Random Retail History and the Western Woods Mall

After I published a recent story, a couple things came to mind that sent me down a rabbit hole. The Macy’s anchor store at the recently documented Tri-Couty Mall in suburban Cincinnati had a distinct look, one that harkened back to its original life as a store known as “Shillito’s.”

The Tri-County Mall Macy’s (formerly Lazarus-Macys, Shillito Rikes, and Shillito’s) as seen shuttered in the spring of 2022. Note the “label scar” from the Macy’s sign in the upper left corner.

A local brand, Shillito’s dated back to 1830, quickly gaining success and repeatedly outgrowing one downtown Cincinnati location after another by 1878. That year, the company would open up a massive, new store in the heart of the city that would end up becoming an architectural and cultural landmark. The quintessential American department store, and the Queen City’s original, Shillito’s cemented itself as the local mecca of of shopping—a place of memories for generations of Cincinnatians to come.

At just under a century old in 1925, the company came under the ownership of the Columbus, Ohio based F&R Lazarus Company. Keeping the classic Shillito’s name, Lazarus would eventually expand the brand throughout the region. The Tri-County Mall would end up being Shillito’s first location outside of downtown Cincinnati and the first of eight branch stores to be built throughout the city’s suburbs in addition to enclaves of nearby cities such as Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky.

The Shillito’s logo. *Public domain image via Wikipedia.*

Let’s step back for a minute, though, as the history of department stores in this nation is complicated to say the least. It’s a lengthy tale of mergers, takeovers, and economic drama that’s still playing out today. Cincinnati was, and until very recently still had been, at the center of a lot of industry change. In 1929, fresh off their acquisition of Shillito’s, the Lazarus company entered into a nationwide merger that would create the corporation known as Federated Department Stores. Steady expansion over the years saw the conglomerate acquire chain after chain in city after city. By 1945, the retail giant relocated its headquarters from Columbus to Cincinnati and would continue its trend of aggressive expansion via acquisition.

Lazarus logo from the end of the company’s life. *Image via Wikipedia.*

Although Federated was purchasing existing department store chains throughout the nation and bringing them under their corporate umbrella, the company generally preserved local names and identities. Such had been the case with Shillito’s up until that policy began shifting in the 1980s. Shillito’s identity was merged with that of the nearby Dayton, Ohio Rike Kumler Co. chain to become “Shillito-Rike’s” for a few years before all stores were converted to the Lazarus brand. The Tri-County Mall anchor location saw both of these name changes as it continued to grow alongside the mall it was connected to.

Federated would eventually be purchased by longtime rival Macy’s who slowly began rolling out that iconic brand name throughout their corporate landscape. Tri-County’s Lazarus became “Lazarus-Macy’s” for a short while before simply being branded as a Macy’s location in 2005. Federated would even rename itself as “Macy’s, Inc.” in 2007, all while maintaining their global headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. For a time, if you knew just where to look (and were a dork tasked with writing a book), one could peer down a particular street in Cincinnati and see an alignment of retail and corporate history.

A fading Shillito’s logo being dwarfed by the Macy’s logo on the Cincinnati skyline in 2015. Photographed for the book *Fading Ads of Cincinnati*.

There, the Macy’s logo atop their downtown Cincinnati skyscraper towered over the long fading ad of Shillito’s which sat atop the company’s former, iconic downtown department store. That building, which had opened in 1878, was closed in 1997 as its then Lazarus branded store moved a few blocks over to the city’s Fountain Square area. The old Shillito’s building would eventually be renovated into high-end lofts and office space.

In the below photograph you can see how a 1937 renovation added an Art Deco appearance that remains today.

View of the Shillito’s building from Cincinnati’s Race St. showing where its Art Deco renovation ends and where the original building facade remains.

The former Shillito’s branding still above the residential doors.

The 1878 Shillito’s location that now serves as high-end lofts and office space. The former parent company headquarters of Federated/Macy’s can be seen in the background.

A quick aside: in order to get the above photograph, I ventured to the top of a parking garage that I believe may have originally been built to serve Shillito’s downtown location. The lobby, seen below, certainly reeked of mid-1960s, early 1970s chic.

As if there was any doubt as to who the parking garage once belonged to, this brand name etched into the outside wall confirmed it:

The Federated Department Stores brand name etched into the parking garage near the iconic Shillito’s building in downtown Cincinnati.

