Shillitos

John Shillito moved his dry goods business four times before opening the store you see here in 1879. The building was designed by Cincinnati architect James McLaughlin. At the time of its construction it was the largest department store under one roof in the nation. The store was bought out by Lazarus in the late 1920s and the art deco facade you can see here on the eastern facade was added in 1938. The building is now condos.

Some architectural historians hypothesize that the plans for this building, which were published in American Architect and Building News in 1877, strongly influenced William LeBaron Jenney's Leiter Building in Chicago which is generally considered the first building of the Chicago style. One historian even thinks that Jenney may have collaborated with McLaughlin on this building. A firm called "Jenney and Rolofson" was listed in the Cincinnati city directory in 1861.