Frank Winfield Woolworth

Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852-1919), American merchant, born in Rodman, New York. He briefly attended a business college in Watertown, New York. After failing in a number of business enterprises, he opened a store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1879, that specialized in the sale of items priced at five and ten cents. Thereafter Woolworth opened similar stores throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries, increasing the variety of his goods and offering many articles previously available only at higher prices. The F. W. Woolworth Company owned more than 1000 five-and-ten-cent stores when it was incorporated in 1911. The Woolworth Building on lower Broadway in New York City, built to house the executive offices of the firm, was designed by the American architect Cass Gilbert and completed in 1913; it was then the tallest building in the world. At the time of his death, Woolworth had amassed a personal fortune estimated at $65 million.