Locations - United States (South-Eastern)

Including the states of Alabama, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

ALBEMARLE, N.C. Hardware store. "I had a job making change in the old hardware store building. They had pneumatic tubes that went from the cash registers back to the central office where they kept all the money." University of Maryland, School of Public Policy website

ASHEVILLE, N.C. Fains dept. store, 15 Biltmore Ave. "The store used pneumatic tubes to send the money and sales slips to the second floor." Closed 1996. Univ. N. Carolina Oral Hist. Register

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. J.M.Floyd. "For sale... 4 station cash carrier system, air line, $20." Atlanta Constitution, 28 May 1908, p.12

BERRYVILLE, Va. Coiners, 24 East Main Street. "At 24 East Main is a gift shop thatuntil recently was Coiner's Department Store, which occupied the location from 1896 to 1996. During that entire time, clerks used a pulley-operated cash carrier to transfer money back and forth to the cashier." Andrea Sutcliffe. Touring the Shenandoah valley backroads. (Winston-Salem, NC: Blair, 1999) p.65. Photograph on Art and the Zen of Design website where it is said to be a Lamson Air-Line system installed in 1899.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Ed Mellon Clothing, West Trade. Pneumatic tube system. AtHome Charlotte website

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Belks, East Trade Street. Cable system, described and illustrated in Covington. The system was noisy and there were occasional derailments. In 1927, after a $750,000 expansion, the system was replaced with 3.5 miles of pneumatic tubes. Photograph of interior showing Lamson system at Belk website

CUMBERLAND, Md. Rosenbaum department store. Pneumatic tube system. Cumberland Times-News, 2 Nov 2001

DANVILLE, Ky. Hub Frankel store. Wire system. "Kind of like a slingshot... They had these little silver cups that ran on a rope." Advocate-Messenger website

DURHAM, N.C. Baldwins dept. store, 107 W. Main Street. Opened in 1911, rebuilt in 1929 after a fire and expanded in 1931. Interior view shows what appears to be a cable system. "Durham's premier department store" - now converted into appartments. "Baldwin also installed a pneumatic tube system throughout the building to transport receipts and other documents from floor to floor." Baldwin Lofts website

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. Chesson's department store, Main Street. "The department store, purchased by the Chesson family in the early 1900s, featured a rare high-speed cord-and-wheel cash carrier, designed to literally transport cash back to an office. That feature will be preserved in the new council headquarters." [It is to be the office of the Pasquotank Arts Council.] Images of Elizabeth City, 2005 and Heartland website.

FLORENCE, Al. Rogers. "Modern in every detail... Pneumatic tube cash system, for speedier service." [In new building.] Alabama Courier, 5 Sep. 1946, p. 10

FORT GAINES, Ga. George Irwin. "For sale - Bar [sic] cash carrier, good as new, run only short time. Geo.R.Irwin, Fort Gaines, Ga." Atlanta Constitution, 20 Apr. 1905, p.16

FREDERICK, Md. Doll Brothers (dry goods) North Market Street. "Notable changes in Doll Brothers' store... The most noticeable improvement, and at the same time an expensive one, is the introduction of the Lamson cash railway system - the only cash railway system employed in Frederick. Five handsome bronze money carriers are conveniently located about the various departments, and when a sale is made in any part of the store the money is sent by automatic means to the cash register's office, which is elevated in the rear of the room." Frederick News, 26 Mar. 1897, p.3

FREDERICK, Md. Carl Jacobson (small dept. store) South Market Street, near Baltimore and Ohio station. "A cash carrier system is installed throughout the store, and there is an office in the rear where a cashier will be seated. There are now six persons employed in the store." Was formerly Albert Gilson's property and Jacobson was nearly opposite. The News (Frederick) 20 Feb. 1914, p.2

GREENVILLE, S.C. Bon Marche. "For sale. Four Lamson cash carrier system, practically new." Atlanta Constiution, 17 Aug. 1912, p.10

