The LEZIUS HILES CO., a century-old commercial printing firm built by merger to regional prominence, began in 1888 as the Forest City Printing House with $600 in capital and was located on Champlain St. In 1914 it was incorporated as the Lezius Printing Co., and in 1919 the company bought out the Hiles & Coggshall Co., a small general printing firm started in 1883. The newly formed Lezius Hiles Co. then acquired the Premier Co., a direct-mail advertising firm, thus becoming one of the top commercial firms in the city. After many years on Rockwell Ave., the firm moved to E. 61st St. and Chester Ave., where it continued to expand through further acquisitions. In subsequent decades, the family-owned printing house was noted for the annual reports, catalogs, directories, and literature it produced. After the Lezius family sold its interest in 1977, the company was brought to bankruptcy by its management and sold again in 1986 to 3 investors, including John Arcuri, owner of Pioneer Business Forms in Wickliffe, who closed it.
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