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The Rhodes Brothers, Albert, William, Henry and Charles, opened a coffee shop in Tacoma, WA, in 1892, and gradually expanded its operations to include a low-cost department store by 1903. Rhodes operated two stores in Tacoma in the 1950s. This store was part of the Rhodes Western Department Store chain, not to be confused with the Rhodes of Seattle Department Store. (Rhodes of Seattle was created by Albert Rhodes who left Tacoma in 1907 to open his own operation.) Western Department Stores, Incorporated, a holding company, bought the Rhodes chain before 1960; Western also included the Kahn's Department Store of Oakland, CA, and the Olds and King Department Store of Portland, OR; in 1960, this conglomerate was renamed "Rhodes Western," with all outlets taking on the Rhodes name. Later, in 1969, Henry Alexander Walker, Jr.'s Amfac, Incorporated, a diversified, Honolulu, HI-based conglomerate, bought Rhodes Western, and merged it with its Liberty House Department Stores. Amfac opened a Liberty House location at the Tacoma Mall in 1973, making the downtown store superfluous. The downtown location was closed in 12/1974. The University of Puget Sound acquired the building in 1980.

PCAD id: 11401