After Mr. Brown died in 1940, his widow took over management until her own death in 1967, forcing a change in ownership.

The flagship store on West Main Street was closed in 1974 and was subsequently razed as part of an urban renewal project.

The department store had its start in 1915, when the Rorabaugh Company acquired Brock's Dry Goods in Oklahoma City, and changed its name to Rorabaugh-Brown Dry Goods Co.[1][a] when John Albert Brown bought the business from his cousin and partner, A. O. Rorabaugh in 1932 and named the store after himself.

Its location was bounded by Harvey and Robinson on the west and east, and Park and Main on the north and south.

[3] A book about Brown's, and the other main downtown Oklahoma City department stores, Kerr's and Halliburton's, was released in 2016 under the title "John A.

These include locations that are either stand alone or in outdoor shopping centers, such as one at Campus Corner in Norman and one in Oklahoma City's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Brown and John Dunkin bought Hunts, one of the leading mercantile stores in Tulsa, in 1924.