Right in front of you is a tall, imposing beige building with a very smooth and windowless upper facade-just look for the dramatic vertical strips of decorative glass that climb up the walls, making the whole block look like an enormous Art Deco fortress!
Picture this: It’s 1937, and Indianapolis is buzzing with new energy. You’re standing before the flagship store of H. P. Wasson and Company-Wasson’s for short-a department store that wasn’t just a place to shop, but a downtown legend. The building is new, gleaming, and shockingly modern. Nine stories tall, it’s designed in the striking Art Moderne style by the famed firm Rubush and Hunter, with sleek lines and hardly a window in sight! Why? Well, with new fluorescent lights blazing inside, who needs that old-fashioned sunshine? Wasson’s made shopping feel a bit like entering a spaceship-one filled with hats, gloves, lamps, and just about everything the modern Hoosier heart could desire.
Let’s slip back even further, to 1874, when Hiram P. Wasson bought the Bee Hive Drygoods Store. Imagine the rustle of fabric and the creak of wooden floors as Wasson built up his business. That simple dry goods store evolved into H. P. Wasson and Company nine years later, growing alongside the city itself. Hiram was the mastermind, but after he died in 1910-and his son Kenard two years after that-the reins were passed to Gustave Efroymson and his brother-in-law Louis Wolf. The Efroymson-Wolf partnership marked an era of expansion, with Gustave steering the company for nearly two decades.
Now, here’s a tidbit worth a smile: Wasson’s was right in the thick of competition, vying for shoppers’ affection against legendary Indiana rivals like L. S. Ayres. Buying your winter coat was practically a battle of brand loyalty.
Let’s fast forward to the roaring 1950s and beyond-post-war Indianapolis was sprouting new suburbs as fast as teenagers grow after a summer away. Wasson’s leapt into shopping center life, opening stores from Anderson to Bloomington, and gave eager suburbanites a taste of city shopping close to home. Eastgate, Kokomo, enclosed malls-you name it, Wasson’s put up shop there. The real heart, though, was always this grand downtown location, a block-sized retail palace at 2 West Washington Street.
Of course, every story’s got a plot twist. By 1963, leadership had passed to Louis C. Wolf, until tragically, he was killed in a plane crash in Alaska while hunting-probably looking for bargains, knowing his retail instincts! His family, overwhelmed, sold Wasson’s to Goldblatt’s out of Chicago. Unfortunately, this deal was about as well-matched as socks and sandals: Goldblatt’s targeted a different crowd, and standards slipped. The unique Wasson’s atmosphere faded, merchandise quality dropped, and no exciting new stores opened. Shoppers noticed. You know things are grim when locals start reminiscing about “the good old days” while waiting in line for socks.
There’s some drama too! Wasson’s built an annex on Monument Circle, but in 1969, fire broke out and destroyed entire floors-smoke, sirens, a dark night for downtown, and a patch of Indianapolis history lost. The site today? A park and, later, the Emmis Corporation headquarters.
In 1979, Melvin Simon and Associates (yes, the mall developers!) bought the skeleton of a once-great department store empire. Wasson’s stores closed, one after another, until at last, in February 1981, the final shop in Kokomo shut its doors for good.
Standing here, try to imagine the hustle and bustle-the grand holiday windows, friends ducking in out of the snow, the sense of excitement when you scored that perfect find. Wasson’s wasn’t just a store; it was part of the city’s soul. Even without the glitz and window displays, this building remains a monument of ambition, tragedy, change, and memory-just another day in the ever-surprising story of Indianapolis. And remember, next time you pass a windowless building, maybe it’s just waiting for the next bright idea to light it up from within!
