A Tale of Two Big Boxes: The Complete History of Grant City and K-Mart in St. Marys

Part I: The Original Big Box – The Story of 1535 Celina Road

The story of St. Marys’ first true big-box discount store began not with the fanfare of a grand opening, but in the quiet, procedural setting of a municipal meeting. In 1973, plans for the “Grant City Shopping Center” were received by Kenneth E. Hitchen, the zoning commissioner of St. Marys Township, from the developer, EGSMetro Development Construction Company of Pittsburgh. The initial plans outlined an ambitious, multi-phase commercial complex. The proposal called for a main W. T. Grant building of 53,200 square feet, with several other buildings projected for the future, including a 14,400 square foot structure and a proposed service station. The vision was for a sprawling center with a large parking lot designed to accommodate 549 vehicles, with an entrance opening off Highway 703, west of Happy Humpty.

The construction phase, however, was marked by tragedy before the store even opened. On the evening of Friday, October 18, 1974, at 5:45 p.m., a 28-year-old construction worker from Fort Jennings was killed at the site. As detailed in his obituary published on October 21, 1974, he was working to help pave the vast new parking lot when he was struck by a dump truck loaded with hot mix. The worker, a native of Tennessee, was survived by his widow and their two young sons.

Despite this somber event, work continued, and the store prepared for its grand opening. An article in The Evening Leader titled “Grant City Ready” announced the store would open its doors on Saturday, September 14, 1974. The new General Manager, Duane Smith, came to St. Marys with eight years of retail experience with the Grant company, having worked in Columbus, Louisville, and Cincinnati. He announced an initial staff of “about 70 persons on our sales force and behind-the-scenes staff,” though other reports would place the total number of employees closer to 150. The store promised a “pleasant shopping environment” with “almost 2 miles of the latest fashions” and was organized into a series of “shops,” including extensive sections for home furnishings, sporting goods, and a “Home Entertainment shop” featuring Grant’s own “Bradford” line of televisions, stereos, and appliances.

A key feature was the “Bradford House snack bar,” designed to cater to shoppers with “quick meals or light refreshments.” An advertisement for “Family Nite!” at the Bradford House offered a choice of three dinners—Chicken, Clams, or Fish—complete with french fries, cole slaw, a scoop of ice cream, and a beverage, all for $1.77. As an added incentive, children six and under received a free meal from the kiddie menu.

The official Grand Opening was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on that Saturday morning, September 14, 1974. A photograph captured the moment, with a crowd of local dignitaries and store management holding the ceremonial ribbon. Participating in the event were Tobe Rion, Betty Lorah, Norma Linn, Marion Clemens, Ann Ferber, Jim Barton, Tom Boyle, Mayor Howard Schultz, Safety-Service Director Ken Hegemann, Store Manager Duane Smith, Rick Riley, Lola Fike, Helen Farnand, and Stan Smith.

The store immediately became a fixture of the community. That first holiday season, it was filled with local families as children lined up to have their pictures taken with Santa Claus, including one young boy from Minster who famously refused to smile for the camera until after he had stepped down from Santa’s lap. The parking lot itself became a local landmark, known for a quirky and potentially hazardous feature: a fire hydrant located directly in the middle of the driving lane, as documented in a photo from August 13, 1974. The lot was also the scene of numerous accidents. On November 12, 1975, one driver backed her car out of a parking space and into a parked, occupied car. In a more serious incident reported on January 14, 1975, a car was stopped on Route 703 waiting to make a left turn into the Grant City parking lot when it was struck from behind by another car with defective brakes, injuring three people.

The store was also a site of daily drama and danger. On November 16, 1974, at 7:18 p.m., a 17-year-old employee from Celina suffered a severe injury to his right foot when it was caught in a paper compacter. He required surgery and was rushed to the hospital by the St. Marys Fire Department ambulance. The store also dealt with crime. A court report from March 30, 1975, noted that an individual from Wapakoneta was charged with shoplifting at Grant City.

