Season's Greetings from Fairfax!

     I love coming across vintage newspaper ads - the old graphics, formal language, long-gone prices. I recently visited the library and reviewed some old copies of The Messenger, a weekly newspaper that covered happenings in several eastern Hamilton County suburbs for decades. Among the interesting finds were Christmas advertisements from some old Fairfax businesses. I supplemented these ads with some from other local newspapers. How many of these businesses do you remember? 

Bill's Pony Keg Station, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Bon-Ton Cleaners, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Brandt's Original Christmas Store, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 29, 1978

Ches's Cafe, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Colonial Barber Shop, Eastern Hills Journal, December 25, 1974

The Court Yard, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 22, 1977

Fairfax Hardware, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Fairfax Pharmacy, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Fairfax Tavern, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Frisch's Mainliner, The Messenger, December 5, 1947

Jim's Shell Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Kream Kottage, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Kruse's Smoke Shop, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Miller Brothers Auto Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Posy Patch, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 24, 1995

Snyder's Sohio Service, The Messenger, December 25, 1953

Sport Motors, Cincinnati Post, December 24, 1969

Swallen's, Cincinnati Post and Times-Star, December 16, 1959

Thompson's Party House, The Messenger, December 25, 1953

Tucker Auto Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Wooster Pike Pottery, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Yochum's Food Shop, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Yvonne's Beauty Salon, Eastern Hills Journal, December 19, 1973

    I hope you enjoyed this look back at the Fairfax businesses of Christmas past and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Early Days

     One of the most frequent ice-breaker questions is “If you could have one superpower, what would it be?” For me, it would be time travel. I hold no illusions that the “good old days” were as good as people believe they were; some things were much better, but others were much worse. I would just like to take a day trip here and there to visit familiar places, experience them for a while, and then return to modern times.

     As I travel the streets of Fairfax and look at the old houses, I wonder about the people who lived here 100 years ago. Who were they? Where did they come from? What attracted them to this area? How did they make their living?

     In this article, I will focus on the area that is now the Village of Fairfax at the time it was first called “Fairfax.” As I mentioned in The Joseph Ferris House article, this area was once owned by the Ferris family. After the deaths of Joseph & Priscilla Ferris’ children, the heirs chose to sell the land.

     The 1884 land ownership map below shows that most of the area that is now known as Fairfax was owned by Joseph Ferris’ heirs, the Ferris and Jewett families. The Wooster Turnpike had been built several decades earlier. 

    Farms owned by Adam Stirnkorb, Fred Burkhart, and Philip Miller appear in the northwestern (upper left) section of the map. George S. Courtney later purchased the Stirnkorb land. William Zeh bought a farm on Red Bank Road which included property where Virginia Avenue is now. The Rosen family operated a dairy farm on Red Bank Road. Interestingly, in addition to their farms, Courtney, Zeh, and John Rosen all had other jobs. Courtney owned a grocery, Zeh was a machinist, and Rosen was a street railway motorman.

William Zeh was selling pigs in this ad in the September 6, 1914 Cincinnati Enquirer.

    John Henry Linnemann, on the other hand, dedicated himself to chicken farming in the area that is now the Audubon Park Subdivision. In addition to chickens, the Linnemann family had cows and hogs and raised crops. In 1907, Frank Thesing bought land on Wooster Pike where he farmed and operated a sand and gravel pit. Thesing also worked as a railroad mechanic. Frank Thesing married Elizabeth Linnemann, John Henry’s daughter. 

John Henry Linnemann and his Leghorn chickens in 1906. From A History of the Village of Fairfax by Elizabeth Steele and Patricia Kuderer.

    The residential area of the current village is comprised of four subdivisions. The Fairfax Subdivision was platted in 1910. The boundaries of the Fairfax Subdivision are Murray Avenue on the north, Wooster Pike on the south, the western side of Belmont Street on the east, and the eastern side of Germania Avenue on the west.

Fairfax Subdivision Plat - Hamilton County Recorder's Office

Plat Book 20, Pages 80 and 81

    The Dublin Springs Subdivision was platted in 1913 and includes the area south of Wooster Pike.

