Lasalle & Koch

Lasalle & Koch Co.
Company type	Department store
Industry	Retail
Founded	1865
Founder	Jacob Lasalle, Joseph Epstein
Defunct	1981
Fate	Rebranded as Macy's in 1981; stores later sold to Elder-Beerman in 1985
Headquarters	Toledo, United States
Area served	Northwest Ohio and nearby towns
Key people	Alfred B. Koch (president until 1937), Louis Epstein (president after 1937)
Products	Department store goods

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Lasalle & Koch, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 2025

Final logo of Lasalle's

Lasalle & Koch Co.—commonly known as Lasalle's—was a department store based in Toledo, Ohio, operating additional outlets in nearby towns.

History

The origins of Lasalle's date back to 1865 when Jacob Lasalle and Joseph Epstein established a store at 51 Summit Street. In 1883, Joseph Koch became part of the enterprise, prompting a move to a new location at the intersection of Summit and Adams Streets. By 1900, Lasalle & Koch Co. inaugurated a new retail space at Jefferson Avenue and Superior Street. This location underwent multiple expansions before construction commenced in 1916 on a new facility situated at Adams and Huron Streets.

In 1917, the company launched its flagship downtown Toledo store at 513 Adams Street. The business was acquired by R.H. Macy Co. in 1923.

November 1927 saw the completion of an expansion adding three upper floors to the building. To mark this occasion, muralist Arthur Covey was commissioned to produce a series of paintings depicting industries around Toledo, which were displayed prominently in the store's windows.

Despite the acquisition, Lasalle and Koch maintained considerable independence. Alfred B. Koch, son of Joseph Koch, led the company as president until his premature death in 1937. Subsequently, Louis Epstein, another seasoned executive from Lasalle and Koch, assumed leadership.

Following World War II, Lasalle's broadened its presence by launching stores in downtown shopping districts across smaller cities in Northwest Ohio: Bowling Green (1945), Tiffin (1947), Sandusky (1949), and Findlay (1955).

Between late 1957 and most of 1958, a strike lasting thirteen months targeted Lasalle's along with two other Toledo department stores—Lamson's and The Lion Store. The strike was organized by the Retail Clerks International Association, later known as the United Food and Commercial Workers. Resolution came through a "Statement of Understanding" that reinstated workers but did not grant union recognition.

Lasalle's ventured into suburban retail with its initial branch outside downtown Toledo in 1962—a standalone store at Westgate Center. The third Toledo location opened in 1969 within Woodville Mall, located east of Toledo in Northwood suburb; this was their first store inside an enclosed mall. Their fourth outlet in the Toledo metropolitan area was a 162,000 square feet (15,100 m²) store at North Towne Square, which began operation in 1980.

Consolidation and sale

In 1981, all Lasalle's locations were rebranded under the Macy's banner. At that time, Lasalle's operated its main downtown Toledo store along with suburban outlets at Westgate, North Towne Square, and Woodville Mall. Additionally, Lasalle's maintained retail locations in the downtown areas of Bowling Green, Sandusky, Findlay, and Tiffin.

That same year, Lasalle's merged with Macy's Missouri-Kansas to form a new division called Macy's Midwest. Following the rebranding, Macy's Midwest centralized operations by shutting down Lasalle's executive offices, credit department, and buying division, relocating these functions to Kansas City. (It is important to distinguish this earlier version of Macy's Midwest from the later one headquartered in St. Louis after Federated acquired Macy's.) Over the next two years, Macy's Midwest gradually reduced the size of the downtown Toledo store by closing individual floors before ultimately shutting down the flagship location. Between 1982 and 1985, the stores in Bowling Green, Sandusky, and Tiffin were also closed.

In 1985, Macy's sold its remaining Toledo-area stores—including Findlay—and its warehouse in Toledo to Dayton-based retailer Elder-Beerman. Elder-Beerman continued operations with a store at the Westgate Village Shopping Center located at 3301 Secor Road in Toledo, as well as additional locations near Toledo such as Bowling Green, Ohio, Monroe, Michigan, Adrian, Michigan, Findlay, Ohio, Sandusky, Ohio, and Defiance, Ohio. The North Towne Square and Woodville Mall stores in Toledo were eventually closed. Elder-Beerman relocated its Findlay store to the Findlay Village Mall during the late 1980s. The last remaining former Lasalle's location was the Elder-Beerman store at Westgate Village; this store ceased operations in 2018 alongside the chain’s closure and was demolished in 2023.

The former downtown Toledo building remained unused and vacant for thirteen years until developers undertook a $12.7 million renovation in 1996 to convert it into apartments and retail space. This structure is part of the Madison Avenue Historic District. Meanwhile, the downtown Sandusky Lasalle’s building was repurposed into office space for Erie County during the 1990s.

The contemporary Macy’s outlet at Toledo’s Franklin Park Mall has no historical ties to Lasalle’s stores. It was originally opened in 1971 by Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Company. Although Hudson’s merged with Dayton’s in 1969, both divisions maintained their separate brand identities and management teams. In 2001, all Dayton-Hudson stores adopted the Marshall Field’s nameplate; this change coincided with the parent company Dayton-Hudson rebranding itself as Target Corporation. In 2004, May Co. acquired Marshall Field’s from Target after concerns that the department store segment was negatively impacting Target’s profits. The following year, May Co. was purchased by Federated Department Stores. On September 9, 2006, the Franklin Park location transitioned to Macy’s branding along with other Marshall Field stores nationwide.