SH Archive Single image: John Shillito Department Store Interior, 1857

[KD Archive]

Interior of 1857 store, on West Fourth Street in Cincinnati. Isn't it ridiculous? I'll just leave it at that. Would love to see the photograph of this interior though.

• Cincinnati Public Library​
• Shillito’s marvelous buildings​

D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati
Source

​

I think we could speculate that Cincinnati Riots of 1884 were desperately needed.

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[AthroposRex]

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Username: AnthroposRex
Date: 2019-08-21 22:26:33
Reaction Score: 3

The scale of the steps on the left to the people in the foreground is crazy. Giant steps.

 

[anotherlayer]

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Username: anotherlayer
Date: 2019-08-22 02:33:34
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Hahahahahaahhaha, no. This would make zero practical sense. No one would build this for a department store. The craziest part of this now is... this was produced 1875. Now where are the photos? No way something so magnificent went without being photographed.

How is this the outside of that store?:

John Shillito’s 1857 store, on West Fourth Street in Cincinnati, later became
McAlpin’s Department Store, and is now a fashionable condominium development.
Source: D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati (1875), p. 154

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-08-22 04:05:14
Reaction Score: 3

The craziest part of this now is... this was produced 1875.

Not trying to be picky but it says 1857, which is even more remarkable.

• Designed by architect James W. McLaughlin (1834-1923), the son of Shillito’s original business partner, the four-story building was opened in 1857.

Here is a couple quotes I found interesting primarily due to them implying how much business the store had:

• Shillito, Burnett & Pullen's business was such that a larger premises on the other side of Main Street between Fourth and Fifth streets was secured in 1833, but even this location was superseded when Shillito bought out his partners in 1837, and renaming the business John Shillito & Company. At this time the store moved to larger quarters on the north side of Fourth Street. Shillito's business was based on the slogan "Truth Always - Facts Only" and his reputation as not just an honest businessman but a dedicated Cincinnati citizen became widely known. In 1842, he gained sole ownership of the store, which dealt in the wholesale and retail trade.
• By 1877, even the large Fourth Street store had outgrown the needs of the business and the city it served. Shillito acuired a site three blocks to the north, on the west side of Race street between Seventh Street George (Later Shillito Place) streets. Consequently Shillito erected a 6-story red brick Chicago-style commercial building that the Cincinnati Enquirer referred to as a "grand architectural pile" and featured a soaring octagonal light well capped by a dome with gothic details. The store required a staff of 1000 to operate.
• Shillito's, Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati Population:

• 1810: 2,540
• 1818: 9,120
• 1850: 115,435
• 1870: 216,239
• 1880: 255,139
• 1900: 325,902
• Timeline of Cincinnati

Cincinnati Riots:

• Cincinnati riots of 1829
• Cincinnati riots of 1836
• Cincinnati riots of 1841
• Cincinnati riots of 1853
• Cincinnati riots of 1855
• Cincinnati riots of 1884

That's one weird city... when did they have time to build stuff. Check out this library and fountain built prior to 1875.

• Take the 1875 Tour of Cincinnati (or the Half That Survives, Anyway) - Cincinnati Magazine

 

[Timeshifter]

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Username: Timeshifter
Date: 2019-08-22 07:11:18
Reaction Score: 2

We did love tall ceilings eh?...

Interesting logo....

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-08-22 11:05:06
Reaction Score: 1

Probably just me but the date on the op picture is wrong. It's out by twenty years if this plan of the second Shillito store dated 1877 is any guide. Using startpage as the search engine.

https://www.nkytribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2018-01-15-at-11.01.06-AM.png

Also the architects page reveals a bit about the Shillito approach to retailing.
McLaughlin

James W. McLaughlin was probably the most important Cincinnati-born architect during the second half of the nineteenth century. With his contemporary and rival Samuel Hannaford (who was born in England), McLaughlin dominated the Cincinnati architectural scene from before the Civil War until the turn of the century. Between them, they split the major establishment governmental, institutional, commercial, and residential commissions, leaving the remainder to more individualistic "aesthetic" architects and those who served primarily the German-American community. Both firms gave definitive form to the numerous cultural and public institutions developed during this highpoint of Cincinnati's prosperity, creativity, and influence. For instance, McLaughlin's Machinery Hall, straddling the Miami & Erie Canal for 300 feet during the 1888 Cincinnati Centennial Exposition, effectively complemented Hannaford's Music and Exposition Hall.


