Charles Mayer: Past and Present

Charles Mayer (pronounced "my-er") left his native Germany at 19 and settled in Indianapolis in 1840, opening a small shop at 29 West Washington Street. What began as a general store grew into something far more — a five-story landmark filled with toys, antiques, crystal, silver, linen, jewelry, and home furnishings, all hand-selected for exceptional craftsmanship and uncommon appeal.

The store became legendary. Charles Mayer and his buyer, Albert Zoeller, made regular buying trips to Europe, returning with treasures for customers who were, in many ways, treated as friends and family. Each floor was a study in organized clutter; each corner held the promise of something undiscovered. It was not unusual to receive a personal call from Charlie Mayer himself, having found a silver platter he thought might be just right for an upcoming anniversary.

That approach to retail — knowing your customer, selling quality merchandise, and making shopping a pleasure — carried the store through world wars, the Great Depression, and more than a century of changing tastes. When the store finally closed in 1954, after three generations of the Mayer family, an Indianapolis News headline read: "Charles Mayer Store Sale like a Death in the Family." Its inventory passed to L.S. Ayres, the Indianapolis department store institution, and the building was razed in 1959.

In December 1992, Claudia Ryan and her husband Tim — a maternal great-great-grandson of the founder — brought the name back to life. There is a certain poetry in the fact that Claudia had built her career as a fashion merchandising executive at L.S. Ayres, the very company that had acquired Charles Mayer's legacy nearly four decades earlier. She didn't just admire the history — she had been living inside it.

The daughter of a Navy Admiral, Claudia grew up traveling extensively through Europe and the Far East, developing an eye for the world's finest things long before she had a store to put them in. She spent years working alongside top designers in America, Milan, London, and Paris, before channeling that sensibility into a vision for the home.

Together, Claudia and Tim built a new home for Charles Mayer north of Indianapolis, in the Shoppes at 56th and Illinois — a building designed to feel like a house, set among fellow independently owned businesses that share the same belief in outstanding service. The store they opened carries the finest in European crystal, china, silver, and tableware, alongside jewelry, home accessories, linens, candles, and distinctive gifts from around the world. Every piece is chosen the way Charlie Mayer himself chose them: by hand, with an eye for exceptional craftsmanship and uncommon appeal.

Every gift still leaves wrapped in the store's signature coral and brown satin ribbon, sealed with the original Mayer crest — a small but meaningful detail connecting each purchase to nearly two centuries of history.