Rike’s was a high end store that focused on service and quality merchandise, specializing in clothing, footwear, bedding, jewelry, cosmetics and housewares. It was located on the corner of Second and Main in a magnificent building which stood on the site that is now home to the Schuster auditorium.
The Rike-Kilmer Company was founded in 1863 in Dayton Ohio. In 1959, (nearly one hundred years later) Rike’s became part of the Federated Department store group. In 1982, Federated merged Rike’s with Shillito’s of Cincinnati. Then in 1986 Federated merged Shillito–Rike’s into Lazarus, a Columbus chain, which in 2005 was consolidated with most other Federated stores under the Macy’s brand which still exists.
The shirt box in the photo is probably in the region of forty years old and would have been carried through a booming downtown Dayton in times when Beerman’s and Sears as well as General Motors were the life of the city.
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