Like the Tri-County anchor store, the former downtown Shillito’s-turned-Lazarus also eventually become a Macy’s. Just around the block from Macy’s corporate headquarters, this was also the store where Reds pitcher Mike Leake got caught shoplifting in 2011. Seven years later in 2018, the store would close following a downward trajectory that had been plaguing Federated/Macy’s Inc. for years. By 2020, Macy’s announced its complete departure from Cincinnati, relocating its corporate offices to New York.

The fading Shillito’s ad still remains, but the departure of Macy’s corporate offices from Cincinnati also called for the removal of their branding from the skyline.

In the publication of 2015’s Fading Ads of Cincinnati, I abbreviated these historic anecdotes of retail mergers. If you’ve made it this far into the post without complete confusion, you can probably understand why.

But, why stop there?

Let’s just go ahead and make it all a little more interesting as we swing back to Tri-County for a moment.

The former Tri-County Mall Shillito’s/Lazarus/Macy’s as seen in July 2020. *Note: the decorative elements on the facade are responsible for the white surface having different hues. That’s just the building’s appearance, not ridiculous photo editing.*

The former Shillito’s/Lazarus/Macy’s at the Tri-County Mall had a distinct, pseudo mid-century modern look—one created when it opened as Shillito’s first suburban expansion in 1960. It wasn’t the only store to look like that, however, and as I authored the recent post about Tri-County’s demise—I remembered that I had once photographed another similar building.

The former Shillito’s of Western Woods Mall as seen in September 2020.

Western Hills Photo & Hobby is a great local spot where I occasionally get 35mm film developed, but if we’re being honest—I spend most of my time there bullshitting with the staff while my dog runs around. One day, I noticed the abandoned mall looking structure across the street and hopped over to photograph it. Although I didn’t grow up on that side of the city, I immediately recognized the design as similar to the one I’d known at Tri-County.

The former Shillito’s of Western Woods Mall as photographed in September 2020.

This former Shillito’s location had been part of the short-lived and small Western Woods Mall (that mall has a history all its own and I’ll once again shoutout Kristin/UniComm’s excellent mall history videos if you want that info, but in this moment, I want to focus specifically on the former Shillito’s). Even in its abandoned state, the dead department store still looked interesting and photographed well in the setting sun of Cincinnati’s west side. Like the Tri-County location, this Shillito’s would eventually become a Lazarus, but things took a different turn—although one still with local department store industry ties.

After the Western Woods Shillito’s/Lazarus closed, this space would be occupied by rival McAlpin’s. It wasn’t the first time that a McAlpin’s had filled Shillito’s shoes. Also a local company, the McAlpin’s department store chain had occupied Shillito’s former store on downtown Cincinnati’s 4th St. after Shillito’s opened its iconic 1878 building.

The former downtown Cincinnati McAlpin’s store (previously Shillito’s, now luxury condominiums known as “The McAlpin”) as seen in July 2022.

Much like Federated, McAlpin’s would eventually be consolidated and merged into a department store conglomerate. The company closed its 4th St. store in 1996 and became part of the Dillard’s company in 1998. All McAlpin’s were rebranded as Dillards including the location at Western Woods Mall (Tri-County also had a McAlpin’s-to-Dillards conversion opposite of its former Shillito’s/Macy’s).

The Western Woods Mall Dillards eventually became a “Dillards Clearance Center” before being closed completely. At present, it’s now a self-storage facility. Dillard’s still operates as one of the nation’s largest department store chains today alongside rival Macy’s. Neither company has any corporate offices in Cincinnati anymore and regional/local department store chains in general seem to be things of the past. The Cincinnati region is, however, a major hub for Amazon.

The former Macy’s, Inc headquarters building as seen in downtown Cincinnati in July 2022. If you look closely, you can make out the faint outline of the Macy’s wordmark.

Many older Cincinnatians I’ve talked to over the years have distinct Shillito’s memories. The former downtown store’s Christmas display is so firmly engrained in the nostalgic memories of many locals that it’s been somewhat restored and still makes appearances around the city each holiday season. Myself and many others, however, grew up with the later experience of mall culture and places like Tri-County and Forest Fair filling our adolescent minds. And now, these days, department stores continue to face increasing competition and malls continue to dwindle. Further, today’s generation will grow up with its own nostalgia and its own memories. Maybe this random post here on the internet will help to fill in some historical gaps and serve the next person who’s awake at 3 AM and trying to cobble together random bits of retail history (while also asking themselves what the hell they’re doing when this was supposed to just be a “quick” post).

Either way, thanks for reading this. I’m done writing about dead malls and department stores for awhile. But if you dig those, here’s all the other stories I’ve done over the years…

Back with other stuff soon.

Random Retail History and the Western Woods Mall

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