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Muller's Department Store Collection |
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Historical Sketch Julie Kaufman was born into a Jewish family in Gundershoven, Alsace, a region then part of France, in 1854. During the Franco-Prussian War, which ended with the defeat of France and the transfer of Alsace to the new German state, she emigrated to the United States with her older brother, Joseph, in 1870. Unfortunately for Julie, Joseph died in New Orleans a few months after their arrival. Joseph’s death was followed by a seven-year period in which nothing is known of Julie’s life. In 1877, she married Isadore Muller and began a life with him in the town of Labadieville in Assumption Parish. They had a son, Maurice, and were expecting a daughter, Dora, when Isadore died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1878. Widowed and needing some means of support, Julie returned to New Orleans and worked for three years as a successful dressmaker in her own shop on Dryades Street. Seeking a smaller town to live in, Julie Muller moved with her children to Lake Charles in 1882. Here she opened a shop on the southeast corner of Ryan and Division Streets where she sold hats in the front of the shop while the family lived in the back. Her business was successful enough to require the construction of a new two-story brick building on the same site in 1890. The family lived on the second story, reserving the ground floor for the diversifying business. The store primarily served area lumbermen and agricultural workers, but also attracted shoppers from throughout the region. It was considered the largest department store between New Orleans and Houston. Mrs. Muller married Simon Marx in 1891 and together they had three children: Helen, Sophie, and Adolph. She surrendered the management of the store to her husband upon their marriage and Simon ran things until his death in 1901. Maurice Muller succeeded his stepfather in the position of manager although Julie Muller Marx was elected president when Muller’s was incorporated in 1909. She died in 1924. Under Maurice Muller, Muller’s became a million-dollar operation. In 1913, during a city-wide building boom, he built a new three-story building (the present building) across Division Street from the original site. This structure was the largest business building in Lake Charles and contained the first commercial elevator in the city. In 1928, Muller’s was sold to Hahn Department Stores (later Allied Stores, Inc.) as part of the latter’s efforts to construct a nation-wide chain of department stores. Muller’s benefited from this new collective management and advertising aid. It also retained its existing local management and employees. Both the labor and management of Muller’s were known to have cooperated warmly over the years with annual Christmas gatherings reinforcing this relationship. Maurice Muller retired from management in 1930 and was succeeded by his half-brother, Adolph Marx. The years 1930-32, the dawn of the Great Depression, saw a 50 percent decline in the store’s business. This downturn halted in 1933 only when massive investment in the city’s economy by the Olin Corporation helped improve business. The years during and after World War II proved very successful for the store. Adolph Marx’s tenure as manager saw several significant improvements to Muller’s. It acquired the first commercial air conditioner in Southwestern Louisiana in 1937 and Marx was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce the following year. The store doubled in square footage with building expansions in 1943 and 1950. The management of Muller’s passed out of the family with Adolph Marx’s retirement in 1964. He was succeeded by Joseph Colarusso who was in turn followed by Edward Murray in 1972 in time to conduct extensive exterior remodeling that year. This project gave the department store its current look (minus subsequent deterioration, of course). The opening of the Prien Lake Mall in 1972 challenged Muller’s with new competition and precipitated changes in merchandising strategy. Nonetheless, the store expanded with satellite stores in the Prien Lake Mall in 1975 and downtown DeRidder in 1980. Finally, crippled by a weak economy, Muller’s announced in October 1985 that it would close its main store at the end of the year. The family of the late Adolph Marx donated the property to the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury in 1995.
The collection contains material donated by previous employees of the Muller’s Department Store and by the Imperial Calcasieu Museum. It includes photographs, correspondence, legal forms, a ledger of sales, and various other items. Container List Box 1 |
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