The store traced its roots to 1877, when Detroit merchants C. R. Mabley and Joseph T. Carew, en route to Memphis, were stranded in Cincinnati by a late train and wound up going into business in the heart of what was then a booming river city.

Having missed their connection, they walked around town and reached Fountain Square, saw a "For Rent" sign, and decided that was a fine place for a store.

Mabley & Carew was the first store in Cincinnati to adopt full-page newspaper ads, to give elaborate Christmas performances, and to set up the Arbor Day custom.

The Mabley & Carew building was once illuminated by 10,000 lights that glimmered opposite Fountain Square.

At the time of the merger, Mabley & Carew also had a branch store at Cincinnati's Western Hills Plaza that had opened in 1955.