Flah’s bursts its cocoon manana

A post over at the Nostalgic Syracuse Facebook page reminded me that I have never written about Flah’s Department Store,.

This ad from October 31, 1966, celebrated the grand opening of its Colonie Center store the next day (“manana“!). I really have no recollection of the Flah’s location, though I do remember as a boy it seeming somehow magical that you could enter the mall on one level, go upstairs and exit on another level. Apparently building into hills was some kind of novelty for a boy from Scotia.

A caption with a picture of the storefront explained that this was the fifth Flah’s store, “one of the northeast’s most progressive and fastest growing chains.”

“Among the departments set in a unique Spanish design [explaining the “manana”] at the 18,000 square foot store are the Oval Room, Junior Colony, Shoe Salon, Town and Country Shop, Deb-U-Teen Shoppe, Beauty Salon, Miss Flah Shop, Fur Salon, Coat and Suit Salon, Small People’s Shop, Rogue’s Den, and Flah’s Shop for Men.”

Do you suppose the other departments were wildly jealous of Deb-U-Teen’s extraneous letters, and wondering why only teen togs were singled out for special spelling? I would be.

“The big new store reflects the rapid growth of Flah’s since 1959 when Mr. and Mrs. [Bertram] Freed assumed control of the firm founded by her father in 1917. Flah’s main store is at 48 North Pearl Street. The Stuyvesant Plaza store was opened in 1960 and doubled in size two years later. The Hudson Plaza was opened in 1963 in Poughkeepsie.”

That left the impression that Flah’s started in Albany. In fact, it was started as a lingerie shop in Syracuse in 1915 by three brothers from Syria named Flah, and a cousin named Joseph Hai. On return from World War I, Joseph Hai settled in Albany and opened a Flah’s lingerie shop in the Ten Eyck Hotel. (Grand hotels used to always have men’s and women’s clothing stores. It was a thing.) It moved to 48 N. Pearl in 1948. The stores in Albany and Syracuse were independent, but bought their wares together, so they had very similar offerings. In 1970, the Albany Flah’s bought out the Syracuse Flah’s.