While the St. Marys store was a picture of local success, its parent company was secretly hemorrhaging money. By the beginning of 1975, whispers of the company’s financial troubles had reached St. Marys. The rumors became so persistent that on January 20, 1975, Manager Duane Smith felt compelled to address them publicly. In an article in The Evening Leader headlined “Grant City Manager: Store Will Stay,” Smith adamantly refuted what he called “totally unfounded rumors.” He acknowledged that the parent company was indeed closing 66 other stores, but he insisted the St. Marys location was safe. “We’re open for business,” he stated with confidence, “and plan to stay open to serve the community for many years to come.”

That promise, made with the best of intentions, would be shattered in just nine months. On Friday, October 17, 1975, the official, devastating news was delivered via a phone call from the corporate office in New York and announced in the newspaper: Grant City was to close, a direct casualty of the parent company’s bankruptcy. The decision would eliminate the jobs of approximately 100 local employees.

The store’s final weeks descended into a well-documented chaos. In an article published on October 25, 1975, titled “Call Closes Grant City,” a bewildered Duane Smith described the situation from his perspective. He received a phone call late on a Friday afternoon from New York, instructing him to “close the store until Thursday and let employes off until Tuesday.” The reason for the sudden closure was the massive crowd of shoppers that had descended on the store. “The store had to lock its doors at 9:15 p.m. Friday due to the large number of people in the store,” Smith explained. “Even at that it was 10:30 before we had them all checked out.”

The store reopened for its final act. In mid-November 1975, a stark, full-page advertisement appeared, leaving no doubt about the store’s fate. Under a screaming headline—”OUT OF BUSINESS Sale”—it was declared “THE LARGEST RETAIL CHAIN-STORE BANKRUPTCY SALE IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES!” The terms were as final as the closure itself: a “MINIMUM DISCOUNT OF 50% OFF OF EVERYTHING IN THE STORE!” and a strict “CASH ONLY” policy.

By the spring of 1976, the building stood empty. On April 10, the St. Marys Fire Department was dispatched to the adjacent Al Waterman property for a grass fire. The caller, seeing the smoke, had “apparently had thought the Grant City building was afire,” a testament to how large the vacant structure loomed in the public consciousness. The official report referred to it simply as the “former Grant City building.”

The massive building at 1535 Celina Road did not sit dormant for long. On January 19, 1976, an article headlined “K-Mart May Be Opened Here” gave the community its first concrete hope. Joseph Carter of EGS Metro, the building’s owner, stated, “We’re 95 per cent sure,” that K-Mart was moving in.

Just four days later, on January 23, 1976, an article headlined “K-Mart Could Open By April,” quoted K-Mart district employee and fixture man, Jerry Purtlebaugh. He was already working inside the building, where he and his crew were “cleaning up and beginning to install fixtures.” But the optimistic April timeline would prove elusive. An April 1976 column by Mike Core detailed the community’s anxiety as lease negotiations with EGS Metro dragged on. Finally, on May 7, 1976, an article announced “K-Mart Opening Set July 29.” The newly named local assistant manager, Dick Jennings, confirmed the lease had officially been signed.

On July 14, 1976, the new manager, Robert E. Morgan, confirmed the opening date and details: the store would have 43,000 square feet of sales space and 80 employees for the grand opening. On July 26, 1976, the S.S. Kresge Company ran a full-page ad emphasizing its “77 YEARS OF RELIABILITY AND TRUST.”

On Thursday, July 29, 1976, K-Mart held its Grand Opening with a staff of 80 employees. The K-Mart Coffee Shop opened with its 94-cent Deluxe Hamburger Plate special. To cement its relationship with its new customers, the store, now officially designated K-Mart #9098, held an exclusive “After hours Gift-a-Rama” on Sunday, December 5, 1976, for valued customers.

According to historical records, the original K-Mart at this location closed in October 1990, paving the way for its immediate replacement on Indiana Avenue. In the years that followed, the building housed other businesses, including a Big Lots, before falling into vacancy. However, the story of 1535 Celina Road was not over. In March of 2018, news broke that the old, derelict building could be saved from demolition. A proposal was brought before the St. Marys Council to turn the building into a warehouse. On June 12, 2018, the council officially moved to change the city’s zoning ordinance, paving the way for the building’s industrial rebirth; it is now home to American Manufacturing Solutions.

Part II: The Modern Era – The Story of Indiana Avenue

On November 1, 1990, just as the Celina Road location closed, a new chapter in St. Marys retail began. A brand-new, state-of-the-art K-Mart, store #3557, opened at 1292 Indiana Avenue. It was a key anchor of the new St. Marys Square shopping center, which also included a Brodbecks grocery store. The plaza would later expand in 1994 with the addition of a JCPenney.

The new K-Mart, store #3557, located at 1292 Indiana Avenue, was a product of its time—a curious hybrid of architectural styles. According to historical analysis of its design, the store was originally meant to be built completely in the 1980s style, with a classic, centered main entrance. However, a last-minute change was made to the plans, shifting the entrance to be offset to the right side of the building to match the rest of the shopping center. Despite this change, the large Kmart sign was installed in the same place as if the store had built the centered entrance, creating an unusual visual asymmetry. The architectural compromise was most evident in the garden center, which was still built in the blatant 1980s style of the original blueprints, creating an odd clash with the newer main building.

For the next 27 years, this K-Mart was a cornerstone of the community. It was a constant, reliable presence in the lives of St. Marys residents. It was the destination for the annual back-to-school rush, where aisles were filled with parents and children checking items off their supply lists. It was where families placed their Christmas gifts on layaway, and where the sudden announcement of a “Blue Light Special” could send a ripple of excitement through the store. It also reflected the local culture; a 2014 visitor noted the store had an unusually large stock of guns, “easily twice the stock” of other Kmart locations, suggesting hunting was a significant part of the community. By that same time, however, the store’s interior was described as “very plain,” perhaps an early sign of the cost-cutting that would precede its eventual closure.

But the retail landscape that had seemed so permanent began to shift dramatically in the new millennium. On Friday, November 3, 2017, the news that many had seen coming for national retailers finally hit home. The Daily Standard and The Lima News both reported that Sears Holdings, K-Mart’s struggling parent company, was closing another 45 “unprofitable” stores, and the St. Marys location was on the list. The announcement was a heavy blow, not just for K-Mart, but for the entire shopping plaza, which had already suffered the loss of its other anchor tenants, J.C. Penney and Radio Shack. The era of the great American department store was fading, and the evidence was now starkly visible on Indiana Avenue.

The company announced that the store would remain open through the 2017 holiday season, offering one last, bittersweet period for shoppers and employees. The final chapter began on November 9, 2017, with the start of a massive liquidation sale. The familiar blue lights were overshadowed by stark, yellow “STORE CLOSING” banners. In late January 2018, after the last of the merchandise had been sold and the fixtures were stripped away, the doors of the Indiana Avenue K-Mart were locked for the final time, bringing a 27-year run to a quiet and somber end.

Once again, a massive retail building in St. Marys sat empty, its vast parking lot silent. This time, however, the building’s future would be proactively reshaped to meet a different community need. On September 14, 2018, a press release announced that Celina Tent, Inc., a local family-owned manufacturer of fabric shelters, had officially acquired the “former Kmart building in the St. Marys Square Business Complex.” The 86,000-square-foot space was to be transformed into a fabric assembly facility, with production scheduled to begin before the end of the year. The era of shopping carts and checkout lines officially gave way to the hum of industrial machinery.

This industrial chapter, while vital, served as a bridge to yet another transformation. By 2024, the building was ready to return to its original purpose. On Monday, September 23, 2024, a new kind of excitement filled the air at the St. Marys Square. A line of shoppers, described as “eagerly waiting to be the first,” formed outside the familiar entrance as Hobby Lobby celebrated its grand opening. The news article confirmed that the new arts, crafts, and home decor store had “moved into the spot formerly used by Celina Tent.”

This rebirth was marked by a new address, 1286 Indiana Avenue, reflecting the evolution and re-parceling of the plaza itself. The opening was not an isolated event but the cornerstone of a full-scale revitalization. It was announced that a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market was also scheduled to open in the complex in 2025. The former K-Mart building, a site that had witnessed the rise and fall of a retail giant and served a crucial industrial purpose, was once again a bustling center of commerce, reborn and ready to serve a new generation of the St. Marys community.

