Can you believe the L.S. Ayres downtown store closed 30 years ago this year? (I was working there at the very end.) Shopping has really changed over the years. When I was a child in the 50s and 60s, the place you did your Back to School, Easter, and Christmas shopping was at a department store and L.S. Ayres was the premier department store in the center of Indianapolis, at the corner of Washington & Meridian Streets (opened in 1910).
It was quite a massive building with 8 floors, each one devoted to a different department. Back then the elevator operator would call out the merchandise on each floor as the massive doors with glass windows opened and shut. It scared me to look out as we would zip by a floor. There was everything from cosmetics on the first floor where a clerk would spray you with the latest fragrance, to the 8th floor where they had appliances. A whole men’s section with beautiful cashmere sweaters and neckties in little cubby holes was in an attached building in the back on the first floor. Above the men’s floor they had a lunch cafe on the Mezzanine, as they called it back then (balcony section). Once while eating an avocado up there my pit flipped out and I have no idea where it landed down there. Of course, the nicest place to eat was in the Ayres Tea Room on the 8th floor. It was an elegant dining room with huge draped windows and chandeliers that overlooked Meridian Street. In the 50s they had models dressed in the latest fashions strolling through the dining room (my friend Norma was one of those models). There was a treasure chest at the front where children could pick out a toy surprise. (A replica of the Ayres Tea Room is now at the State Museum where you can have the famous Chicken Velvet soup.) In the auditorium next door, Santaland was set up with the train and all the decorations and you could see the “real” Santa Claus and have your picture taken at Christmas. At Easter there was Bunny’s Barnyard with baby animals.
When you bought a gift back then they gave you an Ayres box that was so well made you could use them for years — I still have one from the 60s. The sales clerks were very knowledgeable in every department and helped you find the perfect gift. Nowadays you’re lucky to find a clerk at all anywhere you shop.
At Ayres back then they had everything from sheet music to bridal gowns, cameras to watch repair, and fishing tackle to fur coats. I always shopped in the Ayres Budget Store in the basement and I never missed an EOM (End of the Month) Sale!
When I was 14 my mother was very ill and had my younger sister and I take a bus downtown with $150 in cash and the Christmas list to get the shopping done. Can you imagine feeling safe enough to do that now?
Most of us who remember Ayres, remember the bronze cherub that appeared on the top of the clock on the corner of the building to kick off the Christmas season. Here’s a little history about that cherub — in the 1946 Ayres Christmas Catalog, artist Virginia Holmes filled the pages with cherub drawings, because they were still short of merchandise after the war. So since it was Ayres’ 75th Anniversary, a cherub was commissioned to be created by Herron professor David Rubins. I had him as an instructor of History of Sculpture at Herron in the late 60s (grumpy old guy). The day before Thanksgiving the cherub mysteriously shows up perched on the clock every year but one (in 1993 some big shot at May company put it in his garden when they purchased Ayres). Luckily Ayres got him back. The city owns him now and he still is in place every year. David Rubins was a fantastic artist and I still have his anatomy book with drawings of the human body with every muscle and tendon. I think pre-med students could use it – it’s that detailed.
The Ayres building has been closed since Carson Pirie Scott moved out. Right now the first floor of the Ayres building is being used for the Sistine Chapel Exhibit through August 28th. I went last week and was amazed at the huge panels of Michelangelo’s work. You don’t have to look up at the ceiling, you can enjoy the magnificent panels at your leisure with an audio tour through your smart phone. The tours are timed every half hour so there is never a big crowd blocking your view (about a dozen people every half hour). You can park in Circle Center and just walk the block down to the old Ayres front entrance. The price is $19 – buy online at www.sistinechapelexhibit.com/indianapolis If you do look up you will see those original Corinthian columns that were in Ayres and if you go to the restroom you will see the Mezzanine.
