Bacon's was a chain of

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

s based in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

History

Jeremiah Bacon opened a store called Bacon's Dry Goods in 1845 on Market Street near Hancock Street. In 1876 he moved into a structure four times larger than the original. In 1901, Bacon's opened a location on Fourth and Market streets that became its flagship store. The new building had entrances on each street and featured a distinctive spiraling atrium. The store remained open until September 6, 1972, when it closed to make way for the

Kentucky International Convention Center The Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC), formerly called the Commonwealth Convention Center, is a large multi-use facility in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The KICC, along with the Kentucky Exposition Center, hosts conventions f ...

. In 1903, Bacon's sons sold the store to the large New York City-based dry goods conglomerate H.B. Claflin & Company, the owner of

Stewart Dry Goods The Stewart Dry Goods Company — alternately known as Stewart Dry Goods, or Stewart's — was a regional department store chain based in Louisville, Kentucky. At its height, the chain consisted of seven store locations in Kentucky and Indiana. ...

. The store was acquired by Ohio-based

Mercantile Stores Mercantile Stores Company Inc. until 1998, was a traditional department store retailer operating 102 fashion apparel stores and 16 home fashion stores in 17 states. The stores were operated under 13 different nameplates and varied in size, with t ...

when Claflin went bankrupt in 1914. Bacon's opened a suburban location in St. Matthews in 1953;Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. locations followed in Shively in 1956Link
via

. and

Bashford Manor Mall Bashford Manor Mall, named for the surrounding neighborhood of Bashford Manor, was a enclosed mall in Louisville, Kentucky which opened in 1973 and once had about 85 stores, including Ayr-Way, Bacon's, and Ben Snyder's. History The mall first op ...

in 1972.Link
via

. The chain added a location in

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

, in 1977. In 1982, Bacon's revived its

Downtown Louisville Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jaco ...

presence with a store in the Louisville Galleria (later renamed

Fourth Street Live! Fourth Street Live! is a entertainment and retail complex located on 4th Street, between Liberty and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It is owned and was developed by the Cordish Company; it was designed by Louisville arch ...

). The downtown store closed in 2003. In 1988, it opened a location in

Mall St. Matthews Mall St. Matthews, formerly known as The Mall, is a shopping mall located near Louisville, Kentucky at 5000 Shelbyville Road (US 60 (KY), US 60) in the eastern suburb of St. Matthews, Kentucky, St. Matthews. History Originally named simply "The ...

. Bacon's marketed itself as Kentucky's oldest department store, and often held elaborate sales and celebrations for its anniversaries. Bacon's also held "Midnight Madness" sales that were popular with shoppers. In the 1990s, Bacon's faced increasing competition from national chains, including

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

, which would often open up locations in the same shopping centers as Bacon's. Some Louisville-based department store chain competitors included

Ben Snyders Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( ...

, and

Kaufman-Straus Kaufman-Straus was a local department store that operated in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1879 to 1969. In 1879, local retail clerk Henry Kaufman opened the first store on Jefferson between 7th and 8th. Four years later, Benjamin Straus entered into ...

. Mercantile Stores was acquired by Dillard's in 1998 and the Bacon's name was retired.

Southern Indiana

Bacon's always had a presence in Indiana prior to the opening of its St. Matthews store in 1953. One of the earliest location in Indiana was on Spring Street in downtown Jeffersonville.Link
via

. By the mid-1950s, this store was determined to be too small and was replaced by a much larger store in the newly built Youngstown shopping center in 1956.Link
via

. The store in the Youngstown Shopping Center in Jeffersonville moved in 1990 to

River Falls Mall River Falls Mall is a shopping center in Clarksville, Indiana, on Lewis and Clark Parkway (formerly State Road 131). From its opening in 1990 until 2006, the center was an enclosed mall, with of gross leasable area. It originally comprised multipl ...

References

{{Dillard's history Defunct companies based in Louisville, Kentucky Defunct department stores based in Kentucky Retail companies established in 1845 Retail companies disestablished in 1998 1845 establishments in Kentucky 1998 disestablishments in Kentucky