Dublin Springs Subdivision Plat - Hamilton County Recorder's Office

Plat Book 21, Page 35

    A plat map for the Madison Heights Subdivision was also filed with the Hamilton Country Recorder’s Office in 1913. The Madison Heights boundaries are Murray on the north, Wooster on the south, the western side of Germania on the east, and Southern Avenue on the west.

Madison Heights Subdivision Plat - Hamilton County Recorder's Office

Plat Book 21, Page 48

    The first section of the Audubon Park Subdivision, in the residential area west of Southern Avenue, wasn’t platted until 1946 with another section added to the subdivision later. 

     If the Hamilton County Auditor records are accurate, there were a few houses in the Fairfax area prior to platting. However, once the Fairfax subdivision was platted, lot sales and home building began in earnest. 

Cincinnati Post, July 1, 1911

Cincinnati Post, June 1, 1912

    As the area began to grow, the real estate broker handling the Dublin Springs subdivision was advertising 4 ½ acres on the south side of Wooster Pike, hyping the growing neighborhood and the traffic flowing through it:

Cincinnati Post, August 28, 1913

        Soon the local newspapers were running ads featuring homes in Fairfax:

Cincinnati Post, July 3, 1914

Cincinnati Post, July 18, 1914

    So, if you are familiar with Fairfax, I am interested in your opinion on where these houses are/were located. I am nearly certain that the house on the left in the first ad is on Germania and the house on the right is on Watterson. I am leaning toward the house second from the left being on Lonsdale and the house second from the right being on High Street. I found a few houses in Fairfax that look like the house in the second ad.

     A glimpse at the 1920 census gives us some insight about early Fairfax residents. First, they were working class. Most were machinists, streetcar operators, railroaders, construction workers, and factory workers. A few of the men had more unusual occupations, like near-beer brewer, private caterer, and egg inspector. Married women managed their households. Unmarried adult daughters were office workers, seamstresses, and factory workers.

     Second, there were a good number of first- and second-generation Americans. Not surprisingly, there were a good number of residents from Germany and other European nations. Several people had roots in Alsace-Lorraine and fled that area during and after the Franco-Prussian War. What did surprise me, though, was the number of Hungarian immigrants who chose Fairfax as their home. They were among the 1.7 million Hungarians who left their country in the early 20^th century for better economic opportunity in the United States. Remember the article about Mary Engel, The Hero? Mary’s parents were among the Hungarian immigrants who lived in Fairfax.

     Third, there were several extended families who settled in Fairfax together. For example, 78-year-old Joseph Whitney, his wife Catherine, adult daughter Lydia, and married sons Edward and Stephen and their families all lived here. Edward and Rosa Seibert and their family lived at Germania and High Streets and their two married daughters and their families were their neighbors. Several members of the Wieland family lived on Watterson, including near-beer brewer Louis, who, as an aside, was busted during Prohibition for brewing the real stuff:

Cincinnati Post, August 18, 1922

    The first public school in Fairfax opened in 1918 at the corner of Wooster Pike and Spring Street. It was organized by Mrs. Carrie Conklin, who taught in Fairfax for six years before leaving to help organize and teach at Dale Park Elementary in Mariemont. According to A History of the Village of Fairfax by Elizabeth Steele and Patricia Kuderer, Mrs. Conklin later “became a social worker for the area. Funded by the County Commissioners, her duties included calling on new families in the community. She never went empty handed, many times the first meal enjoyed in a new home was provided through her kindness, emmigrant [sic] families who settled here received her help and advice, and a new baby’s first gift was a layette made by Mrs. Conklin herself.”

     In 1924, elementary age Fairfax children began attending school in Mariemont, until Fairfax Elementary School opened in 1930. Older children attended Plainville School.

     The following memories of the early days in Fairfax were shared in A History of the Village of Fairfax, which was published in 1976 in honor of the United States’ Bicentennial:

Mrs. Florence Rea remembers moving to Fairfax in a horse and wagon in 1922. There were few houses and the streets were dirt.

Catherine [Czinege] Abrams remembers watching her mother cook over a coal stove. For heating they had a pot bellied coal stove and their light came from kerosene lamps. Her father walked to Bramble and Whetsel to board a street car . . . . Sidewalks were unheard of . . . [they] had boards to walk on when the streets were muddy. . . . Her family came to Fairfax in 1917.

Helen [Zivanov] Hughes remembers the warmth and friendship showed her parents when they moved to Fairfax. Both were emigrants [sic] from Yugoslavia. Burger Chef [corner of Wooster Pike and Spring Street] was a spring. Several of the women would come and wash their clothes in wash boilers, then take the heavy, wet clothes home in a wheel barrow.

Mrs. Byron Blackburn remembers coming here in 1924 when there wasn’t any gas or water yet. Her family carried water from the well at Germania and Hawthorne.

Mrs. Betty [Thesing] Steele remembers the farm on Wooster Pike that her parents and grandparents owned. As children she and her two sisters all helped on the farm. Early in the day, she and her grandmother fed the chickens and gathered the eggs for market. Later each one would take her turn with the butter churn, pumping up and down until the cream turned to real butter and buttermilk. . . . In the fall of the year folks butchered hogs for their own use. They had a smoke house that Grandma Linnemann took care of. It would take several days of keeping a hickory fire going to smoke the hams, homemade sausage and bacon.

Mrs. Catherine [Haberthy] Shannon remembers her father digging a twenty-five foot well by hand with help from Jim McLaughlin. The new home he was building still didn’t have city water. Drainage was also a problem as no sewer lines existed in the 1920s. After a heavy rain the empty lots stood in water. In the winter if they froze over, . . . she and other children would use them as a skating rink. When telephone service was put through, a good neighbor two blocks away on Watterson gave her number in the event of special calls for her friends. If a call came to her, she would hang a white cloth on the porch post.

    In January 2001, Mrs. Virmorgan Lucus Ziegler shared some memories of her childhood in Fairfax with her friends at Fairfax Presbyterian Church. She and her parents moved to a home on Watterson Road in December 1921: 

It was a bright and clear day and cold . . . . There were no paved roads and the move vehicle got as far as Washington Road (now called Watterson Rd.) and Hawthorne St. and due to the thawing that had taken place during the morning, it could not go any farther. Thus, all the furniture had to be carried by the move men to our house two blocks away, opposite High Street.

What did Fairfax Subdivision look like then? The wide open spaces. There were about ten houses on Washington Rd. . . . At that time Washington Rd. went north to the top of the hill and then made a ninety degree left-hand turn down along the hillside to the bottom of the hill and then another ninety degree right-hand turn over a bridge . . . and continued on as the road is now. There was no house to house mail delivery. Mail was delivered to the end of Whetsel Street in Madisonville just over the tracks of the traction line which went to Milford and Blanchester. There was a commissary of mailboxes and the address was 4000 Whetsel St. Our Public Transportation was the Madisonville Street Car at Bramble and Whetsel Streets. When Dad came home from work he picked up the mail and brought it home. 

As I recall Germania Street was the most built up. There was nothing west of Southern Avenue except a couple of farms. On the east was Herget’s woods, in the Belmont and Settle Road area. It was beautiful with big, old mature trees and I walked through those woods hundreds of times after Dale Park School opened in 1925.

Most everyone had a garden during the summer and those areas were kept free of weeds and grasses; but many open lots, grass and weeds grew up to their full height without ever being cut.

     The Fairfax of 100 years ago was a bit primitive. In August 1922, 175 residents of the Fairfax Subdivision met at the Fairfax Colony School on Wooster Pike to discuss incorporation. They were concerned about poor water quality and believed that as an incorporated village they would be able to negotiate to be connected to Cincinnati water.

    In January 1923, the Cincinnati Post ran a story about the aspirations of the “baby community” of Fairfax:

A city of modest contentment; of neat but not pretentious homes; of pretty gardens; of crimeless and viceless living. This is the dream of Fairfax.

In their vision is well-built streets, a modern schoolhouse, several churches, a city hall, groceries, hardware stores, a park, water brought from Cincinnati’s water works, and extension of the Madisonville street car line – and, of course, a movie theater.

Fairfax Presbyterian Church, January 8, 1923 Cincinnati Post

Fairfax children, January 8, 1923 Cincinnati Post

    In February 1923, residents filed a petition for incorporation that the Hamilton County Commission rejected because “the place was only a settlement of poor persons in little homes who could not afford to pay the increased taxes that would follow incorporation and never would be able to pay off the bonds the town issued.” Ouch!

     Of course, we know it was another 32 years before Fairfax finally incorporated as a village. Thankfully, Hamilton County undertook a project to connect outlying areas of the county, including Fairfax, to the Cincinnati Water Works within a few years.

     The building boom in Fairfax was in full swing, but the community was having a hard time beating its reputation as “a settlement of poor persons in little houses.”

     In December 1928, Bleecker Marquette, executive secretary of the Better Housing League, encouraged Hamilton County Commissioners to establish standards for new subdivisions. He reported that the League had completed a study of several subdivisions and determined that many were simply communities platted on former farm land with dirt roads and no utilities. He cautioned the county against allowing more subdivisions like Fairfax and three other local subdivisions, stating “We can say to you from long experience that it will be years before the county will rid itself of four slum areas which have existed now for some time.”

     The Fairfax Welfare Association (now the Civic Association) took exception to the Better Housing League’s assessment of the subdivision. Association president J. H. Berling and secretary Harry Linnemann sent a letter to Mr. Marquette stating that he was unfair to Fairfax. They wrote that the information the League used in their assessment was likely from five years earlier. They touted the improvements made in the since then:

The streets of Fairfax all have water and sewers. Gas has been brought into many of them and will be brought into more of them at an early date. The streets themselves . . . are being made passable and by next year everyone of them will have been hard surfaced. We have sidewalks on the full length of our three main streets – Wooster Pike, Washington Avenue and Germania Avenue. As soon as more walks are put in we hope to apply for house-to-house mail service.

Over 200 new homes have been started, or will have been started, in our town by January 1, during the course of 1928, and the type of our construction has improved immeasurably. The outhouses are disappearing along with their health menace and modern plumbing connected with the county sewer system installed in their stead.

    Berling and Linnemann acknowledged that there were still issues to be addressed, like fire protection, trash collection, and street lighting. They also boasted that a school would soon be constructed in the area. They concluded their letter as follows:

Local pride throughout our town has revolted against the unkind assertions that you have made of it, and we feel that in all fairness that you should retract the aspersions made on our town in as public a fashion as they were originally made.

    How’s that for some civic pride?

     Things continued to improve over the next few years. Fairfax School opened in 1930 and brought with it more community activities, including the PTA and parents’ club, Boy and Girl Scouts, and sports. Businesses and major corporations made Fairfax their home. It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of this “slum” when the Ford Transmission Plant opened here in the 1950s. And this tough little village battled back when the Ford plant closed in the late 1970s.

     There are several dozen homes in Fairfax that are at least 100 years old. Those “little houses” built for “poor persons” have stood the test of time. There are a number of current Fairfax residents whose families endured the tough times in the early days of this community. There is something reassuring about a sense of continuity. Looking forward, we can hope that the present and future generations of Fairfax residents have the perseverance, foresight, and civic pride of those who came before us. 

The Retailer

    Swallen’s . . . just the name brings back a flood of memories. The new furniture smell of the Wooster Pike store when my parents dragged us kids along to shop for new appliances or furniture. My pining after the most incredible bike any 11-year-old girl could ever imagine, a purple five-speed with a funky ‘70s floral pattern on the seat. My dad taking forever to decide between two nearly identical pairs of blue work pants. Checking out the latest albums because Swallen’s had the best record department. Even when I was a kid with no money, we neighborhood kids “shopped” at Swallen’s, dragging discarded appliance boxes home to construct play houses.

    If you lived in Fairfax back in the day, if you didn’t work at Swallen’s, chances are you had family members, friends, or neighbors who did. My sister worked there for a while as a cashier and my brother worked at the Super Warehouse for a few years. Many Swallen’s employees were fiercely loyal to the owner and founder of Swallen’s, Pat Swallen.

    Wilbur Homer Swallen, known as Pat, was born in Washington Township in Stark County, Ohio on October 29, 1913, the son of Homer and Martha Swallen. His father, who was a farmer, died when Pat was a child and his mother then married a man named John Boyd, who was also a farmer. Pat graduated from Alliance High School in 1931 and continued his education at The Ohio State University. In an interview late in his life, Swallen said that he was told at OSU that he wasn’t college material. Nevertheless, he received a degree in Dairy Production in 1935. He began a career in the dairy industry, taking jobs in Columbus, Zanesville, and Hamilton, Ohio.

Wilbur "Pat" Swallen, 1931 Alliance High School Yearbook

    In 1936, Pat married a young Indiana woman named Coyla Burnell and over the next several years they had four children, Donald, Joyce, Dale, and Bruce. In 1941, Pat and Coyla purchased a home on Old Red Bank Road in Cincinnati.

    Pat realized that the dairy industry wasn’t for him and began looking for “something more.” In 1946, he took a 70 cent per hour job as stockperson in the floor covering and small appliance department at Sears Roebuck. He learned to lay floor coverings there, but wanted the opportunity to sell, which he finally got during a sales rush. From that point forward, he worked hard to become the most successful salesman in the department. Each morning he stopped at the store’s candy counter and bought a bag of roasted peanuts. While his coworkers went to lunch, Pat stayed and helped lunchtime customers and ate his peanuts. Well into his Swallen’s years, Pat was still known for walking his sales floor, eating and sharing peanuts.

    While still at Sears, Pat began installing floor coverings for friends and acquaintances on his own time. In time, friends began asking him for kitchen cabinets, appliances, and furniture. Pat and Coyla began selling this merchandise out of their Old Red Bank Road home. Merchandise was displayed throughout their house and even lined the driveway. Neighbors would help the Swallens by assisting with sales or caring for their children. The Swallens gained a reputation for giving customers a good deal and service after the sale. By 1951, the home-based business had become profitable enough that Pat left his job at Sears. He said that he never took a customer or lead from Sears when he left.

    So, legend has it that Pat Swallen started his business in the basement of his home in Fairfax. Please allow me to nitpick a little. First, he sold merchandise on display throughout the interior and exterior of his home, not just his basement. You liked the nightstand in Pat and Coyla’s bedroom? You could buy it and the matching bedroom set! Second, that house on Old Red Bank Road is, technically, in (gasp!) Hyde Park, not Fairfax.

    Not far from the Swallen residence, an old gravel pit on Wooster Pike in Fairfax had been vacant and for sale for some time. Coyla and Pat purchased the lot in 1953 and built their first store with a 10-room apartment for the family above it. Pat and Coyla sold their home on Old Red Bank Road in 1955, but some of their former neighbors were among the first employees at the new store. As the store grew, additions were made to the building. 

Swallen's Store No. 1 on Wooster Pike in 1993. The Swallen family apartment is the red brick portion.

From Hamilton County Auditor website

Early Swallen's ad from the November 8, 1956 Cincinnati Enquirer

    In November 1959, Swallen’s opened its second store on Red Bank Road in Fairfax, across the street from the former Swallen residence. The new store featured merchandise like toys, bicycles, housewares, hardware, records, clothing, and sporting goods. The expanded Wooster Pike store carried merchandise like furniture, major appliances, televisions, and rugs.

Store No. 2 opening ad, November 8, 1959 Cincinnati Enquirer

Exterior of Store No. 2 on Red Bank Road, November 8, 1959 Cincinnati Enquirer

Interior of Store No. 1 on Wooster Pike, November 8, 1959 Cincinnati Enquirer

    With the success of the first two stores in Fairfax, expansion was inevitable. In the 1960s, Swallen’s opened stores in Western Hills, Winton Place, Tri-County, and Downtown Cincinnati. To help finance these new locations, Swallen’s sold debentures, which are unsecured bonds, to both employees and non-employees. Pat Swallen promoted the debentures to employees as a retirement investment that would help them share in the growth and success of the company. Investors received interest payments on an annual basis. Employees received a bonus interest payment, receiving up to 13 percent interest. Non-employees received a merchandise discount in addition to the interest payment. In 1974, the Cincinnati Post said, “Swallen is . . .  an innovative businessman - innovative in financial matters and employe relations.”

    Swallen’s stores had a distinctive aesthetic. Actually, they had no aesthetic. The stores had bare cement floors, exposed duct work, concrete block walls, and metal shelving. Pat Swallen himself said, “You couldn’t make our stores more ugly if you tried.” Customers didn’t seem to care, as long as they were getting good values and finding the merchandise they needed. As their later jingle declared, “Anything you want, everything you need, you’ll find it at Swallen’s.”

The Swallen's aesthetic, from the February 14, 2011 Cincinnati Enquirer

Ad for telescopes for the moon landing, July 4, 1969 Cincinnati Enquirer

    Pat Swallen was a Christian. He said he was hesitant to speak about his faith because he didn’t want to appear to “exploit my religion for financial gain.” During his lifetime, Pat Swallen’s stores never opened on Sunday in honor of the Sabbath. At one time he was president of the Gideon Society, a Christian organization best known for distributing free Bibles and New Testaments and placing Bibles in hotel rooms. He kept copies of Bibles and Christian texts in his office to distribute to employees and customers. A Presbyterian, Pat Swallen was a lay preacher who frequently spoke in churches of various Christian denominations throughout the Cincinnati area. Swallen’s also had a full-time chaplain on staff.

Sketch of Wilbur "Pat" Swallen from January 26, 1974 Cincinnati Enquirer

    Swallen’s continued to expand into the 1970s, opening two stores in Columbus, a store in Mansfield, and a store in Middletown.  Not every Swallen’s store was a success. The Downtown Cincinnati store closed in 1979, hampered by an inadequate setup for vendor deliveries and customer pickups. Swallen’s never gained a solid footing in the Columbus area and those stores closed in 1982 due to disappointing sales. Nevertheless, Swallen’s continued to expand in the Greater Cincinnati area in the 1980s with the opening of the Northgate and Florence, Kentucky stores.

Pictures of Red Bank Road store in 1985; from Facebook, used with permission of Jim Linne

    Despite being millionaires, Pat and Coyla had a fairly humble lifestyle. They certainly could have moved to Indian Hill (or at least to Mariemont), but continued to live in their apartment over the Wooster Pike store in Fairfax. No limousine or luxury car for Pat Swallen; he drove the same kinds of cars other Fairfax residents drove. Ever the farm boy, he kept an orchard and garden here in Fairfax. He would can or freeze some of the fruit and give away the rest. One of the Swallens’ few indulgences was travel.

     On June 15, 1986, Pat and Coyla Swallen celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary with an open house given by their children. Pat had a debilitating stroke in March 1987. On June 27, 1987, Coyla passed away after a lengthy illness. Pat Swallen suffered another stroke on February 21, 1988 and passed away at his home above the store on Wooster Pike. Longtime employee and friend, Vito Sylvester, said, "If the word Christian could be used to describe anyone it was Pat. He was friendly, thoughtful, compassionate, generous, and had a wonderful sense of humor. His creed was the Golden Rule to which he lived by more than anyone I've ever known."

     Don Swallen succeeded his father as president of the company. Shortly after Pat Swallen’s death, the company moved furniture, major appliances, and televisions from the Wooster Pike store to the expanded Red Bank Road store. Later in 1988, the company announced an expansion of the Western Hills store.

After-Christmas shoppers at Swallen's Red Bank Road store, from December 27, 1989 Cincinnati Enquirer

    What may have been the biggest change after Pat Swallen’s death occurred in 1990 when the stores began opening on Sunday. Swallen’s chaplain Ed White said, "I think they would have done anything to not open on Sunday. But they were forced into it."

     The first signs of trouble with Swallen’s came in 1993. Large national retailers like Walmart, Kohl’s, and Best Buy were moving into the area. A local market research executive was later quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer as saying, "The ability to go out and buy a can of peas, a case of diapers, a desk, and a shotgun all in one place is not very important . . . what is important is carrying a variety of television sets."

     The company hired Brian Wygle, an outside retail consultant, who stepped into the role of acting CEO. He found the company’s culture to be “a little sleepy” and likened their business model to walking backwards on an escalator, "As long as you're moving a little faster, you're OK, but you're not really getting anywhere . . . I don't think they kept up with the times.” He suggested changes that included hiring staff from other retailers, reconfiguring the sales floors, implementing a low-price guarantee, employee incentive programs, and computerizing operations. They also engaged local broadcaster Bob Braun as their spokesman and created a new corporate logo.

New Swallen's logo, from September 17, 1995 Cincinnati Enquirer

    On August 16, 1993, there was a five-alarm fire at Swallen’s floor covering warehouse on Wooster Pike. 75 percent of the building and its contents were destroyed. The fire was caused by lightning striking a transformer. The Cincinnati Post reported that 300 or 400 people blocked the roadway to watch the fire. (I have said before that Fairfax really turns out when catastrophe strikes.) Unbelievably, lightning struck again on May 1, 1994, causing a much smaller fire at the Swallen’s heating and air conditioning building across from the Red Bank store. There were no injuries in either fire.

Thank You ad from Don Swallen, August 23, 1993 Cincinnati Enquirer

    In February 1995, the news broke that the Swallen family was negotiating to sell the company to Yogis Burry, an investment firm led by Swallen’s former Vice President of Finance, Sharad Buddhev. Despite reducing workforce, inventory, and operating costs, vendors were reporting that Swallen’s was struggling to pay them on time.

     The sale was completed in April 1995. Buddhev became the company’s CEO and William Kagler, formerly president of Kroger and Skyline Chili, chairman of the board. Don Swallen remained with the company as president. The new ownership planned to emphasize service and eliminate less profitable product lines. In the weeks that followed, the workforce was further reduced. Vendors were now not only complaining that they weren’t being paid, but that their phone calls weren’t being returned. Some vendors had stopped selling to the company at all. William Kagler resigned from the company on October 25, 1995. On October 31, Swallen’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and immediately closed its Middletown and Mansfield stores.

From April 15, 1995 Cincinnati Enquirer

    In a November 3, 1995 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, a Swallen family member indicated that Don Swallen had left the company weeks before the bankruptcy filing and no member of the family had served in a decision-making capacity since the company was sold in April.

     On November 30, 1995, the company notified employees that they had been without health insurance since October 19. Swallen’s self-insured their health insurance plan, but had failed to reimburse their administrator, Anthem, for claims paid on their behalf. Then, upon reporting to work on December 7, 1995, employees were handed notices that the five remaining stores were closing immediately. Notices were taped to the doors to notify customers. A going out of business sale began the following week. On January 24, 1996, the Red Bank Road store closed its doors for the last time. Fittingly, it was the final Swallen’s store to close.

    For the next several years, issues pertaining to the company’s debts were contested in the courts. The company’s secured creditors had priority according to bankruptcy law and were first in line for debt collection. Unsecured creditors would receive the scraps after the secured creditors’ debts were satisfied. Unsecured creditors included customers who purchased merchandise that hadn’t been delivered and the folks who purchased the debentures that helped build the company. The debenture holders, mostly Swallen’s retirees, filed suit against the company’s estate, but ultimately received only a small percentage of their investment.

     There are a lot of opinions about why Swallen’s failed, mostly focused on management missteps following Pat Swallen’s death and the changing retail landscape. Whatever the reason for Swallen’s downfall, a recurring theme was that it wouldn’t have happened this way if Pat Swallen had been living. Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Laura Pulfer may have said it best. Pat Swallen, “who sent letters to employees reminding them of the true meaning of Christmas would never have canned people three weeks before the holidays with a cheesy Dear John letter handed to them by a security guard. . . . It was common knowledge that he had offers to sell his company, but he said he was worried a new owner might not take care of his employees.”

     I can empathize with Swallen’s employees. Although I didn’t work for Swallen’s I worked for another much-loved local retailer, McAlpin’s, and endured the closing of a store where I had worked for 10 years and later the purchase of the company by another retailer. Both announcements caused employees, especially longtime loyal employees, pain. Over time, though, it seems we remember the good times much more than the bad. It is also encouraging that so many customers have such fond memories of McAlpin’s.

     Swallen’s had an unfortunate and painful ending, but hopefully customers and former employees look back on the company fondly. I know I do. And hopefully the sad story of the company’s demise doesn’t overshadow the success story of the innovative, loyal, hard-working, Christian man who founded it, Wilbur Homer Swallen.