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1913 – 1974
Founded: Opened 15 October 1913 at Wayne and Calhoun streets, in the remodelled White Fruit House quarters — "Fort Wayne's newest department store," 28 departments, several hundred salespeople, officers J. J. Hursch (president and general manager, formerly of Muncie and Akron), M. C. Landy and Raymond Smythe. The site was owned by Straus Brothers & Co.
What it did: A popular-price department store — "medium and finer grades of merchandise at popular prices" — Wolf & Dessauer's great downtown rival.
Course: The store burned to the ground on 30 December 1927. A new Art Deco building by Alvin M. Strauss rose on the same southeast corner of Calhoun and Wayne and opened in November 1928. In the 1950s the store took the name Stillman's, for its owner John Stillman.
Fate: Stillman's closed in 1974. The block was razed for One Summit Square (begun 1978, finished 1982), today's Indiana Michigan Power Center; the site is now its plaza.
Sources:
- ACGSI, "Grand Leader Department Store, Fort Wayne" — the 15 October 1913 opening and officers (from the Fort Wayne News and Sentinel and Fort Wayne Daily News of that day); the 30 December 1927 fire; the November 1928 Strauss building; the Stillman's renaming and 1974 closing.