Frank W. Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York. He worked first as a farmworker and then in 1873 became an assistant in a store. In 1879 Woolworth opened his first five-cent store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He soon added ten-cent goods to the store. Beginning in 1905 Woolworth built a large chain of such stores with his brother and his cousin. Woolworth continued opening new stores until the Woolworth five-and-ten-cent stores became famous in most large cities in the United States. At the time of his death, F. W. Woolworth controlled over 1,000 stores from his headquarters in the Woolworth Building in New York City. In 1910 the first Woolworth’s store opened in Britain. By the 1960s there were Woolworth’s in Germany, Spain, Canada, and Mexico.
