Carlisle's

Carlisle's was a Ashtabula-based department store founded in 1852 as Tyler-Carlisle dry goods. Carlisle's opened their first store in the Ashtabula Harbor District in 1868. In 1874, Carlisle's moved to a new location at 1005 Bridge Street as the store began to grow. In 1911, the Tyler family had left the business, resulting in the Allen family taking partnership with the Carlisle family, Carlisle's then changed their store name to the Carlisle-Allen Company and started to focus on being a department store rather then a dry goods store. Over time, the store began expanding due to Carlisle's beginning to track a lot of popularity in the Ashtabula area. In 1927, Carlisle's decided to relocate to a brand new five-story building at 4509 Main Avenue in Downtown Ashtabula, this is where their main landmark location would remain. In 1969, Carlisle's would first expand to Northwest Pennsylvania when they acquired the Erie-based Trask's chain and began to rename former Trask's stores into Carlisle's. In November 1975, Carlisle's would open their first enclosed shopping mall location inside of the Millcreek Mall in Erie, Pennsylvania. Also around this time, Carlisle's began to open more stores throughout Northeast Ohio with locations in Painesville and Warren. During the 1980s, Carlisle's opened more stores around Northeast Ohio, this time shifting their focus to opening stores in enclosed shopping malls, with opening two new stores in the Carnation City Mall in Alliance in 1983, and the Eastwood Mall in Niles in 1984. Carlisle's main serving locations were Northwest Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. During the 1990s, it was very apparent Carlisle's was struggling as the company was dealing with the verge of bankruptcy. As an attempt to cut costs, Carlisle's relocated their main five-story Downtown Ashtabula store to a one-level store at the Ashtabula Mall in 1992 as an anchor, however this store would not last long. In 1993, Carlisle's began closing stores in Northeast Ohio as the company continued to lose money. In 1994, Carlisle's was going out of business and closed all of their locations, including their main Ashtabula store inside of the Ashtabula Mall. In 1996, Peebles acquired the former Carlisle's chain and would open Peebles stores in most former Carlisle's locations.