Here in Detroit we quite a lot some one these stores are bankrupt nationwide not just in Michigan

Jacobson's- It was a upscale retailer which was around 100 years old
Crowley's- Mid range Detroit dept. store
Montgomery Ward- Well it was a 130 year old so that's long enough
Hudson's- renamed by Marshall Field's, but still not HUDSON'S
Woolworths- Whatever happened to them, I think there are some in Australia and the UK

Well the replacements of these stores are:
Jacobson's- 2 store were bought by Von Maur, 1 by Art Van, 1 by CVS, 1 by a private owner and 1 in Birmingham slated for office space!

Crowley's- filled with Value City stores

Montgomery Wards- Many of them are still vacant, SAD!!

Hudson's- All stores except the Detroit downtown store we changed to Marshall Field's

Woolworths- God knows it's an old company!!

Louisville Jacobsons were bought by Von Maur as well. I dont know and doubt youd consider it a department store, but every city I have lived in has a vacant Service Merchandise. Montgomery Ward closed when I lived in LA and all the ones I knew became Burlington Coat Factories. When I lived in Downtown SLC the "ZCMI" was bought by May Dept. Stores and became Meir And Frank which when I was small in LA there used to be May Company and Robinsons and they both became Robinsons May, I guess May Company aquired many stores around that time. Also around the same time all of the "Bullocks" (an upper store) became Macys to form Macys West .. I believe headquartered in San Francisco... they also at the SAME time took over "The Broadway" turning the downtown Los Angeles flagship Broadway Plaza into a giant Macy's Plaza with a pretty cool Marquis .... Too much information prolly but the retail business interests me. Looks like a dog eat dog world for dept stores too!

Rich's was an Atlanta institution until purchased by Federated a few decades ago. Now the department store has been merged with local Macy's & is no longer viewed as an Atlanta institution as it once was.

Buffalo, NY:

Sattlers
Hens & Kellys
AM&A's (now Bon Ton)
Hengerers (now Kauffmans)
LL Bergers
Sample


All gone!

In Toronto, Simpsons was bought by the Bay, as was Woodward's in Western Canada (AB and BC I think) and Robinson's. Most Simpsons became The Bay, unless there was already one, in which case, Sears. Eaton's were bought by Sears, including the flagship downtown (which is suprisingly not bad). Most of the Eaton's became a Sears, unless there was already a Sears, it became a Bay. If there was a Bay, it became inline retail or a Wal*Mart as is the case at Scarborough Town Centre.

In Ottawa, Robinson's closed a long time ago, I'm told. One became Zellers at Billings Bridge, one became the Bay at Place d'Orleans. Les Ailes de la Mode closed its one location last year, and it's now just inline retail. Woolworth's closed and is now a Chapters bookstore. Ogilvy was here a long time ago, but the Bay just expanded. Eaton's downtown is a Sears, another Eaton's became a Zellers/Old Navy, another Eaton's became a Bay/Bay Home Store, as the Bay at Place d'Orleans mall closed.

All the consolidation is why there are really only 2 and a half department store chains in Canada (outside of Quebec), and why every mall has the Bay and Sears.

In Chicago, I remember us having Bergners, which was the same company as Carson's. Also, there was Montgomery Ward, which closed. There was also a dept store named Speice. I don't know what happened to it, but it also closed down at Randhurst.

In Washington D.C.
1. Lansburgh's
2. Kanns
3. Garfinckel's
4. Woodward & Lothrop

The Hecht Co. is the only one left in dt D.C.

Houston had a few
Sakowitz~ was the most famous it was like Neimans except they were a bit friendlier.
It was quite sad to see them go bankrupt in the late 80s. There was one downtown
and in uptown across from the Galleria.
Im not sure about "Battlesteins"it was downtown it wasnt as nice as Sakowitz but it
was midrange, it was downtown it closed in 1981.
Joskes was nice it was bought out by Dillards.they was quite a few of those in town

BTW, a neat site for defunct department stores and malls is www.deadmalls.com

Here's a random listing of some more defunct department stores from the top of my head. I didn't include chains like Wards or dime stores like Kress and Woolworth. Hope I don't rain on anyone's parade listing one for their town :) These are downtown stores only and since I love old downtown department store architecture I've listed the present status of the downtown main store for some. You'll see that sadly many have been demolished. Since these old department stores were designed with flexible, open plans, they would have made great lofts or offices as has been the case with many that have survived.

