Thank you so much for posting this. As a native Toledoan (born Toledo Hospital 1945), a very strong attachment to Tiedke's! My Grandfather was buyer of sporting goods for many years; my Father was buyer for the camera department. To top it all off, I worked in the cheese department Christmas of 1962...You guessed it, cutting the huge Christmas cheese. Three generations of Keezers worked there at the same time. Fond memories!!
Definitely a Toledo icon , One definitely for the history books , No doubt one of the best department stores in the country , The ones who bought the company , Had they kept everything running the same as it did in the beginning , That store would still be alive Also what was great about the Tiedtke brothers was they treated their employees as family members and reached out to the ones that were in a jam and helped them out and also at Christmas time , Reached out to the less fortunate kids by giving them a shopping spree for the toys they wanted Back in those days , Business owners were about sharing and reaching out to help the less fortunate Today we've got business owners and CEOs of big companies that are downright greedy Definitely the Tiedtke brothers had big hearts as they cared for others much more than themselves , Tiedtkes was a huge part of Toledo and so sad that it's gone Definitely a huge piece of Toledo history
Re: The fire. Gordon Ward said a store like Tiedke's could never happen again. The Anderson's General Stores at Talmadge & Monroe and on Illinois & Ford in Maumee sure came close to this 80s kid.
I still have my pic from sitting on Santa lap at Tiedkes. To me and my brother Tiedtke's was DOWN Town. No one mentioned the unusual food the they sold like chacolate covered ants. As usual the best floor was the toy floor. Woolworth and Tiedtkes had the best toys but they were no. 1. My heart broke as a truck driver I came in and found out it was gone. I had heard a lot of rummers what happened to it one that his son or sons burned it down. I think to liven up Down town again stores should have the lights like tiedtkes had on the outside. I believe that was a draw for kids and adults alike. Downtown now is so dark and drab with a capital BORING. If they would light it up like Tiedtke's was light up or go to Las Vegas and getting some lighting ideas they could draw people back to downtown and maybe back to Toledo. Companies seeing the beauty may want to invest into downtown seeing it is attracting people.. I bet people was drawn to Ostermans next door. And my buns are on the Lions at the Lion stor also. LIGHT UP DOWNTOWN TOLEDO WITH SPLENDOR AND COLOR FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS AND BRING IT BACK TO LIFE.
I must have been 6 or 7, I would go there with my grandmother and uncle, more than once Art Barrie would come over to our table. Can't remember what he would say but I'd end up with a few other kids waiting to answer a few simple questions. Usually got a huge lollipop for the effort. Remember shaking hands with what must have been the tallest man on earth, my hand disappeared. The aroma of popcorn and the coconut cream pie. The Wheel, Eppies Essen, the Rivoli, Esquire, and Paramount. Wonderful time to be growing up.
Thank you so much for posting this. As a native Toledoan (born Toledo Hospital 1945), a very strong attachment to Tiedke's! My Grandfather was buyer of sporting goods for many years; my Father was buyer for the camera department. To top it all off, I worked in the cheese department Christmas of 1962...You guessed it, cutting the huge Christmas cheese. Three generations of Keezers worked there at the same time. Fond memories!!
Definitely a Toledo icon , One definitely for the history books , No doubt one of the best department stores in the country , The ones who bought the company , Had they kept everything running the same as it did in the beginning , That store would still be alive
Also what was great about the Tiedtke brothers was they treated their employees as family members and reached out to the ones that were in a jam and helped them out and also at Christmas time , Reached out to the less fortunate kids by giving them a shopping spree for the toys they wanted
Back in those days , Business owners were about sharing and reaching out to help the less fortunate
Today we've got business owners and CEOs of big companies that are downright greedy
Definitely the Tiedtke brothers had big hearts as they cared for others much more than themselves , Tiedtkes was a huge part of Toledo and so sad that it's gone
Definitely a huge piece of Toledo history
Ill never forget tiedtkes
I have fond memories of Tiedkes. THE TOY FLOOR!
I remember going there and its the best time of my life ill really miss it
Re: The fire.
Gordon Ward said a store like Tiedke's could never happen again.
The Anderson's General Stores at Talmadge & Monroe and on Illinois & Ford in Maumee sure came close to this 80s kid.
I still have my pic from sitting on Santa lap at Tiedkes. To me and my brother Tiedtke's was DOWN Town. No one mentioned the unusual food the they sold like chacolate covered ants. As usual the best floor was the toy floor. Woolworth and Tiedtkes had the best toys but they were no. 1. My heart broke as a truck driver I came in and found out it was gone. I had heard a lot of rummers what happened to it one that his son or sons burned it down. I think to liven up Down town again stores should have the lights like tiedtkes had on the outside. I believe that was a draw for kids and adults alike. Downtown now is so dark and drab with a capital BORING. If they would light it up like Tiedtke's was light up or go to Las Vegas and getting some lighting ideas they could draw people back to downtown and maybe back to Toledo. Companies seeing the beauty may want to invest into downtown seeing it is attracting people.. I bet people was drawn to Ostermans next door. And my buns are on the Lions at the Lion stor also. LIGHT UP DOWNTOWN TOLEDO WITH SPLENDOR AND COLOR FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS AND BRING IT BACK TO LIFE.
I must have been 6 or 7, I would go there with my grandmother and uncle, more than once Art Barrie would come over to our table. Can't remember what he would say but I'd end up with a few other kids waiting to answer a few simple questions. Usually got a huge lollipop for the effort. Remember shaking hands with what must have been the tallest man on earth, my hand disappeared. The aroma of popcorn and the coconut cream pie. The Wheel, Eppies Essen, the Rivoli, Esquire, and Paramount. Wonderful time to be growing up.
That was the best days in my life
I remember the Bakery, inside Tiedtke's.
And I remember, it was a large store.
I didn't realize it had six floors! I just read that.
They could made the malls sick