I’ve heard my mom talk about the glory days when downtown was filled with stores galore, and I’ve always wondered: What was the Cincinnati shopping scene like in its heyday?

Flipping through a rack of clothing at Goodwill, I noticed something that made my heart race: A striped knit vest with a tag revealing my personal Holy Grail of Cincinnati Thrift Shopping—a Pogue’s label.

I’ve heard my mother talk about the glory days of the ‘60s and ‘70s when downtown was filled with stores galore, and I’ve always wondered: What was the Cincinnati shopping scene like in its heyday?

For answers, we need to take it back. Way back. Mid-19th century Cincinnati was a very cosmopolitan place to live.

“We tend to think of Cincinnati as a not-so-fashionable place, but it was then,” says Cynthia Amnéus, curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum and author of A Separate Sphere: Dressmakers in Cincinnati’s Golden Age.

In those days, there was no such thing as ready-to-wear women’s clothing, so middle- and upper-class women had their clothing made by dressmakers.

At the high point around 1897, Cincinnati was home to over 1,500 registered dressmakers. While they weren’t exactly designers, the level of craftsmanship displayed in their work was clearly that of talented creators.

A good dressmaker’s reputation usually spread by word of mouth. The best could replicate the Parisian styles featured in magazines like Harper’s Bazaar for their clients. 

Cincinnati was known for having fine dressmakers, women like Minnie Koffman, Anna Dunlevy, and Selina Cadwallader who ran successful businesses that served women from wealthy families like the Krippendorfs, Murdochs, and Emerys. Their business wasn’t limited to local patrons—some women would travel from as far away as Texas to get their dresses made here.

Moving to Mass

Once the industrial revolution made it easy to mass-produce clothing, the convenience of department stores and ready access to manufactured fashions resulted in a decline in the number of independent dressmakers. The democratization of fashion—and the beginning of the reign of the department store—was underway.

The Rise of Department Stores

The convenience and luxury of Cincinnati department stores like Pogue’s, Rollman’s, Mabley & Carew, Shillito’s, and Gidding’s attracted shoppers from all over the region.

One of the first was the John Shillito Company, which opened in the 1850s on West Fourth Street. The business grew, and by the time the Shillito’s at the corner of Seventh & Race opened in 1878, it was the largest department store in the country under one roof.

When the Shillito Company moved, the George W. McAlpin Company took over the location at 13 West Fourth Street, later expanding to include the adjacent buildings. In 1895, when a sterling silver statue of Lady Justice worth $228,000 was exhibited at McAlpin’s, one newspaper columnist gushed “The magnificent display of cloaks, wraps, and gowns at McAlpin’s is so great as to distract attention even from a 228,000 dollar beauty.”

Thousands of shoppers flocked to these stores and new department stores continued to pop up all over downtown. The Alms & Doepke Department Store, opened in 1865 on Central Parkway, boasted 600 feet of show windows and was once the second largest department store outside of New York City. Hanke’s Department store opened on Main Street in 1876 and was the first department store in Cincinnati to have a year-round toy department. D. L. Liebman’s Big Store on West Fifth Street, founded in 1896, was one of the earliest department stores to feature a beauty salon inside.

Fountain Square stands on what was once the site of Mabley & Carew, first opened in 1881. The store eventually moved to occupy six floors (plus the basement) of Carew Tower in 1930. J.M. Gidding and Company, established on West Fourth Street in 1907, offered “correct dress for women.” By 1914, they had shops in New York, Paris, and Washington D.C.

Department Domination

Department stores dominated for the better part of the mid-20th century, and shopping downtown in the ’50s and ’60s was an event.

“We planned as if we were going to a party. We laid out our clothes the night before!”says Ellen Everman Deaton, author of the novel Pink Dice, which details life in the Tristate (and America) in the 1950s through the eyes of an 11-year-old baby boomer.

Fourth Street was still the center of downtown activity, including shopping. By this time, the stores had perfected the art of window displays, creating elaborate vignettes depicting everything from Santa’s workshop to the latest hair styles. One Mabley & Carew window advertising “hair goods” displayed hanging wefts of hair. Yes, hair weaves!

In 1962 Gidding’s merged with the Jenny Company to form Gidding-Jenny’s, one of the most revered high-end stores in Cincinnati’s history, while Pogue’s was often compared to Harrod’s of London. “You could find anything you wanted there,” says Everman Deaton. The makeup alley was spectacular, with models in front of counters appointed with jewelry lighting, making the entire place sparkle and glow. The persistent ring of the gold and silver cash registers filled the store.

Several stores attracted young customers and their families by hosting Teen Boards—high school girls chosen to model in the store’s fashion shows.

Deaton remembers wearing the latest trend—fishnet pantyhose—for her McAlpin’s finishing school graduation in 1963. The emcee at the graduation was a handsome dark-haired man. “When it was my turn, he said ‘I see you’re wearing fishnet hose’,” making her feel like the most special girl in the room. The man’s name was Nick Clooney.

Suburban Expansion

As people continued to move away from the city center, shopping expanded to include outlying areas. When Swifton Center opened in 1956, it was Cincinnati’s first modern shopping mall. Western Woods, Kenwood Mall, and Tri-County followed soon after. Jerry Johnston, who worked for Pogue’s, remembers “There was an ice cream parlor at the Tri-County store, and the first glass elevator in the city at the Northgate location.”

While stores were spreading throughout the city, downtown was still the place for serious shopping. The popularity of Shillito’s had spawned a line of shops and shoe stores along Race Street: Lerner’s, Casual Corner, department store JJ Newberry’s, and shoe stores like Chandler’s and Baker’s attracted office workers like Beverly Worsham, who worked downtown from 1971-1978.

“Downtown was the place you went to shop, so that’s what we did every day—we went shopping.”

By the late ’70s, the large downtown stores started to lose business to the newer suburban shopping malls and eventually closed. Though the glory days of department stores and custom made dresses are behind us, I still love hearing those dazzling, happy memories of the past.

Where Are They Now?

• Often regarded as the first shopping mall in America, The Bazaar opened on East Third Street in 1828. It housed a coffee shop, a ballroom, and an ice cream parlor in addition to selling clothing, home decor, and trinkets from England. I-71 now runs through the place where it once stood.
• You can only see the original facade on the south side of the Shillito’s building at Seventh and Race. A new Art Deco facade was wrapped around the original building in 1937.
• Several dressmakers, including Anna Dunlevy, The Donegans, and Josephine Kasselman, had studios in the Neave Building on Fourth Street where the Tower Place Garage stands now.
• The former Gidding’s location­—the one with the 3-dimensional facade of flowers, fruit, and faces—is now part of the downtown T.J. Maxx store.
• The Alms & Doepke department store was located at the northeast corner of Main Street and Canal. The building is now home to the Hamilton Co. Department of Job and Family Services.

Photos Courtesy Cincinnati Museum Center-Cincinnati Historical Society Library.