Landgrebe's in Huntingburg

 

Brothers Henry and Louis Landgrebe, and Jonas Kilian started the clothing and shoe store in 1887 and it originally operated on Geiger Street in Huntingburg Indiana until the Landgrebe Kilian building was built at 4th and Main. 

 

Mary’s great grandfather, Conrad Landgrebe, came from Germany as a 16 year old and joined the the business.  Conrad and Henry were both shoemakers. 

 

Albert Landgrebe, Mary’s Grandfather, graduated from University of Michigan in 1915 and worked in Detroit for the Cadillac Motor Car Company in Detroit Michigan before for joining the Navy in World War I.  He returned to Huntingburg in 1921 and joined his father, Conrad Landgrebe and Jonas Kilian in the operation of the Landgrebe Kilian store.

 

In 1929, as the banks were collapsing and his wife, Sarah, Mary's grandmother, was giving birth to their first son John, Albert Landgrebe took sole ownership of the building and business. It was converted to the name “Landgrebe’s.”  The store sold mens clothing as well as mens and ladies shoes.

 

Sarah had been to business school and learned how to manage the books of the business.  She and Albert worked the store, Sarah managing the books, until Albert’s passing in May of 1959, and then Sarah ran Landgrebe’s on her own until it was sold in January 1966.

 

This “Landgrebe Kilian Building,” is in the historic register.