Alabama

Birmingham:
Pizitz (vacant)

Arizona

Phoenix:
Goldwater's (demolished)
Korricks (offices)

Tucson:
Jacome's (demolished)
Levys (demolished)
Steinfelds (demolished)

California

Fresno:
Radin and Kamp (standing)

Long Beach:
Buffum's (demolished)
Walkers (residential)

San Diego:
Marston's (early buildings standing, final downtown store demolished)
Walker-Scott (converted to residential)

Iowa

Des Moines:
Harris-Emery (demolished)

Kansas

Wichita:
Buck's (demolished)
Innes (offices)

Louisana

New Orleans:
Maison Blanche (hotel)

Michigan

Grand Rapids:
Herpolsheimers (building later Wurzburg's, demolished)

Nebraska

Lincoln:
Gold's (standing)

New Mexico

Albuquerque:
Rosenwald (standing)

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City:
Halliburton (demolished)
John Brown (demolished)
Kerrs (demolished)

Tulsa:
Brown-Dunkin (demolished)
Froug's (demolished)
Halliburton-Abbott (later Sears, demolished)
Vandevers (vacant)

Oregon

Portland:
Lipman Wolfe (hotel)

Texas

Amarillo:
White & Kirk (offices)

Dallas:
Joske's (originally-Titche Goettinger)
Sanger (El Centro College)

El Paso:
Popular (standing)
White House (standing)

Fort Worth:
Fair
Leonards (demolished)
Monnigs (demolished)
Sanger
Stripling (demolished)

San Antonio:
Joske's (now Dillards)

Washington

Seattle:
Frederick and Nelson (now Nordstrom)
Rhodes (recently or to be demolished for Seattle Art Museum expansion)

Spokane:
Crescent (standing)
Palace (demolished)

Tacoma:
Rhodes (standing)

Mrblue, I'm surprised that you found some information on the ones here in Fort Worth. However, you did leave one out. That was Cox's, which was one of the first to leave downtown Fort Worth and open up suburban locations. Their building in downtown still stands, as it was a lease space in a larger office building. The Fair's building is also standing. Cox's and Fair's buildings were built for the store on the lower floors and offices above. Today, they remain with retail and office on the lower floors and offices above. The Sanger Building has been converted into loft apartments. The ground floor remains retail, but it has been subdivided. It is also interesting to note that Cox's first suburban building has now been demolished and replaced by a Walgreen's. Shortly after Stripling's closed in downtown, they merged with Cox's. The name then became Stripling and Cox. They are still in business, but the number of stores has dramatically decreased.

As a side note, Leonard's first purchased by the Tandy Corporation (later RadioShack) and eventually sold to Dillard's.

Thanks John R I was not aware of Cox's. I guess I heard of Stripling's being refered to as Stripling-Cox, just not that Cox's was also at one time a separate entity. Department store mergers can be so difficult to straight. I must say I was very impressed with both Sanger buildings when I visited downtown Fort Worth for the first time in May. Especially the 1929 building which is so much more impressive in real life than in pictures. What building downtown was Cox's housed in? I must have missed it on your site.

Cox's was inside the Fort Worth Club Building. I want to correct an earlier statement. Fakes & Co. were the original tenants on the ground floor of the Fort Worth Club. In 1946, they moved out and Cox's moved in and stayed until 1955 when their suburban store was constructed near TCU. By the way, Fakes eventually went out of business. However, they were not a department store. Their business was furniture and home furnishings.

Robertsons? lol

I'm sure that I'm only scratching the surface of Chicago's bygone retailers, but when I moved here in 1984 (yes, I know, before some of you were born) the following still had stores on State Street:

Lytton's
Wieboldt's

Both would shut their State Street stores soon thereafter and both chains eventually went out of business. Another venerable Chicago retailing name lasted into the 90s and then went bust: Goldblatt's, which was kind of a bargain department store.

I can also add one to mrblue's downtown list for Tucson: there was a Penney's store downtown that was closed/torn down in the late 70s.

Saint Louis:
Scruggs-Vandervoort Barney (Closed in the late 60's ) Mid-range store.
Stix Baren Fuller (Was sold to Dillards in late 80's) High-end store like Saks.
Famous-Barr (Still a regional Store and Flagship store for May Co., but now owned buy Federated of Cinn. so who the hell knows.) Mid-range discount store alot like Dillards.

Hartford's Once Greats:

G. Fox & Co.
http://www.960main.com/slideshow/pix/g_old6.jpg

Sage Allen & Co.
http://www.cceda.state.ct.us/housing/downtown/Sage/Images/project-front-view-10-(1).jpg

Brown and Thompson (had branches in pre-WW2 Dresden, Germany; London, UK;, and Edinburgh, UK)

http://www.960main.com/pix/g_events.jpg
http://www.960main.com/slideshow/pix/g_old3.jpg
http://www.960main.com/slideshow/pix/g_old5.jpg
http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/_images/news/gfox.gif

AND...