Bibliography

Newspapers (Contemporary Accounts)

• “Grant City Shopping Center Plans Received By Zoning Commission.” The Evening Leader, September 25, 1973.
• “Help Wanted: Office Manager.” The Evening Leader, August 7, 1974.
• “Help Wanted: Snack Bar Manager, Sales Specialist.” The Evening Leader, August 15, 1974.
• “Help Wanted: Sales Specialist.” The Evening Leader, August 23, 1974.
• Photo Caption: Grant City Management Team. The Evening Leader, September 11, 1974.
• “Grant City Ready.” The Evening Leader, September 13, 1974.
• Advertisement: “Congratulations To Grant City On Your Grand Opening.” The Evening Leader, September 13, 1974.
• Advertisement: “68th Anniversary Sale.” The Evening Leader, October 7, 1974.
• Advertisement: “10% BONUS CHECK.” The Evening Leader, November 4, 1974.
• Police Blotter: Accident in Grant City Parking Lot. The Evening Leader, November 13, 1974.
• “Foot Injured.” The Evening Leader, November 16, 1974.
• “Santa Claus Came To Town Friday.” The Evening Leader, November 30, 1974.
• “Grant City Manager: Store Will Stay.” The Evening Leader, January 20, 1975.
• Advertisement: “Priess Shoes.” The Evening Leader, February 5, 1975.
• Advertisement: “3 DAY SIZZLER.” The Evening Leader, August 21, 1975.
• “Grant City To Close Dec. 24.” The Evening Leader, October 17, 1975.
• “Call Closes Grant City.” The Evening Leader, October 25, 1975.
• Police Blotter: Accident in Grant City Parking Lot. The Evening Leader, November 12, 1975.
• Advertisement: “OUT OF BUSINESS Sale.” The Evening Leader, November 15, 1975.
• “From the Corener.” The Evening Leader, January 3, 1976.
• “Bumper Crops Harvested” (Year in Review). The Evening Leader, January 10, 1976.
• “K-Mart May Be Opened Here.” The Evening Leader, January 19, 1976.
• “K-Mart Could Open By April.” The Evening Leader, January 23, 1976.
• “Former Grant City building” (Police Blotter). The Evening Leader, April 10, 1976.
• “K-Mart Opening Set July 29.” The Evening Leader, May 7, 1976.
• “Courthouse News: Vendor’s License Issued.” The Evening Leader, May 28, 1976.
• “K-Mart To Open July 29.” The Evening Leader, July 14, 1976.
• Advertisement: K-Mart Grand Opening. The Evening Leader, July 24, 1976.
• Advertisement: “K-MART COFFEE SHOP.” The Evening Leader, July 28, 1976.
• Photo Caption: “Ready For Opening” (Bob Morgan). The Evening Leader, July 28, 1976.
• Advertisements: K-Mart Sales. The Evening Leader, September 22, November 17, December 4, December 18, and December 24, 1976.

Web-Based and Modern Sources

• Albert, Sydney. “Kmart store in St. Marys to close.” The Daily Standard, November 3, 2017.
• Lima News Staff. “St. Marys Kmart to close.” The Lima News, November 3, 2017.
• Hometown Stations Staff. “Old St. Marys Kmart could be saved from demolition.” HometownStations.com, March 12, 2018.
• “Former St. Marys store may be spared demolition.” The Daily Standard, March 13, 2018.
• “St. Marys council moves to change zoning.” The Daily Standard, June 12, 2018.
• Celina Tent, Inc. “Celina Tent, Inc. Acquires St. Marys, Ohio Assembly Space to Support Production.” PRWeb, September 14, 2018.
• Higgins, Cade. “Hobby Lobby opens doors in St. Marys.” The Lima News, September 23, 2024.
• Eckhart, Nicholas. “Long Lost Kmart.” Flickr, uploaded August 21, 2014 (photo taken March 19, 2014). (Note: This is the source for the 1990 date and the Big Lots information).