The Emil Schmechel Department Store was built in the early 20th century by expanding a former 19th-century tenement building. From 1961 until the late 1980s, it housed a State Department Stores store, the so-called “House of the Shoe.” On May 24, 1990, the abandoned building was set on fire by 16-year-old Andrzej M., and despite immediate action by the fire department, it was almost completely destroyed. It was rebuilt and topped with a massive multi-story glass and steel structure in the mid-1990s. Galeria Centrum operated in the new space until 2003. Since then, the building has remained vacant, but plans have emerged to redevelop it as a retail and service facility in 2023. Address: 98 Piotrkowska Street, Łódź.