Steiger's

Forbes and Wallace

Leutgen's

In Downtown Seattle, Frederick & Nelson closed (the whole chain actually) around 1994, as Mr. Blue said. Nordstrom did a $100,000,000 remodel and moved in in 1998, having previously been in a smaller store across the street (since remodeled also).

Penny's used to be located where the Newmark condos are now.

I'll take your word for it about Rhodes. I didn't know that. Yes, the WaMu and Seattle Art Museum project is underway -- it just hit 31 floors on its way to 42.

Saint Louis:
Scruggs-Vandervoort Barney (Closed in the late 60's ) Mid-range store.
Stix Baren Fuller (Was sold to Dillards in late 80's) High-end store like Saks.
Famous-Barr (Still a regional Store and Flagship store for May Co., but now owned buy Federated of Cinn. so who the hell knows.) Mid-range discount store alot like Dillards.
^It's actually Stix, Baer & Fuller.

yes sorry on my spelling Jive.

mhays: what's across from Nordstrom now (where it was before moving)?

The big downtown store in Louisville was Stewarts, at the corner of 4th & Muhammed Ali. It was a local chain w. mall stores, too. It was bought by some dept. store out of Allentown, PA, of all places, and then was closed in the early 80s. The building is still standing though.

Other Louisville stores from the 1970s....not downtown (except for Bacons)....

Bacons...taken over by Dillards

Ben Snyder (later Snyders)...sort of like a slightly upscape Mervyns...Mervyns or Sears...

Shillitoes...out of Cincinnati. Became Shillitoe-Rikes, then Lazarus.

The big store in Dayton was Rikes, later to become Shillitoe-Rikes, and then Lazarus. The store was one of those huge old multi-floor downtown stores. It closed in 1990, and was torn down in 1999 and replaced by a performing arts center.

http://www.preservationdayton.com/images/other/rikes.jpg

...to the very end this store had everything, including an art gallery, a bakery, and a wine/cheese department

The other store was Elder-Beerman, which had a fairly new (built in the early 1970s) downtown store that survived into the late 1990s before closing. The building was remodelled into offices for a local corporation, but has some retail on the ground floor (a drugstore and a coffeeshop).

Elder-Beerman and Lazarus are still in the malls. The new addition to the malls here is Parisian, which is from Alabama, I think. A pretty nice dept store.

Honolulu had Liberty House, which was bought out by Federated and all were renamed Macy's just a few years ago.

No stores were closed, even the downtown location:
http://starbulletin.com/2001/11/14/business/art.jpg

To add on to mrblue's post, Lincoln, Nebraska had
Miller & Paine (now Dillards)
Gold's (now Younkers)
The downtown stores are all offices buildings now.

I have a collection of postcards depicting department stores. I am adding to the collection all the time and suggest you visit. The postcards are on our website: www.plummersearch.com.
Enjoy.
John Plummer

Here in Rochester, NY we got tons of 'em, the best were Sibley's. McCurdy's and B. Forman, all were downtown all are closed but the empty buildings still remain. We now have zero retail downtown, but up till the early 80's we had tons. Our downtown sidewalks used to look like NYC now they look like Mayberry. The remaining retail is all in the suburbs.

I was very young when it happened, so I never realy got to see it's splendor.... but Rochester lost Sibley's, it's beloved department store of over 100 years.

Buffalo, NY:

Hengerers (now Kauffmans)...

You forgot to add Sibley's and soon to be Macy's to that chronology. My mother still had a Hengerers credit card a few years ago lol.

Heck, I even miss the defunct cheapie stores, such as:

Ames (damn Walmart)
Gold Circle
Hills
Ulbrichts (not really a dept store)
...probably more I'm not remembering right now...

The acquisition of GC and Hills were one of the more significant pieces to the rise of Target.

It just sucks now because there is absolutely no variety anymore. And I'm not even 30, so I can imagine how stark it must seem to anyone older. It's also hard to envision it ever getting more diverse again anytime soon.

Indy had LS Ayers and Blocks. Both eventually would be bought by Macy's. Now, Parisian is where the downtown Ayers was and TJ Maxx and Apartments occupy the old Blocks building.

Miami had Burdines (with the original being in downtown) but the chain was bought out by Macy's (who seem to be devouring smaller chain through out the country).

Baltimore:

Hoeschel Kohn
Hutzler's
Bamburger's - bought out by Macy's in the 80's
Hecht's - Will become Macy's in the next couple of months

I know I am missing some of the older one's.