HUNTINGTON,W Va. Anderson-Newcomb department store. Cable system operating in 1913 and pneumatic tubes in 1937. (Reminiscences)

JOHNSON CITY, Ten. Penneys. "The much-anticipated new ultra-modern Penny's department store opened its doors at 305 E. Main Street in August 1948... Penney's used the suction tube system prevalent in department stores of that era. If a sales clerk needed extra cash or a customer receipt, he or she put money or a sales slip into a tube, placed it in the suction pipe and sent it to the main cashier on the mezzanine level. The person at the other end would fill the request, put it back in a tube, insert it in the suction pipe and return it to the appropriate counter." Bob Cox's Yesteryear website

KINGSPORT, Tenn. Montgomery-Ward. "Montgomery-Ward and Company announced .. that the cash carrier system in the store has been replaced with a speedier and more efficient system." Kingsport Times, 8 Feb. 1938, p.6

MAXEY'S, Ga. "A store". Lamson wire carrier. Town(?) "was wiped out by the Bole Weevil in the 30's". "The office had a five bay receiving station which could handle five different points of sale." (Sale on Ebay closing 23 Apr. 2006)

MIAMI, Fl. Burdines. Pneumatic tube system. Photograph in Hammond

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Grimes and Gilberts. "Wire baskets that carried what you bought on overhead wires to the office to be sacked." (E.D.Thompson. Nashville nostalgia. Nashville: Westview, 2003, p.242)

NEWARK, Del. Newark Dept. Store. Pneumatic tube system in 1988. (Posting to misc.consumers.frugal-living, 25 Sep. 2000)

SMITHFIELD, Va. George W. Delk (dept store), 223 Main Street. Lamson Air-Line system. Store was built in 1989. Cash carrier retained when it became Antiques Emporium. Daily Press (Hampton Roads, Va.) 3 Oct. 2002 and Williamsburg Magazine. Shop has changed hands again and system removed.

SUWANEE, Fl. John Brogdon, Main Street. "John Brogdon built what was called 'the largest store between Gainesville and Atlanta' where he sold food, clothing, coffins, farm equipment and practically everything else. The three-story [sic] building, the first in the county, had a pulley system that sent sales slips and money from the first to the third floor, where the cashier worked. Like many wooden buildings on Main Street, the store later burned. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 21 Sep. 2003

WALTHAM, Fla. J.C.Penny's, corner of Moody and Pine Streets. "Penny's used the Lamson Cash Railway". Waltham Museum website.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Hecht. Lamson pneumatic tube system. (Lamson brochure, 1952)

WASHINGTON, D.C. Woodward and Lothrop, 11th & F Streets, NW. "In the 1???s Woodward & Lothrop installed a Cable Cash Railway that ran on a speedy cable that traveled fourteen feet per second and serviced 110 stations." Jan Whitaker. Service and style: how the American department store fashioned the middle class. (St Martin's Press, 2006) p. 89.

WHEELING, W.Va. George M. Snook & Co. (dry goods), 1110-1114 Main Street. Pneumatic tube system, installed ca. 1902. WebRoots.org Genealogy website

WHEELING, W.Va. Stone & Thomas (dept. store), 1030 Main Street. (Moved there in early 1950s.) Lamson cash carrier. Power was supplied by two 80 HP engines in the basement which also operated the elevators. (WebRoots.org Genealogy Foundation website)

WILMINGTON, N.C. Efirds (dept. store). "The cylinder was placed in a pneumatic tube and sent to a central cashier." Ann Hewlett Hutteman. Wilmington, North Carolina, p.36.The building was constructed in 1906 and is now the Self-Help Center.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Morrisetts (dept. store). Store opened around 1900. Wire system still in use when store sold in 1947. The store was a two-storey L-shaped building with the mezzanine at the vertex of the L. The cashier was located on the mezzanine and served both floors. Probably eight lines on each floor. (Peter Morrisett)

WINTER STREET, Del. Heseltines (later Uhlmans). Pneumatic tube system. Willshigh website

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.