Manchester's On The Square in Madison.
View of Manchester's on Mifflin Street; The Madison Room on the second floor is visible on the right.
Manchester's First Floor
Harry S. Manchester, Inc. (Manchester’s)
2 East Mifflin St.
Madison, Wisconsin
ALpine 7-4321
ON THE SQUARE STORE DIRECTORY
Parking Level
Junior Collection • Miss M Jr. • Blissity • Blissity’s Wild Honey Park • Instep Shoes • Pre-Teens • Teen Colony • Canned Ego Hair Salon • Luggage
First Floor
Cosmetics • Fashion Accessories • Neckwear • Fashion Handbags • Jewelry • Hosiery • Gloves • Umbrellas • Notions • Stationery • Books • Candies • Blouses • On 1 Sportswear • On 1 Dresses • The Man’s Shop • The Prep Shop • T.M.A.
Second Floor
Fashion Dresses • Sportswear Fashions • Fashion Coats • Ms. Madisonian Shop • Custom Station • Esprit • The Designer Shop • Bridal Salon • Fur Salon • Fashion Shoes • The Madison Room Restaurant
Third Floor
Boyswear • Girlswear • Children’s Wear • Baby Shop • Children’s Shoes • Lingerie • Sleepwear • Corsets
Fourth Floor
Ilse’s Living Room • Panorama Salon • Toys
Store for Homes
Lower Level
Housewares
First Floor
Cameras • Bath Shop • Gifts • Silver • China • Glassware • Bedding and Linens
Second Floor
Home Accessories • Lamps • Sleep Shop • Dual Sleep • Rugs • Carpets • Draperies • Homne Entertainment Center
Third Floor
Art Needlework • Fashion Fabrics • Tea Room
BRANCH STORES
East Washington Avenue
The Terrace Room
Campus Corners (1962)
State and Frances
West Towne (1970)
58,000 sq. ft.
Northridge (1975)
Milwaukee
I remember my dad taking my sister and I to Manchester's on the square to buy our mom a scarf for Christmas. I think it was the same night as the Christmas parade. I will always remember that night fondly.
ReplyDeleteI loved going to Manchester's with my mother where we would shop for
ReplyDeletehours and have lunch in the Tearoom. I have the most fond memories of
this beautiful store with anything one could imagine available to purchase.
There was the now gone forever parking ramp, with real live people there
to park your car. Such a special store, there is no place like it in Madison
now. Thank goodness for my memories. I wish someone would restart the
idea of tearoom, that was really unique.
OMGosh! That's where I found my first job while attending Madison Business College in 1967. I was promoted to Secretary to the Vice-President. Manchester's was the best place in the world to have had the privilege to work! The buyers were just the best people and to this day, I miss that store and the people I worked with.
ReplyDeleteI delivered ads from Madison Newspaper to the art dept which I believe was on the fourth floor. They were all so nice
DeleteWhat year are you referring to?
DeleteI was in Madison last week with my family. We were walking around the Square and I had fun pointing out where everything used to be. Wolf Kubly, Woolworth's, Woldenburg's, King's Restaurant(tuna frenchee) and of course Manchester's. The Pigeon Hole parking ramp was so much fun as a kid. The Tea Room had those fun finger sandwiches. I worked there for two years while in high school and was a member of the teen board and was Miss M Jr. 1970. A title I love to remind my kids about. I was a floater in the store and worked in every dept. My favorite department was the Good Buy Shop in the Store for Homes. I have a clear memory of being a 16 or 17 year old girl standing at the window on the third floor of the Store for Homes watching the students/protestors riot around the Capitol. Tear gas in the air when I drove home. A lot of my early life revolved around that store and I have fond memories of it.
ReplyDeletelooking back at these pics bring backs good memories because i worked in all the departments in the downtown store. It was a good time in madison and a good time in life in general. My Dad Ivan Kalin worked in the office as a Vice president of operations. He did a good job and until he retired. Good business man.
ReplyDelete'Manchesters' so many indelible memories that can be triggered so readily, even though I haven't lived in Madison for over 40 years.
ReplyDeleteRemember the big warehouse on Fish Hatchery Road, just south of where Madison Newspapers is today? They had incredible clearance sales in the summer.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Madison, I frequented Manchesters and thought of it as "high end", nice but affordable. Even the boxes that jewelry came in were chic and elegant. I miss Manchesters Westgate.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, Manchesters was just the fanciest store that I had ever been in when I first went there in 1968. I had grown up shopping at the Portage Woolworth's and Manchesters was like going to shopping heaven! However, my first job was in the linens department at their cross town rival Gimbels-Hilldale! I love the show "Are You Being Served" as working in a department store was EXACTLY like that!!
ReplyDeleteI miss Manchester's. it was the major store when growing up. My friend's and I would tlke the elevator up and down. The ladies with their white goves were so nice to us even though we were a pain. We went to the tean room after seeing a movie on the square. I have been gone from Madison over 30 years and Manchester's has been gone a long time but Manchester's will always be a nice memory that I can pull out any time.
ReplyDeleteI, too, loved Manchester's as a girl in the 50s and 60s, and remember stopping in the tea room with a friend. The pigeon-hole parking ramp frightened me as a child, as I couldn't believe that the cars would not just fall out of those open stalls. I still treasure some jadeite earrings that were purchased there. In my mother's things, I found a pants hanger that has a Manchester's price tag on it.
