Cleveland, OH
When it comes to department stores in downtown Cleveland, most people think of Higbee’s (known for their Christmas displays and appearance in A Christmas Story) and Halle’s (home of Mr. Jingeling.) However, at one time, the Gateway district was home to six different department stores, including the aforementioned Higbees and Halle’s, Sterling-Lindor, Bailey’s, May Company, and Taylor’s. The area was compared to New York City’s Fifth Avenue in terms of shopping options.
Taylor’s Department Store
The department store, initially called Taylor, Kilpatrick & Company, was founded by William Taylor and Thomas Kilpatrick in the 1870s. They initially worked together at a dry goods store in New England and chose to move to Ohio with their families in order to take advantage of the booming growth of Cleveland.
In 1886, Kilpatrick moved out of the area, and the Taylors took over the store. They changed the name to William Taylor and Son, reflecting the new ownership: William Taylor and his son John Livingston Taylor. Unfortunately, William died the next year, leaving the store to his son. To carry on with the family tragedies, John himself died young, in 1892.
Enter Sophia Strong Taylor
In a time when women couldn’t vote, Sophia Strong Taylor, wife of John, took over the store. Along with the store’s board, she made the store so popular that they needed to add on floors in 1913, having grown out of its existing space.
Although she held to some strict rules, like making sure the store’s windows were covered on Sundays, keeping the store closed on that day, as well as ensuring that none of the employees worked that day, she was open to new ideas, like radio photography displays that showcased the latest Paris fashions for shoppers to buy.
There was no smoking in Taylor’s Department Store, as it came to be called, and there was a bible department located on the first floor. You could buy one in many different languages. Despite this adherence to religion, the rest of the store was dedicated to secular fashion, furnishings, and popular trends. It’s been compared to modern-day London-located Selfridges and Harrods as far as inventory goes.
Other Locations
As Taylor’s Department Store became increasingly popular, it had to expand to several warehouses to store items that were displayed on the building’s showroom floors. The first of these warehouses was at 177 Seneca Street (now West 3rd), in an area of Cleveland that has been revamped, complete with rerouted streets. An early newspaper article notes that this particular warehouse was robbed one night, although police caught the perpetrator several weeks later.
Another warehouse, this time in a building that’s still standing, was located between Prospect and Carnegie off of East 55th. The brick structure has a Packard car logo on the side, and is visible from East 55th Street when driving south.
In addition to warehouses, Taylor’s Department Store also expanded to Maple Heights, Ohio, in the 1960s, anchoring Southgate Shopping Center. This took place after Sophia Taylor died in 1936, and the board of directors allowed May Company to buy out their shares.
Taylor’s kept its name for a time, until things began to change economically. People stopped heading downtown to shop, and, along with two recessions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the department store became unsustainable. May Company closed Taylor’s downtown location and converted the Southgate store to reflect the May Company branding.
What Remains of Taylor’s Department Store
While the May Company building at Southgate and the warehouse on Seneca Street are now gone, two buildings still remain: the warehouse at East 55th and Prospect, and the original Taylor’s Department Store building in downtown Cleveland. The latter is now called Six Six Eight, and it holds luxury apartments and hotel rooms.
The next time you’re driving down the road and an interesting building catches your eye, make a note of it. You’d be surprised at what piece of local history you’ve discovered.
Found in Ohio 