Mabley and Carew

History

The store traced its roots to 1877, when Detroit merchants C. R. Mabley and Joseph T. Carew, en route to Memphis, were stranded in Cincinnati by a late train and wound up going into business in the heart of what was then a booming river city. Having missed their connection, they walked around town and reached Fountain Square, saw a "For Rent" sign, and decided that 66 Fifth Street was a fine place for a store. Mabley and Carew was the first store in Cincinnati to adopt full-page newspaper ads, to give elaborate Christmas performances, and to set up the Arbor Day custom. The Mabley and Carew building was once illuminated by 10,000 lights that glimmered opposite Fountain Square.

The company was owned by a joint partnership of Messrs Mabley and Carew but managed by Carew. After Mabley's death in 1885 Carew became sole owner of the business. Carew himself died in 1914 and was succeeded as Company President by his first cousin Bolton Stretch Armstrong (1872–1954) who ran the company for the next 37 years.

In 1929 the Carew Building, a nearby office block also built by Carew, was demolished and replaced by Cincinnati's landmark Carew Tower, completed in 1930 after only 17 months work. This complex was to be the new home to the main Mabley & Carew department store from 1930 to 1960, when the business was purchased by Allied Stores. By 1962 the company had moved the store across Fifth Street into what had been Rollman's Department Store, renamed the Mabley and Carew Building.

In 1978, Dayton, Ohio based Elder-Beerman department stores purchased Mabley & Carew. All 4 Cincinnati stores, including the Fifth and Vine Street location, were eventually converted to the Elder-Beerman name. The old Rollman's building was eventually closed and torn down in the late 1980s to make way for a proposed, but not ever built, new tallest building in Cincinnati, Fountain Square West. This site is now occupied by Cincinnati-based Macy's Downtown Cincinnati store.