Baltimore:

Hoeschel Kohn
Hutzler's
Bamburger's - bought out by Macy's in the 80's
Hecht's - Will become Macy's in the next couple of months

I know I am missing some of the older one's.
BALTIMORE AGAIN
DOWNTOWN
Hochschild Kohn's
Hutzler's
Hecht Co.
Stewart's (Now the world headquarters for Catholic Charities)
Epstine's
The Hub
Baltimore Bargain House
The May Company
O'Neil's
Julius Gutman
Brager Eisenberg
And the 5 and 10's
Woolworth's
W.T. Grant
Kresgie's

SUBURBAN
Tops
2 Guy's

Old Govans Hochschild's is well worth a look in its newest incarnation
Jacques Kelly
Baltimore Sun

There it sat, the polished former Hochschild Kohn terrazzo floor I recalled from my youth. The restored floor, holding the tables and racks of the Daedalus Books & Music due to open this morning, is a component of this building's underrated sleek modern design. We've overlooked this Govans landmark's finer points for too long.

As I walked in the other night, through the big glass door at York and Belvedere, I thought that for all the talk about midcentury design, this is a splendid version - a progressive, unencumbered modern design, with steel, glass and curving atrium walls. What about that wonderful ramp heading up, with stairs down to the ground floor, where they used to sell the mothballs - not so far from the old Coffee Cup lunchroom counter?

Hochschild's Belvedere (we call it Belvedere Square today) could not have been more different, lighter and more casual than its downtown mother-ship department store at Howard and Lexington, a heavy building with numerous sales floors on diffferent levels, topped by a formal sixth-floor tea room and toy department.

I spoke to Walter Sondheim Jr., the retired Hochschild's executive and civic leader, who was put in charge of setting up the store's suburban empire after his World War II discharge from the Navy.

His firm's Edmondson Village store opened in 1947. Belvedere followed and opened its stainless steel doors Sept. 28, 1948. Max Hochschild, the store's then 93-year-old co-owner, cut the ribbon.

"It was a great success from the day it opened," Sondheim said yesterday. "It was so busy that we had other people from out-of-town stores coming in to look at it. From the day it opened, the parking lot was too small, and we got complaints from the people on Orkney Road about their spaces being taken."

He recalled how Baltimore architect James R. Edmunds designed Belvedere with the nationally ranked retail designer Victor Gruen. "Belvedere's circular entrance was really quite elegant," said Liz Kohn Moser, granddaughter of the store's founder, who now lives in the Inner Harbor. "I think it was as close as we got to the carriage trade."

This week, I discussed the store's personality with Rodgers Forge and former Northwood resident Douglas W. Campbell, who frequently shopped here in the H-K era. "It was a cozy store," he said. "But the thing I remember is the slight smell of peat moss from the garden department in the basement toward the parking lot. The soda fountain and lunch area was always busy, and it seemed to me there was often a line waiting there."

My own take on old Hochschild's Belvedere is one of personal delight. I love to read, and Hochschild's book department was the best of all the city's contenders. Its phonograph record department was also a knockout. Many a time I left the place with little more than carfare home. So, in its newest life as a bookstore, I can only say: How fitting.

Stewart's & Co. - Now Catholic Charities HQ - Below

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/images/Photography%20Balto%202%2004.jpg

^^ I believe we also had 2 Guys.

Other randoms I can think of (mostly grocery)-

Twin Fair
Super Duper (now Jubilee)
Bells (now Quality, which is largely gone)
Brand Names
A&P (still in Canada?)

Man, this thread is depressing lol.

In Minneapolis, our dept store situation changed as follows:

MINNEAPOLIS; During the '50s-'70s, downtown Mpls had four major department stores: Dayton's, Donaldson's, JC Penney; and Powers, plus some minor dept. stores LaBelles and Young & Quinlin, and lots of Variety stores (WT Grant, Woolworths, Kressge). During the '70s, we lost a few variety stores, but otherwise maintained a solid retail cluster through about 1984. In 1984, both JC Penneys and Powers closed. JCP was torn down for a multi-level retail center called Gavidae Common (Phase II) which was and still is anchored by Nieman Marcus. The Powers store was used as a dwtn college campus for the Univ. of St. Thomas for a few years, but was torn down in 1993 and is now a parking lot.

Donaldsons moved into a smaller building as part of City Center in 1982, eventually becoming Carson Pirie Scott, and then after a further reduction in space, to Wards. Wards closed in the mid-'90s. The original Donaldsons store was demolished and replaced with Gavidae Common, anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue. It opened in 1989, but Saks closed in 2004, to be replaced with a three level Saks Off Fifth store.

Daytons became Marshall Fields several years ago and will soon become Macys. The store is still largely the same and is the true jewel of Mpls retail. Its a classic flagship dwtn department store (approx. 550,000 sf of retail space!!!).

The Labelles store was torn down for office development, while the Young Quinlin Building (by far the most distinctive archtecturally) was saved and is a now a mixed use development with Ralph Lauren/Polo and Crate & Barrel on Nicollet Mall (across from our new 2-story Target store).

