christmas whims by adding a toy department in the late 19^th-century.

Taking a page from their books, Sibley, Lindsay and Curr converted its basement into a seasonal Toyland in 1898.

An advertisement for the new section boasted: “…here, descriptive powers fail to do justice; every Toy that’s made of wood, every Toy that’s made of iron, Games, Drums and musical Toys of every nature, all here for our little friends’ Christmas pleasure.”

The bounty of (mostly European-made) toys flooding the basement’s shelves weren’t the only thing attracting turn-of-the-century children, however. Sibley’s set up intricate mechanical displays featuring colorful fictional characters, each year attempting to outdo the previous year’s effort.

And of course, like other department stores, Sibley’s made sure to have a resident Santa Claus on site to carefully consider the wish lists of their kiddie customers.

Toyland’s entrance ca. 1940.

Toyland’s popularity-and no doubt its profitability-prompted Sibley’s to relocate the department to an expanded section on the fourth floor in the 1920s.

The onset of the Great Depression at decade’s end seemingly did not dampen spirits at the new Toyland. Rochester retailers were quick to note that such recessions scared consumers away from big purchases, but bore less impact on less expensive products, like toys.

A 1930 Democrat and Chronicle article on Toyland noted that Sibley’s’ Santa Claus “…is just as ruddy, his smile as sincere, his whiskers as spurious as ever. He doesn’t know a thing about depressions. And neither, for the matter of that, do the kids. Which is very much as it should be.”

Rather than fall short during the hard times of the 1930s, Sibley’s doubled down on its seasonal section. In 1935, the company followed the trend initiated by Gimbels’ in Philadelphia (and later popularized by Macy’s in New York City), and launched its own annual holiday parade to mark the grand opening of Toyland each year.

Prior to the parade, the balloons spent the night in Cobb’s Hill Park where they were inflated before making their debut along a route spanning from the corner of East Avenue and Culver Road to Main and Saint Paul.

By 1938, the parade counted 30 papier-mache figures and 20 giant balloons including a bug “as long as a trolley car” and a polka dot cow “so big it could use a bale of hay for a stick of chewing gum and then swallow it whole,” according to a D&C reporter.

In 1940, when the crowd for the popular parade was expected to reach 50,000 people, every single police officer in the city was put on special duty.

But while the barrage of balloons helped boost Sibley’s sales, its Toyland (like those across America) took a something of a hit during the war years.

Due to bans on the use of steel, rubber and other materials deemed vital to the war effort, the store experienced shortages of certain types of toys such as wagons and trucks.

Such toys that did enter the wartime market often showcased alternative materials. For instance, since the use of steel was limited to 7% of the gross weight of a toy, toy vehicle manufacturers almost exclusively used wood in their products, saving their steel allotment for wheel axles.

A North Pole scene at Sibley’s ca. 1940.

The post-war era witnessed changes of a different kind at Sibley’s.

As more Rochester residents relocated to the suburbs, retailers such as Sibley’s followed suit. In the 1950s and 1960s, Sibley’s added locations in Henrietta and Greece. Each in turn developed its own Toyland, and each featured its own Magic Corridor, the animated diorama marking the path to Santa Claus.

While these suburban forays offered customers added choice and convenience, they ultimately helped influence the demise of the downtown department store.

Santa seekers would make their last pilgrimages to the original Sibley’s Toyland in the late 1980s. The mainstay Main Street store closed its doors for good in 1990.

-Emily Morry