L.S. Ayres

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L.S. Ayres
Image:LS frontpage logo.gif
Type Department store
Founded 1872
Headquarters Indianapolis, Indiana
Industry Retail
Products Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website None

L.S. Ayres & Company was an Indianapolis, Indiana, department store founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres and taken over by his son Frederic in 1896. The former Ayres locations are now part of St. Louis-based Macy's Midwest, and Minneapolis-based Macy's North, divisions of Federated Department Stores.

During the first half of the 20th Century, Ayres grew to be Indianapolis' premier department store. Its fashion leadership was portrayed in a series of "That Ayres Look" ads that appeared nationally and locally from 1930s to the 1970s. The 1905 landmark downtown store, at One West Washington Street, was enlarged several times, with the largest expansion after WWII.

Ayres' first branch stores opened in 1958 in Market Square in Lafayette, Indiana, and at Glendale Center on the north side of Indianapolis. Additional branches were opened in Indianapolis and other Indiana markets in the 60s and 70s. Ayres also acquired Bressmers in Springfield, Illinois (which operated under its own name) and two Wolf & Dessauer stores in Fort Wayne. These were later converted to Ayres locations.

In 1972 Ayres was acquired by Associated Dry Goods of New York City, which in the 1980s merged its Cincinnati, Ohio, based Pogue's and Louisville, Kentucky, based Stewart's into L.S. Ayres. In 1986 Associated was in its turn acquired by May Department Stores. May Company soon shuttered the former Pogue's and Stewart's locations, and in 1991 merged operations with its St. Louis, Missouri, headquartered Famous-Barr division in 1991, at which point the 1905 L.S. Ayres flagship in downtown Indianapolis was closed. May Department Stores was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2005; the next year, non-redundant L.S. Ayres locations became Macy's.

The L.S. Ayres Tea Room, which operated at the downtown department store from 1905 to 1990, served a clientele of fashionable shoppers in a formal setting. It has been recreated at the Indiana State Museum using the original tables and chairs.

Contents

[edit] Ayr-Way

Ayres developed a discount format called Ayr-Way in 1961. This subsidiary was one of the first discount store divisions lauched by a traditional department store. Ayres opened the first Ayr-Way store prior to both the first Kmart and Target stores. At one time they had forty-seven stores in three states in the Midwestern United States. The concept was sold by Associated in 1976 under anti-trust pressure from Federal Trade Commission. In 1980, the Ayr-Way chain, consisting of 40 stores and one distribution center, was acquired by Dayton Hudson Corporation, now known as Target Corporation. The stores were remodeled and reopened as Target in 1981.[1]

[edit] Former L. S. Ayres locations

  • Bloomington - College Mall - 85,000 sq ft. (opened 1982, now Macy's)
  • Evansville - Washington Square - (opened as Stewarts Dry Goods, bought by L.S. Ayres, closed 1992; later Elder-Beerman, now Values Unlimited)
  • Fort Wayne
    • Glenbrook Square - 240,000 sq ft. (opened 1966, now Macy's)
    • Southtown Mall - (opened as Wolf & Dessauer 1969, bought by L.S. Ayres, closed 1992. Mall torn down)
  • Indianapolis
    • Castleton Square - (opened 1990, closed and demolished 2006)
    • Downtown (opened 1905, closed 1992, store now occupied by Carson Pirie Scott)
    • Glendale Mall - 233,000 sq ft. (opened 1958, now Macy's)
    • Lafayette Square - 154,000 sq ft. (opened 1974, closed 2006)
    • Greenwood Park Mall - 162,000 sq ft. (opened 1965, closed and demolished 2006)
    • Washington Square - 145,000 sq ft. (opened 1974, now Macy's)
  • Jeffersonville Grant Plaza/Jeff Plaza (closed 1980 after a tree fell and demolished the store, now a Big Lots).
  • Lafayette
    • Market Square Shopping Center (closed 1994, replaced by Tippecanoe Mall store)
    • Tippecanoe Mall - 140,000 sq ft. (opened 1994, now Macy's)
  • Merrillville - Westfield Southlake (formerly Southlake Mall) - 165,000 sq ft. (opened 1978, now Macy's)
  • Muncie
    • Muncie Mall (replaced 1996 by second store below)
    • Muncie Mall (opened 1996, now Macy's)
  • Mishawaka - University Park Mall - 153,000 sq ft. (opened 1979, now Macy's)
  • South Bend - Scottsdale Mall (closed 2000, mall torn down)
  • Terre Haute - Honey Creek Mall - 175,000 sq ft. (opened 1998, now Macy's)

[edit] Former Ayr-Way locations

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Illinois

[edit] Indiana

  • Anderson
  • Bloomington - (later Target, now demolished)
  • Columbus - (later Target)
  • Elkhart - Pierre Moran Mall (originally W.T. Grant; later Target, then sat empty. Mall torn down)
  • Evansville - 4xxx N. 1st Ave.
  • Fort Wayne
    • Ayr-Way North (near Glenbrook Square; now Target)
    • Ayr-Way South (U.S. 27 South; later Target, now closed)
  • Indianapolis
    • Ayr-Way South Shopping Center (South US-31)
    • Ayr-Way East Shopping Center
    • E. Washington St.[2]
    • 2333 Lafayette Rd. (now Harvest Prayer Center)
    • Nora Plaza (now Target)
    • Pendleton Pike
  • Lafayette
  • Shelbyville - Hwy. 44
  • South Bend
    • Scottsdale Mall (now Erskine Village) (later Target; mall torn down, new Super Target on site)
    • 605 N. Hickory Rd. (later Target, now Steve & Barry's)[3]

[edit] Kentucky

  • Louisville
    • Bashford Manor Mall (now Target; rest of mall torn down)
    • 427-437 S. 4th St. (former Kaufman-Straus)[4]

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ News article detailing Target discount chain's growth from 1962 to 1990, including acquisition
  2. ^ http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/dc012&CISOPTR=1177&REC=19
  3. ^ http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061027/Biz05/610270438/-1/BIZ
  4. ^ http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/KY/Jefferson/state5.html

[edit] External links


Store conversions to Macy's

2006: Famous-Barr | Filene's | Foley's | Hecht's | The Jones Store
Kaufmann's | L.S. Ayres | Marshall Field's | Meier & Frank | Robinsons-May | Strawbridge's
2005: The Bon Marché | Burdines | Goldsmith's | Lazarus | Rich's    2001: Liberty House | Stern's
1996: The Broadway | Bullock's | Emporium-Capwell | The Emporium | Jordan Marsh | Weinstock's
1995: Abraham & Straus    1986: Bamberger's | Davison's
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