Saturday, February 06, 2010

The Higbee Co.

The Higbee Co.; Severance Center, Cleveland Heights, Ohio . Exterior view, early 1960s. (Photo courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Higbee Co.; location unknown. Exterior view, early 1960s. (Photo courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Higbee Co.; Parmatown Mall, Parma, ohio. Exterior view, mid-1960s. (Photo courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Higbee Co.; Great Lakes Mall, Mentor, Ohio. Exterior view, 1969. This store design was used extensively on suburban Higbee's stores in the 1970s (Photo courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Higbee Co. (1860-1992) was one of the largest department stores in Cleveland, Ohio. After years of success in various downtown locations, the company expanded to neighboring Akron and Canton in the 1950s and 1960s, and opened numerous suburban stores.

In 1984, a New Zealand-based company acquired Higbee's, selling it four years later to a joint venture of Dillard's and Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. who planned to combine Higbee's with an intended acquisition of Horne's. The deal was cancelled abruptly, resulting in several years of litigation. In 1992 Dillard's bought out DeBartolo's shares and rebadged Higbee's and five of the Northern Ohio Horne's stores with its name. During the 1990s, several inner-ring stores were closed while new far-flung locations opened or expanded.

7 comments:

  1. The photo of the last store in Mentor looks very similar to my childhood one at Euclid Square Mall.

    A not so great photo can be seen here:
    http://images14.fotki.com/v257/photos/8/826704/3091946/esm23-vi.jpg

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  2. The first two photos look like the first suburban store located at Severance Shopping Center in Cleveland Heights.

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  3. Didi: You're right. The Euclid store looks very similar to Mentor.

    Anonymous: I wonder which store is Severance.

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  4. I like the clean lines and landscaping in the last photo.

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  5. I believe the first picture above is a photograph of Higbee's Severance Mall. The lower level had an entrance from the parking lot. Higbee's was a great store.

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  6. Thanks for the info. The post has been updated.

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