ReplyDeleteI managed the Bon Don hairstyling salon for several years in the 1960s. There times Manchesters experience comes to mind; I either share that I was part of the working community once and incidents while working there. I grew professionally and personally with clients from all over the city. I was located downtown. Today, I was writing a story and mentioned that I worked at a high end department store, and then realized I should name the store. Curiosity sent me to Google and I found Manchester's Museum. I gasped with surprise and suddenly became very lonesome for the used to be. The story has become bigger than I'd planned. I'm writing memoir.
ReplyDeleteThose weere the days of quality merchadise with quality service with attention to the tastes of the customers and all displayed in a comfortable attractive setting.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem easy to duplicate today but sadly is not done.
The mistake was to remove individual store buyers and owners.
I LOVED Manchester’s from the time I was a little girl. It was magical to me. Not surprising that I ended up on Teen Board, and then working there while I was in high school (on the “Square”) and for years beyond (Westgate).
ReplyDeleteI knew every nook and cranny of the building on E. Mifflin. It had the most awesome attic ever, and mysterious storage areas for floor and window displays. It was so exciting when the decorators would come in and transform the store for the holidays, or a special event. The parking ramp WAS scary, but it was all part of the experience. Fashion shows were always a trill. I modeled in the Tea Room, and in the display windows; surprising pedestrians outside when the mannequins moved!
Morgan Manchester was one of the most charming men I’ve ever met. He always had a kind word and he made me feel fortunate to be part of his “retail family”. Thanks for the memories.
I was on Teen Board in 1967. Remember all the modeling just like you. Wish someone with Manchester's archives would put up the pictures.
DeleteMy dad was general merchandise manager for the 1950's. My sister, brother and I grew up in Madison and have incredibly happy memories of the place. I remember putting my feet in the Buster Brown foot x-ray machine in the children's shoe department; watching parades from the Sky Room restaurant. the fashion shows; the parking lift...
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how I could get a higher resolution version of the top photo of Manchesters?
Try the Wisconsin Historical Society. http://wisconsinhistory.org
ReplyDeleteThe Westgate store had both an elevator & an escalator. Attended the Odana Elementary School which was right next door to Westgate. We were such naughty kids sometimes, playing tag by going up & down them until a clerk would make us leave. Did a lot of shopping there for Christmas gifts, over the years, & I still have a 45 record I bought there of Johnny Cash's "Flesh & Blood". And, I've still got my Peter Max long-sleeve T-shirt I bought from their tent in the parking lot during the Maxwell Street Sale one year.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Manchesters store in West Towne Mall in 1980. By then it belonged to Chapmans. It was one of my favorite places to work.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a buyer for many years for the infants and children's department in the Mifflin Street Store. My fond memories were of the beautiful animated Christmas window displays. I still have a Santa Claus from a window display in the late 30's. My Mother also ordered merchandise for each of the other stores when they opened. (with the exception of State St)
ReplyDeleteI als owas privileged to belong to the teen board when it began and eat in the tearoom. Loved that store
A t-shirt company has just released a new Manchester's Department Store tee. Pretty cool. (Hope it is OK to post a link. Don't want to violate any rules.) http://www.bygonebrand.com/manchesters-t-shirt/
ReplyDeleteI just can't read this and not post. Does anyone remember the Mediterranean Festival? Manchester's pulled out the windows under the Tea room and set up a sidewalk café. My mother who worked in alterations department at the time is Spanish and had toured the Middle East as a singer / dancer. She performed a couple of Flamenco shows on the sidewalk stage and in the Tea room. I remember waiting for her to get off work on the 4th floor in the toy department. then we'd walk home together to the corner of Johnson and Pinckney street. I still remember how the first floor smelled from all the fragrances; the elevators operated by the polite ladies with the white gloves and the pigeon hole parking structure. I miss the square the way it was. It was so beautiful. I wish I could go back in time to visit!
ReplyDeleteThose were the times of value things with quality administration with consideration regarding the tastes of the clients and all showed in an agreeable appealing setting.Little doubt remains simple to double today yet tragically is not done. The misstep was to uproot singular store purchasers and holders. you i love Manchester ,
ReplyDeleteManchesters was a wonderful,classy store. My husband and I both worked there in the 50s.We fell in love there and were still working there when we got married. I remember the Manchester delivery bringing beutiful packages wrapped in the gift wrap dept. Wonderful memories of a wonderful store.
ReplyDeleteMy mom worked at the Fish Hatchery Rd. distribution center in the late '60s. She and I always would go to the store on the square and have lunch in the tearoom. They had a jukebox on the lower level and the sales ladies would always give me money to play a song or two on it. Fun memories!!
ReplyDeleteI was on Teen Board in 1967. Remember all the modeling just as you do. Wish someone with Manchester's archives would put up all the old Teen Board pix!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine worked in the Gift Wrapping Department and her name was Ruth
ReplyDeleteMy mom and grandma would go there school clothes shopping every summer. But the best part was the Manchester Club Sandwich. My mom wishes she knew how they made it, she also enjoyed the malts. One year she said her and her girlfriend bought newspaper shirts, and people would actually come up and touch them to see if it was real paper or cloth. Of course they were made of cloth.
ReplyDeleteManchester on the square was the best I worked there for 3 years operating the pigeonhole parking machine and doing maintenance in the building. I have some pictures of the pigeonhole parking machine.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what happened to portrait negatives they kept on file for customers?
ReplyDeleteHello. I'm curious to know when Manchester's closed down. I found an old Royal Secret fragrance series card still in it's original wrapping. Would it be worth anything?
ReplyDelete