Lemer Shops
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For 60 years or so, this tiny
cream-colored sliver of a downtown building at 923 3rd Ave.
housed the Huntington location of Lerner Shops, a well-known women’s
apparel chain.
Today, the building is home to the Underwood Law Office. The missing window on
the building’s second floor, as seen in this 1955 photo, is a tantalizing
mystery.
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HUNTINGTON — There’s a tiny
cream-colored sliver of a downtown building
at 923 3rd Ave. that today is home to the Underwood Law Office.
But for 60 years or so it housed the Huntington location of
Lerner Shops, a well-known women’s apparel chain.
The chain was founded by blouse manufacturers Samuel
Lerner
and Harold M. Lane in 1918, and it grew rapidly. At one
time there were nearly 800 stores, including the
Huntington location, which opened in the late
1920s and closed in the early 1990s.
There were Lerner Shops locations in other West Virginia
cities
as well, operated by Lerner Shops of West Virginia Inc.
In 1985, Limited Brands, the Columbus-based women’s wear
giant founded
by Leslie Wexner, purchased the company. In 1992, the company
changed its name to Lerner New York. Three years later,
in 1995, the company changed its name again,
this time to New York & Company.
In addition to its retail locations, Lerner Shops also had
a big catalog business
as well. In fact, the mail-order operation kept the Lerner name even after
the brick-and-mortar stores had started going by the New York &
Company name. But in 2006 the catalog business was sold
and the new owner discarded the Lerner name.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Feb. 16, 2021.
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