by establishing branch stores in Indianapolis and Lafayette, Indiana. In 1959, Ayres also opened a large warehouse facility and service center on Hillside Avenue in Indianapolis. In 1965, a new branch store opened in the Greenwood Shopping Center, south of the Indianapolis flagship store. In 1966, Ayres opened a new branch store at Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In addition to building new branch stores in Indiana, Ayres acquired a retail subsidiary, The John Bressmer Company in Springfield, Illinois, in 1958 and created Ayr-Way, a chain of self-service discount stores. In 1969 Ayres expanded into Louisville, Kentucky, with the acquisition of Kaufman-Straus Company, a retail division of City Stores Corporation. The declining downtown Louisville store was not profitable and Ayres closed it within two years of its purchase. In 1973, Ayres installed an Ayr-Way discount store in the downtown Louisville location, but that also failed and closed in 1975. Two suburban Louisville locations were later merged into Ayres's Indianapolis operations. The City Stores deal also included the acquisition of Wolf and Dessauer (W&D), a leading department store in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. In the late 1960s, Ayres also entered the field of specialty retailing with the establishment of the Sycamore Shops and Cygnet Shops to cater to young adults. By the end of the 1960s, Ayres had expanded from department stores into a diversified merchandising business that included the Ayres flagship store in Indianapolis and its branches in Indiana, three subsidiary department stores (Bressmer's, Kaufman's, and W & D), a new chain of discount stores (Ayr-Way and Ayr-Way Discount Foods), specialty stores (Sycamore Shops and Cygnet), a high-end home furnishing shop (Murray Showrooms), and a real estate investment company (Murray Investments). Acquisition In 1972, Ayres was acquired by Associated Dry Goods of New York City. Announced on January 26, 1972, the sale, which exchanged Ayres stock for 1.4 million common shares of Associated Dry Goods stock, was equivalent, at that time, to a purchase price of $78.5 million. In 1983, Associated Dry Goods merged Cincinnati, Ohio-based Pogue's with Ayres. Pogue's stores were renamed L. S. Ayres and Company in 1984 and received $7 million in renovations. In 1985, the Louisville, Kentucky-based Stewart Dry Goods stores were absorbed into Ayres. With strong competition from other retailers, declining profits, and a decaying downtown Louisville, the Stewart Dry Goods stores were renamed L. S. Ayres and Company in 1987 and Ayres spent