The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 45

ROBSON'S OPENS THE SUHMY.OCTOiW 1 Monday, October 8, Is the set for the gala opening of the new Robson's Jewelry building in the Palm Plaza Shopping Center at the corner of Garth and Baker Roads. Neither rain nor mud has been able to hold up construction of this beautiful, new building. Prom ten in the morning until 8:30 in the evening, the regular store hours, customers will be welcomed with lovely free gifts. On Monday and Tuesday, the first 1000 customers will receive DOORS ON MONDAY WITH GIFTS FOR FIRST 1000 CUSTOMERS special surprise. On Friday and Saturday, every family will be given a 14k gold gift.

Throughout the opening weeks, of the celebration, many beautiful door prizes, the generous gifts of national compa- nies and valued to $2500, will be given away. Each Saturday night drawings will be made to determine which gift will be given and who the lucky recipient will be. Prom Wednesday through '5 dEWELERT ST0RE Saturday, hors d'oeuvres, catered by Fiddler's Restaurant will be served. Baytown police officers will serve as security guards throughout the opening. Robson's Jewelry welcomes the Baytown community to this long-awaited opening.

old friends, long-time customers, new shoppers, recent residents, will find exciting surprises when they visit the new store during the grand opening. Robson's Jewelry store is a family owned business. When Robert Robson first came to Baytown, in 1926, the area was known as the Tri-Cities which included Goose Creek, Pelly, and Baytown. Baytown was such a boomtown that it was almost six months before he could move his family here from Houston. Because of the economic con- dii ton he moved his jewelry store from Louisiana to Texas, where the opening of the oil fields in 1916 had created a pocket of prosperity.

Other areas throughout the country were floundering with droughts and bankruptcy, but South Texas seemed to be booming with oil field business. When the family was able to join Mr. Robson, everyone worked hard to make the new store a success. As his five children grew up, they did whatever was necessary in the store, and when it moved from one location to another, the younger children were able to help in the difficult tasks of packing and unpacking. Robson's Jewelry store was first opened in the Brunson Building in Goose Creek in 1928.

A year later it was moved to the Guberman Building on Texas Ave. Robson's moved into the new Stiles Building in 1938 and its furnishings marked it as exceptional. Robson's Jewelry Store moved in 1944 when Cone Pharmacy had vacated the larger corner location in the Stiles Building. Each move was accompanied by an increase of stock and additional personnel. Robson's has built its reputation on quality merchandise, personal attention of a well trained staff and expert jewelry and watch repair on the premises.

Mr. Robson's eldest daughter, Grace, was asked to take over the operations of the store when her "WIN TfllS flNNIVERSflRY RING" Win this Diamond Anniversary Ring, along with many other beautiful door prizes during our grand opening celebration. A drawing for one or more door prizes will be held every Saturday at 8:30 p.m. until all door prizes have been awarded. Please remember, you must register each'week for the prizes to be given away that week.

All entries submitted throughout the grand opening will be combined for the drawing of the diamond anniversary ring, which will be the last prize drawn. In addition Fiddler's restaurant will be donating a catfish fillet dinner-for-two during each of the first three weeks. COMPLIMENTS OF SWIRSKY COMANY FINE JEWELRY MANUFACTURERS A diamond necklace once owned by Eva Peron will HP display in the Robson's showroom. will be on is a erpiecc fe in 18k white gold with each of t's 415 diamonds set in a jointed flexible head to ultimate wearing comfort The 3Ji5 cfc. Ceylon sapphire of qi Iity SUrmountcd 3 mSuited in a detachable drop to allow the owner to wear it seperately as a dlamonds a father was hospitalized in the late thirties as a result of a serious automobile accident.

For nearly a year, while her father was In the hospital, Grace and her brother Bob were responsible for every aspect of the business. Grace soon became a proficient business woman and an expert buyer. Grace soon married Norman D. Hargrave an executive with the Boy Scouts of America. Norman and Grace later moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma where Norman continued his work with the Scouts.

