Manchester bids fond farewell to McQuade's

By Michelle Butler
HippoPress.com

One of Elm Street's landmarks will close its doors forever on Saturday, June 29. McQuade's clothing store has given way to the changing face of Manchester's downtown business district.

Elias McQuade opened the original store in 1911 in Lowell, Mass. In 1936, a second store opened in Lawrence, Mass., and in 1939, the Elm Street location was established. Then came World War II, and "Rosie the Riveter" entered the workplace. A women's department soon followed. The Manchester store was the first in the chain to feature women's clothing in 1942, with the Martha McQuade section, named for Elias McQuade's sister. In 1968, the chain grew to include a Nashua store and another Manchester location on South Willow Street. But the Elm Street store was always the most successful.

"We offered services like alterations by a tailor or seamstress," recalls Mary

McKeon. She worked in the administrative offices of McQuade's for 56 years. "We offered McQuade's charge cards-it's funny now to see grandmothers come in and say they got their first charge card here."
These services, in addition to the friendly salespeople and reasonable prices, kept generations of Manchester shoppers coming back.

"The clerks knew the customers by name, and vice versa," says McKeon. "It was like a family."

The family atmosphere was certainly influenced by the McQuade family itself. All of Elias McQuade's children have worked in the store through the years. Even the grandchildren have spent time in the store.

Many Manchester natives have special memories here. Shopping at McQuade's seems to be a rite of passage, and as the end draws near, customers of all ages reminisce about their time spent looking for the perfect outfit.

"I remember going to McQuade's as a young boy, with my mother, on Thursday nights," says Mayor Bob Baines. As a boy, he was fascinated because the sales floor had no cash registers. "When you bought something, the clerks would send the money upstairs through pneumatic tubes." The store later changed their format to keep up with the times.

Baines also remembers the bargain basement. In its heyday, the basement was the place to be on Elm Street. "Everybody shopped in the basement," he said. "You could find some wonderful things there. The store would be full of people."

"I remember the tile floor at the entrance, how it crackled when you stepped on it," says Katharine Young, 23, a server at the Merrimack Restaurant. "You could always find something in there: a blouse from Italy, a pretty tank top. And the price was always right."

Julie McCann has shopped at McQuade's for 23 years.

"I come in at least once a week on my lunch break to see if anything new came in," she says. "Now, I guess I will have to actually eat my lunch!"

The lunchtime shopper has been the mainstay of the store from the beginning: the bank teller, the secretary, the executive in need of a suit or dress. Those shoppers returned with their children, who continued the tradition. Even during Elm Street's lean years, the bargain basement continued to draw sales until it closed four years ago.

However, the downtown landscape has changed. Most of the shops that opened in the same era as McQuade's have made way for specialty businesses. This revitalization, while beneficial for the city, has made Manchester more of a nightspot than a place to run errands. After the store closes, Ted Herbert's Music Mart will be one of the few shops left as a reminder of the old Elm Street.

"Downtown is a different place now," says Jackie Sullivan, a sales clerk at McQuade's for 23 years. "It's restaurants and clubs and concerts now. If people want to buy clothes, they go to South Willow Street."

In the final week of business, the store continues to draw regular shoppers, especially now that merchandise is drastically marked down. Even the fixtures and display tables are for sale. Mannequins lay dismantled in a corner of the floor, and old Christmas decorations and fitting room mirrors are propped against the checkout counter.

There is an air of sadness in the store, but the employees have managed to keep a sense of humor. Big band music continues to play on the loudspeakers. Sales clerks make jokes about where they'll be in two weeks. Sullivan will take an extended vacation to decide what's next for her. McKeon plans to retire.

And what about George, the store's pet cockatiel? Sullivan says she's had many offers from customers to give the 15-year-old bird a home, but he will be going home with a lady who not only shopped at McQuade's, but came in specifically to see George twice a week for years.

"I wasn't going to give him to just anybody," she says. "He'll have a wonderful home."

Neighboring businesses hope that building owner Dick Anagnost is as careful about the property's fate as Sullivan is with George's.

"McQuade's has been the anchor of downtown Manchester for 60 years," Anagnost says. The developer, who is responsible for the renovation of the Chase, Dunlap and Bond buildings, has his own memories of shopping at McQuade's basement as a child. Anagnost says his company will survey the property upon the store's closing to determine how it will best be used. He did indicate that he plans on making it "a 21st century building," with handicap-accessible features, while maintaining the storefront's historic exterior.

Michelle Butler can be reached at hippo@hippopress.com.