Still in style

La Crosse Tribune, Aug 15, 2004 by Cahalan, Steve

Salem Markos and Sons at 313 Pearl St. in downtown LaCrosse is still going strong, more than a century after its namesake started the business.

The apparel store's founder, Salem Markos, established his business in 1901 in Rochester, Pa. He and his family moved to La Crosse in 1911. His brother, Charles, was a partner in the business.

The business has been at its current location since 1926, the same year the business became Salem Markos & Sons - reflecting the involvement of Salem's sons, Mark and Richard.

Mark and his wife, Julia, owned the business from 1954 until 1974, when they sold it to the current owners - their son, Salem Markos II, 'and their daughters, Joan Markos-Horejs, Regina Kilbey, Charlotte Markos-Kann and Jane

Simmons. The owners have two longtime employees, Barbara Heniker and Jean Antony.

"Our main focus is casual clothes for men and women," Markos-Kann said.

But since the 1980s, the store also has sold uniforms to firefighters, police officers and security company personnel. "It's been a growth area-for us in the last 10 years," Salem Markos II said.

The store probably is best known for selling jeans, Markos-Kann said.

"We're Levi's oldest account east of the Mississippi River," her brother said. The La Crosse store has sold Levi's jeans since 1921.

The current owners' father, Mark Markos, coined the store's motto, "We got 'em ... Levi's!"

In its early years, Salem Markos & Sons was a department store, selling children's, men's and women's clothing and accessories.

The store has kept up with trends in merchandise over the years. For example, in the early 1950s, when square dances were popular, it featured western apparel for men and women. His sisters credit Salem Markos II with later introducing pre-washed Levi's to the LaCrosse area. Consumers still wear them.

In 1974, the current owners opened a branch store in the Center 90 shopping center in Onalaska, Wis. And in 1980, they opened a third store, in Valley View Mall.

The siblings closed the Center 90 store after eight years, after business grew at the Valley View Mall store and required more of their attention. They closed the Valley View Mall store after 15 years, deciding not to renew their lease there.

Today, the owners said, their store sells sportswear fashions, both dressy and casual. It still carries a full line of Levi's jeans, shirts, belts and jackets, along with other men's and womens apparel.

"Dad said to concentrate on your business and treat people right," Markos-Kann recalled.

"Our father always said take care of your business, family, church and your community," Salem Markos II added. "I think that's what my sisters and I have done, and that's why we've been successful."

Downtown La Crosse "is part of our soul," he said. "The community's been good to us. People come in here who are third- and fourth- generation shoppers."

Downtown La Crosse went through tough times in the 1980s, Salem Markos 11 said. But it has improved substantially in the past decade.

"I think the attitudes downtown are more positive in the last 10 years," Markos said. "When the steamboats or (bus) tours come in, the people say La Crosse is the prettiest town on the Mississippi that they stop in."

The store draws customers from as far away as Madison, Minneapolis and Rochester, Minn., but most of its customers live within 50 miles of the city.