However, the Hargraves returned to Goose Creek to join the family jewelry business. When Mr. Robson retired in the late fourties, Norman and Grace reassumed the full responsibility of operating the business. In 1981, after 39 years in the family business, Grace and Norman Hargrave retired. Now their son, Norman R.

Hargrave, contines the family tradition. Norman has always been involved in the work of the store in some way and it was natural for him to take his parents' place. PALM PLAZA BUILDING TIES IN WITH HISTORY The original plans drawn with Houston architect R. Heisler called for a large two story building with parking spaces for 250 cars. The continued rise in interest rates made this plan impractical, and gave a pause to the proceedings.

The pause was long enough for Hargrave to learn about a building which Bill Bierman was under contract to dismantle. The building had housed the computers for the coal liquifi- cation plant at the Exxon Refinery. There are not many similarities between jewelry and computers, but they have in common the need for a safe, easily protected The entire building was made of solid, reinforced concrete, walls six inches thick, and brick made in the 1920's. The bricks are unique in their design with the word 'Texas' between the two open stars. The bricks are placed at the entrance and around the wood-burning fireplace.

Hargrave took on the role of General Contractor for the project but when he is handing out credit due, he turns first to BobArb. "For this man," says Hargrave, "I have the greatest admiration." Within the next year or two, another building is planned on the opposite side of the parking lot to house Hargrave's Creative Toys now located at 500 East Texas Avenue. When Palm Plaza Shopping Center is completed it will offer the Baytown area a center where customers can be assured of ''finding quality merchandise and friendly service. When Norman Hargrave took over the management of Robson's Jewelry from his parents in 1981, he had a dream. That dream was to expand and modernize the store, not to do away with it's small town familiarity, but to add to that a sense of big city elegance and energy.

Since the store was founded in 1926, the area around it had grown from a population of 3200 to more than 60,000. The quiet agricultural community that became a boomtown in 1916 with the drilling of the first successful oil well, began reaching out in all directions, no longer a small town, but a city on the move. New housing developments, shopping centers, new stores, and businesses changed the character of the Tri-Cities area and displaced the center of it's business activity. Hargrave made plans to relocate Robson's in one of the new shopping centers then being built, but the opening of the center was delayed by construction problems. With plans already made for relocation, and too impatient to put them off, Hargrave decided to build his own shopping center.

Fortunately an ideal location, just off the corner of Garth and Baker Roads, the center of much of the new construction in progress, was available to him. This necklace is for sale at: $57,000.00. Young Norman's goal has always been the expansion and modernization of the store, a goal which has been fulfilled by the completion of the new building at 1120 Wester Baker Road. Acting as his own general contractor, Norman has been intimately involved in every aspect of the planning and construction of the new Robson's store. From his grandfather and his parents alike, he has inherited the esire to be at the very center of the work regardless of how hard it may be.

Paul, Norman's four-year-old son, is already involved in the new store. During the construction, as his father talked to the foreman, Paul would find small pieces of two-by-fours that he could carry to the trash pile. Paul's interest makes us eager to see into the future because it's hard to believe that this new, large, and beautiful store will ever seem too small or out-of- date. In what direction will Paul want to take the store? What ever it is, there is no doubt he will continue the family tradition of quality and service. THE FIRST WALL BnNrro, COMp UTER BUILDING BEING SET IN PLACE TO- BECOME THE NEW ROBSON'S JEWELERS BUILDING 30,000 POUNDS! IS THE WEIGHT OF JUST ONE OF THE MANY SUCH THAT SUPPORT THE ROOh Uh I HE ROBSON'S STORE.

VLM PLAZA IK 1 Pausing to check forms for THANKS PETE SHEPARD TRACTOR AND EQUIPMENT SPECIALIST FOR ALL THE LITTLE EXTRAS AND TERRIFIC SERVICE.