The story
1869-1995
Heer's was founded in 1869 by German immigrant Charles H. Heer (1820-1898) and incorporated as Charles H. Heer Dry Goods Company in 1882. Charles H. Heer passed management of the store to his youngest son, Francis Xavier Heer (1862-1949), in 1886. Francis X. Heer became store president upon his father's death and remained in that position until his death.
After a fire destroyed the store in 1913, a new building was built at the 138 Park Central Square location. The new seven story terracotta sheathed steel commercial building opened in September 1915 with 21,000 people streaming through the store that day.
In 1940, Heer's was purchased by Allied Stores of New York and received major renovations such as air conditioning and escalators. More renovations were done in 1969 to make it look more like major department stores in other big cities and a new Heer's store was opened in Battlefield Mall in 1976. In 1988, Heer's bought out Newman's department store at the Northpark Mall in Joplin, Missouri under the direction of President and CEO Janet Boswell. The company filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s. 1994 saw the closing of the Joplin location and in 1995 Heer's was no longer in operation.
From Wikipedia’s article on Heer's, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3