Corporate History
Maison Blanche was acquired in 1923 by City Stores Company, which merged Maison Blanche with Loveman's in 1950. City Stores Co. filed for bankruptcy in July 1979. While in bankruptcy, they initially intended to consolidate the seven Maison Blanche stores with four B. Lowenstein's stores in Memphis, Tennessee to form the Maison Blanche Department Stores group, but in early 1982 the Memphis stores were shuttered.
Instead, three of the seven existing Maison Blanche stores, as well as the name, were purchased by Goudchaux's, Inc. of Baton Rouge, owned by the Sternberg brothers. (Goudchaux's should not be confused with Godchaux's, a specialty store based in New Orleans). Operating as Goudchaux/Maison Blanche, the new company eventually reopened the original Canal Street flagship in 1984, leasing three floors from the new owners.
In the late 1980s, two Florida based retail chains were purchased allowing the company to enter the fast growing Florida market. In 1987 Goudchaux/Maison Blanche acquired the ten-unit Robinson's of Florida on Florida's Gulf Coast from May Department Stores; in 1988 they also bought the five-unit Jacksonville-based "May Florida" (formerly May Cohens) from May. The Goudchaux name was dropped at this time and all the stores were renamed Maison Blanche. But the rapid expansion coupled with the oil-related recession in Louisiana proved to be too much for the company to manage, and in 1991 Maison Blanche sold eight west and central Florida stores to Dillard's, leaving it with eight Louisiana stores and eight Florida stores.
Maison Blanche was purchased by Mercantile Stores Inc. in February 1992 as a 16-store unit. The eight Louisiana stores continued to operate under the Maison Blanche name, until Mercantile Stores was acquired by Dillard's in 1998. Dillard's subsequently closed the Canal Street store after briefly operating it. The acquisition of Maison Blanche came nearly a decade after Dillard's had purchased another New Orleans area retail institution and Canal Street landmark — D.H. Holmes.
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