This advertisement comes from the Indianapolis Recorder, the week before Easter 1904. Even then, the holiday was enough justification for stores to have big sales.
George J. Marott was one of the biggest names in Indianapolis at the turn of the century. While the shoe business was how he got his start, he later formed the Marott department store on Massachusetts Avenue in 1906, he was the primary stockholder of the Kokomo, Marion & Western Traction Company, among other business dealings. He was also the Marott who built the Marott Hotel on North Meridian in 1926.
Also from the Recorder comes this front page illustration on the day before Easter, 1904 (April 2). While the Recorder was the “Negro” newspaper of Indianapolis, it would not have been unusual to see this sort of thing in nearly any paper of the era.
Both clippings from the IUPUI Digital Collection.
