With thanks to Jon Coss
No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon.” William T. Grant was an enlightened businessman who managed to serve both. He said, “I wanted to sell people what they needed at prices they could afford, with only a modest profit.”
William Thomas Grant was born in rural Pennsylvania in 1876 (when the Huguenot Church was founded). His father suffered through business failures, but William recalled he was “always the optimist” who saw the possibility for “a great business success” in every venture. “There was never a time when the family income was enough to give my mother a sense of security” and the family “had to move often to find a home where the rent was lower.”
As a boy, Grant ran errands for neighbors and friends to help his family. His family moved to Massachusetts and starting at age seven he sold flower seeds, delivered newspapers, and worked at a drugstore fountain. He knew early on that he had an aptitude for sales.
In 1906, at age 30, Grant and three partners opened the first “25 Cent Store” in Lynn, Mass. By efficient operations, volume buying, and smart marketing, he was able to offer real bargains. He married Blanche Brownell and they adopted two children. During the first year of operation, he often traveled to New York City on buying trips. He opened a little office in Manhattan and over time expanded it into the headquarters of the W. T. Grant Company.
William T. Grant (left). The Grant Manor House, now the Monsignor’s residence.
In the early years of his company, Grant worked long hours and opened stores throughout the Northeast. He handled his own buying and negotiated leases for each store. He moved his family to a six-acre estate in Pelham Manor. Prominent architects designed a beautiful Manor House, two smaller houses, and landscaped grounds at 559 Pelham Manor Road.
Grant joined the Huguenot Church in 1916, served as a Trustees, and became president of the Pelham Men’s Club. He was a director of The Pelham Sun Publishing Company in the 1920s, and supported Pelham’s Boy Scout program.
W.T.’s long hours devoted to business and absence from home led to a divorce from his first wife in 1926, but they remained on good terms. He moved into an apartment building in midtown Manhattan, while she and the children stayed in Pelham Manor. By 1928 the company had over 200 stores, annual sales of $50 million, and completed an initial public offering. In 1930 Grant married his second wife, Beth Bradshaw, and adopted another child. His personal worth was reportedly $30 million with an annual income of $1 million.
His hard work and quick turnover of inventory enabled the business to grow to almost $100 million in annual sales by 1936 – the same year he started the William T. Grant Foundation. In 1939 he donated 4.5 acres of his estate to St. Catharine’s Catholic Church to build Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH). In 1937 he expanded his business into appliances and furniture and introduced customer installment credit. W. T. Grant stores began to look like mega store chains – like Sears, Montgomery Ward, and J.C. Penney.
In his later years, Grant was board chairman of the W. T. Grant Company and president of the Grant Foundation. He had homes in Pelham Manor, Cape Cod, and Miami, but in time moved to Greenwich, CT. He retired at age 90, but he still served in an honorary position.
When he died in 1972 at age 96, Grant’s retail chain included nearly 1,200 stores. But he and his successors had lost their focus. Competition from other retailers, fast-food franchises, and convenience stores led to failure in 1975. All the stores were liquidated in 1976. However, the non-profit Foundation still operates to this day, a legacy to his philanthropic spirit.
The Grant House with landscaping (left) and flanking “dormers.” Some gardens and small buildings were removed for construction of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Sources:
Bell, Blake. Historic Pelham. http://historicpelham.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-estate-and-home-of-w-t-grant-that.html, 13 September 2019, and 2 April 2018, https://historicpelham.blogspot.com/2018/04/pelhamite-william-t-grant-founder-of.html
Raucher, Alan R. “Grant, W. T.”; http://www.anb.org/articles/10/10-01961.html. American National Biography Online April 2001.
Wikipedia. “W. T. Grant Stores.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Grant
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