Daubes’ Department Store was a longtime landmark on Main Street in Ardmore. The original Daube Store opened in Bowie, Texas, in 1883 under Sam Daube. About 1888, when the Ardmore area was in Pickens County, Indian Territory, and Ardmore was only a crossroads village, Sam Daube came to Ardmore and formed a partnership with Max Munzesheimer. Their firm, Munsesheimer & Daube, operated in the pattern of a pioneer trading post, selling groceries, hardware, implements, and household merchandise. Then located east of where the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks later ran, the building’s construction gave it the name Iron Store, and it became trading headquarters for early settlers from far and wide. In the early 1900s, Sam Daube joined his brother Dave Daube and Max Westheimer in the enterprise known as the Blue front and moved the store to this location. This firm was known as Westheimer & Daube and remained in business until 1937, when Sam and Dave acquired the Westheimer interest and changed the name to Daube’s Department Store. The business survived two world wars and the Great Depression, saw carriages and wagons give way to motor traffic, stood as the corner store around which downtown Ardmore was built, and witnessed the community’s growth to its status as Oklahoma’s 14th largest city. The business closed in December 1990 after 102 years as Oklahoma’s oldest privately owned family-operated independent retail store.