The H. & S. Pogue Company was a Cincinnati, Ohio based department store chain founded by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Pogue. They came from County Cavan, Northern Ireland, to Cincinnati and worked in their uncle's dry goods store. They later were able to buy him out and H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was established in 1863 at 111 West Fifth Street. Brothers Thomas, Joseph, and William Pogue would eventually join the enterprise.
Growing with the Queen City
The original storefront on West Fifth Street led to the Pogue brothers contracting to have their own store built on more fashionable West Fourth Street between Race and Vine Streets directly across from Enin, McAlpin & Company, a location they would maintain throughout the company's history. The modest 31' storefront grew quickly, soon expanding into the buildings adjacent on each side. Renowned architect Samuel Hannaford was chosen to design the company's flagship store in 1916, expanding the enterprise westward to the corner of Race Street, the result being a graceful Edwardian structure with an impressive six acres of selling space spread over seven floors. Publicity drawings were made of a completed store with the three original storefronts demolished and replaced with a never-to-occur expansion of the Hannaford-designed structure.
The downtown store would be expanded again, despite the Great Depression, in 1930 when an alley was removed to provide a nine-story mechanical and ventilation tower that included ten service and passenger elevators connecting the building's 11 floors of two basements, six above-ground selling floors, and three service/storage levels. The structure also served to functionally connect the store northward into the arcade of the new Carew Tower, where Pogue's would occupy the southern side, the northern side and five floors above it being occupied by long-time competitor Mabley & Carew.
In 1948, the 12-story, 110,000 square foot, Service Building would be constructed a block south of the store at the corner of Third and Race Streets, housing the growing business's clothing alterations, carpet, drapery, millinery (Pogue's creations regularly come up for sale on eBay), and upholstery workrooms; the print shop; fur storage; engraving and silver polishing; and watch repair. Sensitive to the building's location on a prominent street in the heart of the financial district, the firm selected respected Cincinnati architect Henry Hake to craft a handsome brick tower similar in design to the striking modernist Terrace Plaza Hotel three blocks north of it and completed the same year. Hake and Son's other notable Cincinnati commissions included the Cincinnati Reds' Crosley Field, the Queen City Club, and the headquarters for the Western and Southern Life Insurance Company. A three-story warehouse, primarily for furniture and appliances, was maintained at Sixth and Cutter Streets in an area of the downtown Cincinnati street grid that would vanish with the construction of Interstate 75.
Suburban expansion came in April 1959 with the opening of a 60,000 square foot boutique-style branch at Kenwood Plaza and construction underway of a 160,000 square foot full-scale branch store at Tri-County Center. As the decade drew to its close, Pogue's was firmly established as the region's finest department store, and second-largest after the John Shillito Company. However, it was already apparent that the changes reshaping post-war America, with shoppers steadily moving to the suburbs and preferring automobiles rather than public transportation, were leading to the end of the single-location department store in an urban center. Further suburban expansion and a downtown garage were critical to the business's success, and expensive.