While Hannaford adapted the currently fashionable styles sensitively and appropriately, McLaughlin had a more distinctive, if occasionally awkward, stylistic personality, and was more innovative structurally and functionally. His second Shillito Dry Goods Store at Seventh and Race streets (1877-1878) is the outstanding example of these contributions, but his first major work, the earlier Shillito Store on Fourth Street (1855-1856; now the eastern half of McAlpin's, for whom McLaughlin enlarged it in 1892), also reflected John Shillito's highly organized approach to merchandising.

 

[anotherlayer]

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Username: anotherlayer
Date: 2019-08-22 16:36:08
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Not trying to be picky but it says 1857, which is even more remarkable.

Right, right. But that etching was done in 1875. Certainly should be a photograph by this time.

Title	John Shillito Department Store Interior, 1875
Date (Original)	1875
Date	1875
Time Period	1871-1880
Description	Drawing of interior

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-08-22 17:26:10
Reaction Score: 1

An excellent article in the waybackmachine. Shillito’s was a retail palace with panache | Our History

Nope seems I was wrong about the 1857 store being the 1877 store, if this page is correct. Department Stores

The John Shillito Co. Started in 1830 at a store on west 4th St. next to the Post Office. The first two non-postcard images below show the store at this location. A new store was built there in 1857 (2nd image) but within 20 years it became much to small and built a new store on 7th Street. When John Shillito opened this store in 1878 at the southwest corner of 7th. & Race it was the largest department store in the country under one roof with 840,000 sq. ft. of retail space (next 2 images).

 

[anotherlayer]

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Username: anotherlayer
Date: 2019-08-22 17:55:06
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An excellent article in the waybackmachine. Shillito’s was a retail palace with panache | Our History

Nope seems I was wrong about the 1857 store being the 1877 store, if this page is correct. Department Stores

The John Shillito Co. Started in 1830 at a store on west 4th St. next to the Post Office. The first two non-postcard images below show the store at this location. A new store was built there in 1857 (2nd image) but within 20 years it became much to small and built a new store on 7th Street. When John Shillito opened this store in 1878 at the southwest corner of 7th. & Race it was the largest department store in the country under one roof with 840,000 sq. ft. of retail space (next 2 images).

View attachment 27435View attachment 27434 View attachment 27433View attachment 27432

Ya know, I tried reading this 1830, 1857, 1878 and it still doesn't add up to me. The OP's original picture is what I can't quite figure out which building it is. None of them resemble what we see and what is described.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-08-22 18:18:17
Reaction Score: 1

Ya know, I tried reading this 1830, 1857, 1878 and it still doesn't add up to me. The OP's original picture is what I can't quite figure out which building it is. None of them resemble what we see and what is described.

Been bugging me too so have looked as closely as I can at the column 'tops' in the op drawing and the ones on the 1877 drawing and figure they are the same. Ergo on the balance of probability the op drawing has had the wrong date attributed to it at some point.

And the library was originally intended to be an opera house according too this page. Discovered whilst trying to find the steel supplier for the 1877 building!
Cincy Through The Decades: 150 Years Of Architectural History

John W. McLaughlin, who constructed the Shillito's Building from the 1870s, went on to build a gorgeous public library (originally intended to be an opera house by another architect) on Vine Street in 1874. The library was legendary in its beauty and was used by countless Cincinnatians during the 81 years it was open.
McLaughlns columns for sure. Smaller ones here in the public library he designed whose interior, which is truly awe inspiring, bears no relation to the exterior.
The Old Cincinnati Library before being demolished, 1874-1955