Rike-Kumler Company

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Rike-Kumler Company, better known around Dayton as Rike’s, grew from David L. Rike’s 1853 dry-goods partnership at 17 East Third Street. The business evolved through several names before becoming Rike-Kumler in the early 20th century, then established its long-lived downtown flagship at Second and Main in 1912.

This was a proper department-store universe: clothing, housewares, restaurants, toys, services, and enough floors to make a quick errand feel like an expedition. Rike’s became one of Dayton’s defining retail institutions, a polished emporium where local shopping acquired a little theater and a lot of elevators.

The store’s holiday rituals became especially durable memories. Rike-Kumler created the Rike’s Christmas Parade in 1930, and its animated Christmas-window displays helped turn downtown Dayton into a seasonal pilgrimage. Santa, spectacle, and the ancient civic ritual of persuading children to stare at storefront glass: corporate America at its most charming.

Federated Department Stores acquired Rike’s in 1959. In 1982, Federated merged it with Cincinnati-based Shillito’s as Shillito-Rike’s; that operation became Lazarus in 1986. The former Second and Main flagship was demolished in 1999, but its Christmas figures and Dayton lore refused to clock out.

Our Rike-Kumler Company collection celebrates the Dayton department-store ghost that made shopping feel ceremonial, windows feel magical, and a trip downtown feel like the main event.