The clothiers and their courses, 1921–1956

Two directories, thirty-five years apart · the same street

The street's own clothier. The 1921 directory gives one Mishawaka clothing house a display entry, and it is the one named for the town: "Mishawaka Clothiers, Morris Boorda Propr, Louis A. Kekko Mgr, Men's, Young Mens and Boys' Clothing and Furnishings, 107 N Main, Tel Mishawaka 240." The house itself does not reappear under that name in 1956. Its storefront does: the 1956 classified carries Maurice M. Nevel, men's clothing, at 107 N. Main — and Nevel is no newcomer filling a vacancy on paper only, for the 1921 classified had carried Maurice Nevel at 311–15 N. Main. The two directories print both facts; a succession from the one house to the other is the reading they invite, and it is printed here as exactly that and no more.

The courses that hold. Five more names run across both volumes, at the strength the directories give them. Ullman: the Fred A. Ullman Co., clothing, 115–17 S. Main in 1921, stands in 1956 as Fred A. Ullmann, men's clothing, 126 N. Main — the surname wearing one more letter in the later book, as printed. Stein: J. W. Stein & Son, dry goods at 517 N. Main in 1921, is Stein's Clothing Store at 517 N. Main in 1956 — the same address, the trade renamed on the same ground. Winey: A. S. Winey, dry goods, 123 Lincoln Way W. in 1921; the Ray S. Winey Co., women's clothing, 105 Lincoln Way W. in 1956. Van Volsen: Henrie Van Volsen's dry-goods house at 422 W. 7th in 1921 is the VanVolsem Store at 422 W. 7th in 1956, the name's spelling settling as the directories print it — the West End's own thirty-five-year continuity, on its own block.

The clothier that became a department store. M. Gilbert & Son stands in 1921 under two headings — dry goods and ladies' ready-to-wear — at 113 Lincoln Way W. In 1956 the same address carries Gilbert M. & Sons Co. under a new heading entirely: Department Stores, one of the three the street then held, with the McLellan Stores Co. at 117 Lincoln Way W. and the F. W. Woolworth Co. at 109. The house grew from clothier to department store without moving. When it closed is not in the record reached; the two directories bracket its course, 1921 to 1956, at one address.

The Town Shop, in its own voice. The last clothier with a documented voice is a women's shop at 113 Lincoln Way E.: the Town Shop, in the 1956 classified under women's clothing, and in 1971 the subject of an advertorial in Mishawaka High School's yearbook — "MHS Teens like Town Shop quality." The shop had "recently received a face-lifting with new larger display windows and a brick front," more dressing rooms, a larger shopping area; its leading goods were pantsuits, "the most popular item of the season," with a Casual Corner of White Stag slacks, shorts, and pantsuits in sizes 5 to 16, swimsuits, costume jewelry, pajamas and robes. The advertorial ran in the same yearbook that records the high school's girls winning the right to wear slacks and pantsuits to school — the store selling the garment and the students winning the wearing of it, documented in the same volume, a school year apart in the telling and the same season in fact.

Sources:

1. Polk's Mishawaka City Directory 1921 (the Mishawaka Clothiers display entry; the classified and alphabetical listings) and Polk's South Bend–Mishawaka Directory 1956 (the Mishawaka classified: Clothing—Men's—Retail; Clothing—Women's—Retail; Department Stores; Dry Goods—Retail).
2. Miskodeed 1971, the Mishawaka High School yearbook (archive.org) — "MHS Teens like Town Shop quality," the Town Shop advertorial, read first-hand.