In south Minneapolis, Sears used to have a store at Lake Street & Chicago, which closed in 1993. The building was vacant for about 10 years, and has just now reopened as a huge mixed use development with office, retail, condos, and a hotel. See http://midtowncommunityworks.org/exchange/ for more info

NYC still has Macy's as it did back in the 1910's.

http://www.cubeweb.org.uk/newyork/images/macys.jpg

In Columbus, it will always be Lazarus! I was sad but more angry when Federated announced that it was closing the flagship store on High Street. I mean they could have kept it open if they had bothered to invest some money in the store; it could have probably stayed open if they spent as much money as they did on the Easton store! But I digress. It is good to see that they are converting the store into a state of the art office building and perhaps retail. I'm sure the original Lazarus was well over 500,000 sq. feet and that it use to have a lot more and true designer names, at least up until the 80s or so. Its a shame that stores like Lazarus, Richs, Burdines and Goldsmiths were all taken over. Macys is kinda like the new Wal-Mart!

I think department stores here in America should be like the ones in Europe. I mean in London alone, you have Selfridges(which is awesome), Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Peter Jones, John Lewis, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, and Liberty. In Paris you have Le Bon Marche, Printemps, and Galeries Lafayette. In Berlin you have Werteim, Herite, KaDeWe, and Karstadt. Most of these are independently owned stores with an awesome merchandise selection. But then again, Europe has no where near a largr mall culture like we do here in the States. But at least we can remember the good ol' days.

I know this isnt on the same level of the larger cities, but my hometown of Terre Haute had several local department stores, two of which I remember visiting as a child in the early 1980s.

The Meis Store on Wabash was the last downtown department store to close; they had three branches in Terre Haute (Honey Creek, The Meadows and Plaza North) and stores in outlying towns. Meis was bought by Elder Beerman of Dayton in the late 1980s, I believe.

The downtown Meis store was in this block, the fourth from the right.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/vigo/postcards/bevwab.jpg

This photograph was taken in 1985, and you can see the facade on the Meis Buildings on the left, and where the Meis name had been removed. The empty lot in front was where the Root Store was. Within a few years, Terre Haute First National bank built their headquarters there.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/cjfjapan/Meisbuilding.jpg

The Root Department Store left downtown for the mall around 1980, but it lasted until the late 1990s, when it was bought by Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayers; it will soon become a Wal-Macy's. This store was operated by the same family that owned the Root Glass Company, which designed and first manufactured the shapely Coke-Cola bottle.

Schultz Bros deparment store was located at 4th and Wabash. It lasted until the early 1980s. My fondest memories are of the creaky wood floors at that building. Schultz and Meis planned to inhabit a new downtown mall that was to be built in 1980, but funding fell through, and they left soon after.

A fourth, that I never visited, was A. Herz. It was located next to Meis on wabash Avenue; I dont know what kind of deparment store it was, or when it closed. You can see the Herz building in this postcard--

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/cjfjapan/Indiana.jpg

I know a couple of stores in New Hampshire which seemed to have a following and are now gone include Rich's, Bradlees, & Zayre. Add to that the future loss of Filene's (Macy's), and you'll have the loss of a major staple in that area of the US.

NYC still has Macy's as it did back in the 1910's.

http://www.cubeweb.org.uk/newyork/images/macys.jpg

its got that funky corner i think because the dude who owned it refused to sell it!

Now I'm going to date myself, but back in the day the Detroit area also had Federal's, Korvette's, Shopper's Fair, Kresege's Neisner's & Arlan's.

And before my time....Kern's, leaving us with the Kern block and the clock Downtown.

This is what Macy's used to look like back in the old days.

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/074-1908macys.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/144.jpg

I liked Macy's without the big sign.

A&P is still in Mid-Atlantic states, but I guess not in WNY. The Canadian division has recently been sold.

I can only think of a couple in the Philadelphia area. Off the top of my head:

Gimbels
Lit Brothers

I'm surely missing others, that's all I can think of right now.

Edit: (Added) Wanamaker's

^and soon, Strawbridge's.

New York also has its own share of ex-department stores.

While we still have the Woolworth Building, there is nary a Woolworth to be found in town.

Among the storied department stores?

Abraham & Strauss (bought by Federated, shut down)
Alexander's
B. Altman & Co.
Bamberger's (merged into Macy's)
Best & Co.
Bonwit Teller (Trump Tower now stands where the flagship department store used to)
Gimbel's (one half of the storied Gimbel's-Macy's rivalry in the early 1900s)
Stern's (merged into Macy's)

All gone.

I'm kind of worried that we'll lose Lord and Taylor's. L & T was part of May Department Stores and they merged with Federated. But Federated already has Bloomingdales as the high-end department store in NYC, so who knows what will happen.

There are some other department stores that stilll exist in NYC besides Macy's.

