A local brand, Shillito’s dated back to 1830, quickly gaining success and repeatedly outgrowing one downtown Cincinnati location after another by 1878. That year, the company would open up a massive, new store in the heart of the city that would end up becoming an architectural and cultural landmark. The quintessential American department store, and the Queen City’s original, Shillito’s cemented itself as the local mecca of of shopping—a place of memories for generations of Cincinnatians to come.

At just under a century old in 1925, the company came under the ownership of the Columbus, Ohio based F&R Lazarus Company. Keeping the classic Shillito’s name, Lazarus would eventually expand the brand throughout the region. The Tri-County Mall would end up being Shillito’s first location outside of downtown Cincinnati and the first of eight branch stores to be built throughout the city’s suburbs in addition to enclaves of nearby cities such as Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky.