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In the early 20th century, the Rhodes brothers were prominent business leaders in the Puget Sound region. Albert, Henry, William and Charles grew up on a farm near Trempealeau, Wisconsin. Albert Rhodes, born in 1864, was the founder of Rhodes Company, one of Seattle’s largest and most prestigious department stores. In 1889, Albert moved to the Northwest and worked for several years as a traveling salesman for a wholesale crockery company. During this time, he met and married Harriet Williams in Dallas, Oregon in 1893. Their residence at 1901 Tenth Avenue North in Seattle was completed in 1915, and was considered one of the finest homes at the time. The couple did not have children.

William Rhodes was born in 1867. Like his brother Albert, he also relocated from Wisconsin to Washington in 1889, where he became a salesman for a tea and coffee company. In 1892, Henry and Charles joined William to establish a small tea shop in Tacoma, Washington. Albert left his sales job to work with his brothers managing the Tacoma enterprise. The success and broadening scope of their business resulted in the department store concept, and Rhodes Brothers, Inc. was formed with William acting as president. In 1899, the first Rhodes Brothers Ten Cent store was established in Seattle.

William Rhodes married Claudia Altenburg in 1892, and they had two children, William and Aubrey. Their home was located at 1005 Belmont Place in Seattle. William Rhodes was active in the Seattle Chamber of Commerce finance committee and a member of numerous civic and charitable organizations. During World War I he organized the first Red Cross campaign and promoted a war savings stamps program in Seattle. After the war, William Rhodes was chairman of a committee that raised $5,500,000 for the University of Washington Stadium, completed in 1926. In 1945, William Rhodes took his own life at his home in Seattle. At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $100,000. His son William continued to manage the business, and in 1951 five branches of the Rhodes Brothers Ten Cent store were operating in Seattle at 1315 Second Avenue, 6402 Roosevelt Way, 435 North Broadway, 531 Queen Anne Avenue, and 6213 13th Avenue South.

In 1907, Albert Rhodes had made an individual business investment in Seattle, where he established the Rhodes Company with himself as president and principal shareholder. He opened his first Rhodes Company Store in 20 feet of retail space in downtown Seattle. The business grew rapidly, and by 1920 the Rhodes Department Store occupied three floors of the Arcade Building on Second Avenue and had over 400 employees. In 1921, Albert Rhodes died suddenly of influenza contracted on a business trip to New York. He was active in civic affairs and the head of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce at the time of his death. After his death, his wife Harriet became president of Rhodes Company, and continued to manage the successful Seattle department store.

In 1927, five years after Albert’s death, there were four separate Rhodes stores operating in Seattle and Tacoma, three of them still managed by Rhodes family members. In 1926, the Rhodes Brothers Department Store in Tacoma had been sold by Henry Rhodes (the sole owner) to B.F. Schlesinger and Sons. In Seattle, Harriet Rhodes was the head of the Rhodes Department Store and William Rhodes managed the two Rhodes Brothers Ten Cent Stores. One of these bargain stores was located at 1315 Second Avenue, on the street level of the Rhodes Department Store in the Arcade Building. Another large Rhodes Brothers Ten Cent store was located at 1507 Fourth Avenue.

Architect Harlan Thomas (1870-1953) was commissioned by Harriet Rhodes in 1927 to renovate the Arcade Building store. He designed a lofty, seven floor department store that anchored the corner of Second Avenue and Union Street in the downtown retail core. The Aeolian pipe organ Albert had planned was installed, and concerts in the mezzanine dining room were popular at lunch and dinnertime. Harry Reed was chief organist for over 30 years. The store interior was elegant with extensive inventory and services, and Rhodes became a popular downtown shopping destination.

Harriet Rhodes managed the Rhodes Company until her death in 1944. She was succeeded in the business by her nephew Carl B. Williams. With the growth and prosperity following World War II, the company opened branch stores at University Village (1956), Crossroads Mall in Bellevue (1964), and Lake Forest Park (1964.) The first moving stair escalators in Seattle were installed at the downtown Rhodes Store in 1951, at the cost of $500,000.

In 1958, Modern Home Builders of Lynnwood purchased Rhodes Ten Cent Stores of Seattle. Shortly after, the Rhodes Department Store was acquired by Western Department Stores, Inc. and in 1960 the name was changed to Rhodes Western. In October 1965, the financially ailing Rhodes was purchased again by the Pay ‘n Save Corporation. The downtown Seattle Rhodes store closed in 1968, and the Tacoma store closed in 1974. Under Pay ‘n Save management, the focus shifted to the suburbs where several Rhodes stores continued to operate. In an attempt to create a strong department store brand, the Rhodes stores were converted to the Lamont’s name in 1970. Lamont’s remained a division of Pay ‘n Save until 1985. The Lamont’s chain filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s and closed several stores before being sold to Gottschalks. Gottschalks later declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in 2009.