Bloomingdale's
http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/nyc/Bloomingdales.jpg

Saks Fifth Avenue
http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/ravi/nyc2003/Oct200326_05m.jpg

^They've already stated that they want to sell L&T as it is. Their real estate is too worth too much, and it doesn't fall into their plans of having their two main chains.

So they'll sell L&T as a department store? Or they'll sell the land on which L&T stands? Does this mean they will shut down the name L&T?

I know a couple of stores in New Hampshire which seemed to have a following and are now gone include Rich's, Bradlees, & Zayre. Add to that the future loss of Filene's (Macy's), and you'll have the loss of a major staple in that area of the US.

there used to be a zayre on transit rd in lockport in niagara county.
i know thats gone.
wasn't zayre a canadian chain?

New York also has its own share of ex-department stores.

While we still have the Woolworth Building, there is nary a Woolworth to be found in town.

Among the storied department stores?

Abraham & Strauss (bought by Federated, shut down)
Alexander's
B. Altman & Co.
Bamberger's (merged into Macy's)
Best & Co.
Bonwit Teller (Trump Tower now stands where the flagship department store used to)
Gimbel's (one half of the storied Gimbel's-Macy's rivalry in the early 1900s)
Stern's (merged into Macy's)

All gone.

I'm kind of worried that we'll lose Lord and Taylor's. L & T was part of May Department Stores and they merged with Federated. But Federated already has Bloomingdales as the high-end department store in NYC, so who knows what will happen.


up until a few years ago there was a bonwit-teller in buffalo.
the company was based in syracuse and still has a store there if im not mistaken.

there used to be a zayre on transit rd in lockport in niagara county.
i know thats gone.
wasn't zayre a canadian chain?
I'm not sure. I know they were based in Massachusetts somewhere, but beyond that I don't know.

As for Canadian chains, maybe you're thinking of Zellers?

i may be thinking of zellers.

im sure of the zayre in lockport though, there was a big lots put in there after zayre closed.

yes

cjfjapan-

My hometown, Anderson,IN, also had a Meis. We used to call my sister, "Miss Meis."

BTW, if anyone notices the Bloomberg Tower in back of Bloomingdale's, that's where Alexander's Dept Store once stood until it was slated for demolition back in 2001.

No, the Lord & Taylor chain will be sold entirely.

Louisville

Kaufman’s department store was located on Fourth Street within a block of Stewart’s (owned by Associated Dry Goods). Kaufman’s had two branch stores: Dixie Manor and The Mall (Shelbyville Road). The Kaufman’s Fourth Street building is incorporated in the current River City Mall. In the mid-60’s L. S. Ayres & Co. purchased Kaufman’s and later changed the name to Ayres. In 1972 Ayres merged with Associated Dry Goods resulting in two Associated store companies competing in the same market, a first for Associated. Ayres and Stewart’s coexisted until the late 70’s when all Louisville area stores were placed under the Stewart’s name. In the early 80’s Pogue’s (Associated) of Cincinnati was rebranded as Ayres, and then Stewart’s was also rebranded as Ayres. The Ayres name remained in Louisville until the 1986 Associated and May Co. merger; from that date I am lost as to what store locations in the Louisville market became Hess, Lord & Taylor, or another name.

Selman’s was another high-end Louisville Fourth Street store (with a branch at The Oxmoor Center). It changed it’s name to (or was purchased by) Gus Mayer in the late 60’s or early 70’s. Gus Mayer was founded in New Orleans (1900); the stores were sold off individually in 1975. The Pizitz family of Birmingham purchased some of the stores and the name.

Indianapolis stores

The H. P. Wasson and Co. (Wasson’s) was an elite department store across Washington Street from L. S. Ayres & Co. In 1965 there were three suburban branches (Eastgate, Meadows and Eagledale); there were also stores in Kokomo, Anderson and Bloomington. The original storefront was on Monument Circle with a major addition built on the corner of Meridian and Washington Streets. The addition was built in an art moderne style of rose colored granite and was the first Indianapolis department store to be designed and built to only use artificial interior lighting. In the late 60’s two tragedies struck the company; the Monument Circle building burned to the ground not to be rebuilt and Mr. Wasson’s wife and son were killed in an airplane crash. I am not clear as to which event occurred first. It was reported that Mr. Wasson lost all interest in the business and sold the company to Goldblatt’s of Chicago. My first visit to the store was in the late 70’s to see a shopworn store with low-end merchandise. The store closed in the early 80’s.

L. S. Ayres & Co. (founded 1872) merged with Associated Dry Goods in 1972, merged with The May Co. in 1986, merged with Federated DS in 2005, and scheduled to become Macy’s in 2006. Ayres also purchased and owned other retail companies, some later placed under the Ayres name: John Bressmer Co. (founded 1857, Springfield, IL, purchased in 1958, I do not know further history); Wolf & Dessauer (Ft. Wayne, purchased 1970’s (?), later changed to the Ayres name); founded Ayres’ Boulevard Shop (1955, Marott Hotel); founded Ayr-Way discount stores (1961; later purchased and renamed by Target); founded Sycamore and Cygnet shops (1968, both boutiques, but don’t know the final history of either), founded Murray Showrooms (1954, Indianapolis furniture mart to the trade only, don’t know the final history here either). The flagship store at Washington and Meridian Streets is partially occupied by The Parisian store. Two long-term ad phrases: 1) “A gift from Ayres means more,” and 2) “That Ayres’ look” (1936). Old phone number: MElrose-2511. Employee news publication: Log Book.

The William H. Block Co. (founded 1896) merged with Allied Stores in 1962, merged with Federated DS and placed under the Lazarus name in 1987. The flagship store on North Illinois Street is part retail and part condominium apartments on the upper levels. Old phone number: MElrose-8511 (note the similarity to Ayres). Employee news publication: Block’s Booster.

Soon, we can add Strawbridge's, Marshall Field's, Kaufmann's, Meier & Frank, Famous Barr, Filene's, Hecht's, LS Ayres, Jones Store, Robinson's-May, Foley's onto the Macy's cemetary (with the other former Federated brands of Bon Marché, Burdine's, Rich's, Lazurus, Goldsmith's, Bullock's, Stern's, Liberty House, Davison's, amongst others already stated).

Proffitts and McRae's are also already being turned into Belks slowly.

Terre Haute, Indiana

The Root Store Co. (1856) Root’s most famous customer was Abraham Lincoln; her purchased linen handkerchiefs. Root's was purchased by the H. B. Chaflin chain in the early 1900's. Chaflin later became the Mercantile Stores Inc.; Mercantile was purchased by Dillard's and then divested of Root's with other some other stores to The May Co. in 1998 who placed the store under the Famous-Barr name, and then later L. S. Ayres & Co.

Meis Brothers also owned a free standing jeans boutique called The Bottomhalf that developed out of a department of the same name within the store. Meis stores offered immediate charge accounts to Indiana State University students upon presenting their university student photo ID card with a credit line of $50; this was a significant to an 18-year-old in the 1970’s.

Birmingham:
Pizitz-later became Parisian; purchased by Saks 5th Ave. when Saks moved its headquarters to Birmingham. Parisian still maintains its autonomy.
Rich's-explained previously
Big B-bought by CVS
Newberry's-demolished; turned into IMAX dome.
Winn Dixie-downsizing at a tremendous rate
Bruno's (Food World, Foodmax, Food Fair)-same as Winn Dixie
Loveman's-went down before my time
Kress-same as Loveman's
Macy's
Zayre-purchased by Wal Mart in the 80's
Eckerd's-lost a lot of ground to CVS and Walgreens (I think only one store remains-not sure)
Service Merchandise-went down hard
Long's Electronics-changed their name to Orbit Electronics in the 90's; closed months after the name change
KMart (Kresge)-losing out to Wal Mart
McCrae's

These are all of the department stores/groceries/drug stores I can think of that are gone completely or on their way out, mostly, but not entirely, due to the rise of the evil empire (Wal Mart).

Houston:
Mervyn's
Foleys?-unconfirmed

Huntsville,AL:
Bruno's
Winn Dixie
KMart-completely gone
Service Merchandise
Goody's
TJ Maxx

Mervyn's is still "alive" in the West Coast. TJ Maxx closed in Huntsville!?

Boyhaha....

Yes yes I remember alexanders as a kid!

but the best of them all was CALDOR!

caldor!!!!! holy crap.

how about gold circle? anyone had those?

My grandparents grew up in Terre Haute. Herz changed to Alden's Department Store in 1946, and my grandmother was a shop girl and elevator girl there at Alden's until my grandfather came back from WWII (this is the typical 1940's marriage story).
anyways, i don't know what happened to that store, but obviously there's some history, and it's kind of cool to know my grandma was a shop girl for that store.

The Ayres name remained in Louisville until the 1986 Associated and May Co. merger; from that date I am lost as to what store locations in the Louisville market became Hess,

I don't recall Stewarts being rebranded as Ayres, though I do recall a suburban Ayres out at Dixie Manor shopping center that became a Stewarts..or was it an Ayr-Way? I know Ayr-Way was in Louisville.

Other K-Mart style stores in Louisville during my time there:

Consolidated
Zayre
Arlans
TG&Y
Grants
Woolco (Woolworths attempt at doing what Kresge did with K-Mart)

I know the downtown Stewarts became Hess, and then was closed, which was pretty unfortunate.

