Irma helped found the Ohio Arts Council and for 35 years hosted Conversations with Irma on WCET, using it as a platform to promote the arts. Then there was the power couple of Fred III and his wife, Irma. And Ralph’s brother Simon became president of the Cincinnati Bar Association and a legal advocate for the poor. and his cousin Charles) cofounded the Cincinnati Business Committee. Their son Ralph (that’s him far left in 1950, with his uncle Robert Sr. became chairman of Federated in 1945, he moved the company headquarters to Cincinnati, and “the Lazari” hit the ground running.įred Jr.’s wife, Celia, headed the Cincinnati League of Women Voters in the 1950s horrified by conditions at Longview State Hospital in Bond Hill, she advocated for better facilities for the mentally ill. Midwest, and based in Columbus, Ohio.For over 150 years, Lazarus was influential in the American retail industry, particularly during the early 20th century as a founding partner in Federated Department Stores, and continued until the nameplate was retired on. The next year, Lazarus joined forces with retailers Abraham & Straus, Bloomingdale’s, and Filene’s of Boston to create what would become Federated Department Stores. F&R Lazarus & Company commonly known as Lazarus was a regional department store retail chain operating primarily in the U.S. Lazarus Company (named for sons Fred and Ralph) purchased Cincinnati’s John Shillito Company. The company rose from its early years as a mens clothier in a 20 x 40 foot room downtown, to its position by 1965 as a member of the largest.

They came from Columbus, but we still consider the Lazarus family to be ours. Between 18, the F & R Lazarus Company retail store dominated the trade and physical landscape of Columbus.

Lazarus store in columbus ohio