The fashion floors: Robertson's, Wyman's, Ellsworth's, and Sax

1883 — 1986

Where the city bought its dress: The downtown department store was the city's fashion institution, and its departments are documented in the directories' own language. Robertson Brothers Company opened in 1904; the 1921 Polk directory lists the company at 127–133 South Michigan Street dealing in "dry goods, carpets, cloaks, millinery, gloves, and laces" — the period catalogue of a fashion floor in one line. The six-story flagship the company built at 209–217 South Michigan, opened in 1925, was the largest department store in South Bend; the Welber family ran it from 1932, and it held downtown until 1986, outlasting every rival. The Indiana University landmark tour of the city's Black history records the distinction the store carried in memory: Robertson's was regarded as the downtown store where Black shoppers were treated fairly, allowed to try on clothing like any other customer, in an era when that was not the rule in American retail.

Wyman's — George Wyman & Co. — was already in Farr's dry-goods list of 1883, at 107 and 109 North Michigan; it traded into the mall age and closed in 1972. The Ellsworth Store, at 111–117 North Michigan, is the 1921 directory's starred house for "Dresses, Evening Wraps and Waists," and appears under its headings for millinery and children's hats and for underwear and hosiery as well. Charles B. Sax and Company, at 114 South Michigan near Washington, advertised "Dry Goods, Millinery, Ready-to-Wear Garments" on the directory's own pages. Beside the big stores stood the specialty houses the same classified pages count: seven under "Cloaks and Suits" in 1921 — among them the Frances Shop at 117 South Michigan and T. S. Garland & Co. at 139 South Michigan, the directory's starred house for ladies' apparel and ladies' ready-to-wear — and six under "Ladies Ready to Wear." The firms' corporate courses stand in the Businesses section; the trade's removal to the suburban malls in the 1970s and 1980s is told there and in the Malls record — University Park Mall itself stands in Mishawaka and belongs to that city's build.

Sources:

1. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory (1921) — the Robertson Bros. Co. listing (127–133 S. Michigan; dry goods, carpets, cloaks, millinery, gloves, and laces); the classified headings "Cloaks and Suits" (seven houses), "Ladies Ready to Wear" (six), and the starred department entries for the Ellsworth Store, Sax, Wyman's, and Garland; counted and quoted from the printed directory.
2. Farr's South Bend City Directory (1883), classified "Dry Goods" — George Wyman & Co., 107 and 109 N. Michigan.
3. This build's Businesses section — Robertson's (opened 1904, the 1925 flagship, the Welber years, the Indiana University landmark tour's account of the store's standing, the 1986 closing) and Wyman's (the 1972 closing); cross-referenced, not retold.