Indianapolis folks should check out the Indiana State Museum, which has recreated the old downtown Indy Ayres resteraunt, right down to the menu and watiress' uniforms.


think department stores here in America should be like the ones in Europe. I mean in London alone, you have Selfridges(which is awesome), Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Peter Jones, John Lewis, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, and Liberty. In Paris you have Le Bon Marche, Printemps, and Galeries Lafayette. In Berlin you have Werteim, Herite, KaDeWe, and Karstadt.

Didnt the US get the idea from Europe to start with? Was Bon Marche the first dept. store?

(I think there used to be a store by that name in Seattle, too, way back when).

caldor!!!!! holy crap.

how about gold circle? anyone had those?
Gold Circle was bought either by, or what became, Target in the late 80's. While they didn't show up in the Buffalo area for another 10 years or so, that acquisition was apparently one of the largest to help propel Target into the national retail forefront. Hills, and I believe Bradlees, Caldor, and/or Zayre may have been involved in some way with that as well (don't remember). Did a little research a few months ago when I became curious (and nostalgic).

I was thinking how pathetic shopping has become. For instance, in the Buffalo southtowns, I remember growing up:

Approximately:
3 K-Mart
2 Ames
2 Gold Circle
1 Hills

Doesn't seem like alot, but considering it effectively served probably no more than 100k residents, 8 stores is quite a bit.

Now what we have:

1 K-Mart
1 Target
1 Wal-Mart

Servicing an area probably roughly 170-200k.

Used to be nice, because if you were looking for something and the store didn't have it, you always had other options, and chances are you would always find what you were looking for. Nowadays, you don't have those choices. And the knowledge that if the massive box doesn't have what you're looking for, it probably doesn't exist. Then if you're like me, and refuse to shop at Wal-Mart if it were the last store on earth, you're down one more. Pathetic.

Terre Haute, Indiana

The Root Store Co. (1856) Root’s most famous customer was Abraham Lincoln; her purchased linen handkerchiefs. Root's was purchased by the H. B. Chaflin chain in the early 1900's. Chaflin later became the Mercantile Stores Inc.; Mercantile was purchased by Dillard's and then divested of Root's with other some other stores to The May Co. in 1998 who placed the store under the Famous-Barr name, and then later L. S. Ayres & Co.

Meis Brothers also owned a free standing jeans boutique called The Bottomhalf that developed out of a department of the same name within the store. Meis stores offered immediate charge accounts to Indiana State University students upon presenting their university student photo ID card with a credit line of $50; this was a significant to an 18-year-old in the 1970’s.


These were both really wonderful stores. After they closed the downtown store, Roots had a very nice store at Honey Creek Square and another one in downtown Sullivan (on the Square--long since closed) as I recall. Meis had stores all over Indiana, downstate Illinois and western Kentucky. Those are now Macy's and Elder-Beerman, respectively. Still a JCPenney and a Sears at the mall too; Stein Mart at the old Meis store in the Meadows.

Cwilson, I love that you called your sister Miss Meis. :D

Terre Haute also had its run of "K-mart" like stores--those I remember were
Zayre (late 1970s)
Woolco (early 1980s)
Hills (late 1980s-early 1990s)
Ames (late 1990s - 2002ish)

Now the city is dominated by Dollar General Stores, 2 Giga-Wal-Farts, Super-Kmart and a couple of Big Lots. Yuck.

I remember Ames and Caldor

Downtown Columbus, OH, used to house Lazarus, The Union, Morehouse-Fashion, The Boston Store and J C Penney. Now only a Kaufman's branch remains as the sole occupied achor of a downtown mall that was built on the Morehouse-Fashion site and joined to the now closed Lazarus.

Out of Business store is something we here i Rochester have a lot of, it's what we do best: Sibley's, Kaufmans, McCurdy's, B. Forman. Ames, Big N, many K-Marts, Star Markets, Two Guys, a J. C. Penny's, Caldor, and on and on.

All we have left are a few K-Marts, Targets and Wal-Marts. Plus a couple of mall department stores that charge more than most of the locals can afford so they are usually empty when you go there.

In Tennessee,

Memphis
Lowenstein - a Memphis-based department store chain that closed in the 1980s (with some stores becoming Dillard's before eventually closing)
Goldsmith's - a Memphis retail chain for over 120 years before eventually being renamed Macy's in 2005.

Nashville:
Castner-Knott - a Nashville-based retail chain that was sold to Dillard's in 1998 (all of Nashville's stores became Proffitt's, which later became Hechts, before being sold and converted to Macy's just recently).

To a true, blue Chicagoan:

• Marshall Field's is not a defunct department store for it lives on in our hearts.

• Macy's isn't a defunct department store, it is a dysfunctional department store