Lion Store
Website | www.dillards.com |
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Lion Store (founded in 1857 as Frederick Eaton & Co. and incorporated in 1890 as The Lion Dry Goods Co.) was a Toledo, Ohio department store chain. Mercantile Stores operated the chain from 1914 until its 1998 acquisition by Dillard's, which retired the Lion nameplate in 1999.[2][3][4]
Originally established as a downtown-based dry goods retailer, Lion evolved during the post-war period, establishing new stores during Toledo's suburbanization and closing the downtown store in 1980 amid urban decay.[4] By 1998, the chain comprised three fashion apparel stores and two home furnishing stores in area shopping malls targeting middle to upper-middle income consumers.[5]
Long a dominant Toledo retailer, Lion held an estimated thirty to forty percent market share in 1998.[6] The store influenced the growth of Toledo's retail environment, with developers acknowledging that their projects hinged on whether Lion would become an anchor tenant.[6] Lion's outsized influence on local consumers prompted one local retail executive to jokingly remark that "people born in Toledo are born with two things: a Social Security card and a Lion credit card."[6]
History
Early years
In the mid 19th century, New Englander Frederick Eaton opened up a dry goods store in Toledo. The store made $15,000 in its first year of business, prompting the store, then known as Frederick Eaton & Company to move to a larger location in downtown Toledo. Between 1859 and 1865, Eaton purchased two life-size cast-iron lions and placed them outside the doors of his store. The store's customers began referring to the store as "The Lion Store." The store made a move to its final downtown location in 1866, where the lions followed. The Lion Store became part of H.B. Claflin & Company upon the 1890 death of Eaton. Subsequently, the store was acquired by the Mercantile Stores group.
Post-war expansion
The company opened up a store in the Westgate Village Shopping Center in 1957, which would, by the 1990s, become a home store, and briefly a Dillard's Home Store before its closure. Another store was opened at
Later years and Dillard's acquisition
In the mid-1980s, Lion Store opened a location at
Gallery
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Main floor, Lion Store, Downtown Toledo, 1900s
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Second floor, millinery department, Lion Store, Downtown Toledo, 1900s
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Third floor, drapery department, Lion Store, Downtown Toledo, 1900s
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Window Display at the Lion Store, Downtown Toledo, approximately 1915
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St. Clair and Adams streets with Lion Store at right, undated
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Lion Store postcard advertisement for umbrellas (front), 1908
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Lion Store postcard advertisement for umbrellas (reverse), 1908
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Lion Store employee picnic, approximately 1920
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Lion Store in Downtown Toledo, 1935
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Lion Store entrance with statue lions at right, 1935
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Lion Store at North Towne Square, 1998
References
- The Grand Emporiums, Scarborough House, Hendrickson, 1979.
- ^ "Certificate of Merger". businesssearch.ohiosos.gov. Ohio Secretary of State. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Floyd, Barbara (17 November 2010). Wholly Toledo: The Business and Industry that Shaped the City (PDF). Toledo, Ohio: University of Toledo. p. 32. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ "Dillards, Inc. 1999 Annual Report". sec.gov. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ ISBN 9781626195707. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ "Mercantile Stores Company, Inc. 1998 Annual Report". sec.gov. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b c Chavez, John (14 August 1998). "Lion Store name may be changed by new owner". The Blade. Retrieved 14 January 2022.