Lasalle & Koch Co. or Lasalle's was a department store in Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A., with branches in some nearby communities.
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The Lasalle & Koch Company opened its flagship downtown Toledo at 513 Adams Street in 1918. The company was purchased by R.H. Macy & Co. in 1923.[1]
In 1927, the company commissioned mural artist Arthur Covey to create a series of paintings about Toledo-area industries which were exhibited in the store's display windows.[2]
During the postwar era, Lasalle's expanded by opening branches in the downtown shopping districts of smaller Northwest Ohio cities: Bowling Green (1945), Tiffin (1947), Sandusky (1949), and Findlay (1955).[3]
In late 1957 and most of 1958, there was a 13-month-long strike against Lasalle's and two other Toledo department stores, Lamson's and Lion Store, by the Retail Clerks International Association, which later became the United Food and Commercial Workers. The strike was settled by a "Statement of Understanding" under which the striking workers were reinstated to their jobs but the union was not recognized.[4][5]
Lasalle's opened their first suburban shopping center branch in 1962, in Toledo's Westgate Center.[3]
The Lasalle's stores were converted to the Macy's name in 1981.[6] At the time of the name change, Lasalle's operated the flagship downtown Toledo store, and suburban branches at Westgate, Northtowne, and Woodville Mall. Lasalle's also had stores in the downtown shopping districts of Bowling Green, Sandusky, Findlay, and Tiffin.
Following the name change in 1981, Macy's Midwest closed the Lasalle's executive offices, credit department, and buying department, and moved their functions to Kansas City. After two years of gradually reducing the floor space of the downtown store by closing off floors, Macy's Midwest management closed it.[6]
Macy's sold the remaining Ohio stores and their Toledo warehouse to Dayton retailer Elder-Beerman in 1985.[7][8] Elder-Beerman now operates a store at the Westgate Village Shopping Center‎ at 3301 Secor Road in Toledo as well as in communities near Toledo including Bowling Green, Ohio, Monroe, Michigan, Adrian, Michigan, Findlay, Ohio, Sandusky, Ohio and Defiance, Ohio.
The downtown Toledo building stood neglected and vacant for thirteen years. In 1996, developers converted the store to apartments and retail space.[9] The building is part of the Madison Avenue Historic District.[10]
The current Macy's store in Toledo's Franklin Park Mall has no connection with the Lasalle's stores. It was opened in 1971 by the J.L. Hudson Company of Detroit. Hudson's and Dayton's had merged in 1969, but each division kept their respective identities and local management. All Dayton-Hudson stores adopted the Marshall Field's nameplate in 2001, during which time corporate parent Dayton-Hudson had adopted the name of their former subsidiary, Target. In 2006, following the Federated purchase of May Co. and the Marshall Field's stores, these stores became Macy's.