![lazarus department store lazarus department store](https://live.staticflickr.com/4550/38256577202_4dd6c6ea5c.jpg)
Jeffrey, the youngest of the Lazarus brothers, moved to Cincinnati to manage operations of Shillito’s. The Lazarus family wisely retained Shillito’s valued store employees, as well as its cherished retailing name.
![lazarus department store lazarus department store](https://cdn-images.av-iq.com/products/profile/large/Ford%20Audi-Video%20-%20Lazarus%20Department%20Store.png)
The Shillito family completely departed from the family business in 1928. They were grandsons of Simon Lazarus, a Jewish immigrant from Germany who established a dry goods store in Columbus in 1851. John Shillito II and his four sisters, grandchildren of the store’s 1830 founder, sold the entire operation to the four Lazarus brothers - Simon, Fred, Robert, and Jeffrey. In the case of both department store families, the grandchildren finalized their signatures to the ending of one era and the beginning of another. In June 1928, sixteen months before the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, the Lazarus family of Columbus, Ohio purchased the John Shillito Company. In 1925, Stewart Shillito died, and his son, John Shillito II, inherited the position of presidency, as well as the store’s problems. Indeed, the 1920s brought great challenges to the department store. The irony of the decline was in vast contradiction to the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. However, in the next seven years, it slipped to fourth place. Courtesy of Towne Properties.īy 1920, Shillito’s led downtown Cincinnati department stores in total sales. Shillito’s interior, downtown Cincinnati, circa 1928. In a November 1913 newspaper advertisement, the store boasted that “Each week shows a marked increase in sales the popularity of our Basement Store is growing the bargains are being appreciated practically every day something new is being added to the bargain list our Basement Store is a complete organization within itself” (Cincinnati Post, November 18, 1913, p. Called the “Low-Price Basement Store,” it had its own direct entrances on both Seventh Street and Shillito Place (formerly called George Street). Perhaps the most popular attraction of the 1913 remodeling was the opening of a bargain basement store. Quite possibly, it was at this time that the store completed a seventh-floor addition to the original six-floor building. In turn, the floored-in areas of the old atrium provided more sales floor space. As part of what appears to have been a fireproofing plan, the six-floor open rotunda, or atrium, was enclosed. In 1913, James Griffith and Sons undertook a massive renovation of Shillito’s downtown store. Graduating in 1911, he joined the family business. Stewart’s son, John Shillito II, meanwhile, attended Harvard University. The department store even telegraphed customer orders for goods from Europe. Shillito’s catered to its customers, delivering merchandise to their homes via wagons pulled by beautiful Palomino horses.
![lazarus department store lazarus department store](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a7/d5/e0/a7d5e0df7a3136bc2285c110d8cfb123.jpg)
The John Shillito Company was an innovator and a trendsetter. Courtesy, Lawrence Brand Collection, Kenton County Public Library, Covington. Shillito’s, Seventh and Race Streets, Cincinnati, circa late 1920s.