Portal:Indianapolis/Selected article/7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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.
