Hi there. I've been doing research into a local Boston, MA shop called L. P. Hollander. The person's site for who wrote the entry (Hollis Jenkins-Evans/pastperfectvintage.com) is no longer active so I thought I'd take it to the forum. I was hoping to find out where they'd gotten their information on the founder, Maria Theresa Baldwin from. While researching the company the local records only list the shop starting in 1886, otherwise listing Maria as "Keeping House" if her occupation is noted at all (aaaahh, sexism). I did however find a book published by the company in 1929 that speaks to the mythos/origin of the shop (and it's place in Boston) and the verbiage is pretty similar as the entry. Just trying to see if I missed something in my research or if it's based off the book they wrote to build up the brand. If anyone has anyway to reach out or any information at all I'd greatly appreciate it.
You are welcome. I did a quick search and couldn’t find info regarding Maria’s involvement with the company but I am sure Hollis will be around soon. All I found about the founding partners was this (which came from a lease): “The Indenture of Lease dated Feb. 1, 1887, between Warren B. Potter of Boston, Massachusetts, lessor, and Louis P. Hollander, T. Clarence Hollander and Benjamin F. Pitman, co-partners under the firm name and style of L. P. Hollander & Co., lessees, which firm has been succeeded by a corporation established under the laws of Massachusetts, of the estate numbered 82 and 83 (now 202 and 204) Boylston Street, in said Boston, for the term of twenty years from said Feb. 1, 1887…”
Thank you, I know Maria herself died in 1885, which is obviously before there's a record of a formal store front (first one is on which has record is 1886, on Bedford Street) so I have a feeling I may never know, or it may have been built up after the 1920 when women became more outward facing when they got the vote and this is was sort of ret-conned in, but it's worth a shot. I truly appreciate your help.
I found a bibliographic footnote in an online PhD(?) dissertation that the Maria Theresa Baldwin Hollander papers are in the collection of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge Mass.
Elizabeth, I couldn’t help but notice that you do work for some local museums. I am in Boston as well and would love to learn more especially about the costume collection. Where is that?
From a 1933 edition of Town & Country: "...the new East Fifty-seventh Street shop just opened by (couturier) Joseph...Under the stress of circumstances the store soon closed, and no one really hoped for a reoccupation of the building except the owners and Benjamin Pitman, who had been New York manager of L.P. Hollander's, a firm originally founded in Boston by his maternal grandmother, Maria Theresa Hollander."
First source: The Book of Boston: Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis, 1916 https://books.google.com/books?id=-YR5aY_o5ygC&pg=PA335#v=onepage&q&f=false 2nd source: New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. June 17, 2003 http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2124.pdf page 2, paragraph with L. P. Hollander Company heading Lots of good stuff in this one!
In a 1931 edition of the Boston Herald: "...search of all known sources has failed to produce pictures of Mrs. Maria Theresa Hollander, who, in 1948, took the unheard-of step of starting a shop, as the first merchant to specialize in children's clothes..."
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of the book the company printed in 1929, and it's nearly the same verbiage the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and checking the footnotes I can say they did use the book. I'm curious to see The Book of Boston: Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis, I'll have to take a trip to the library to compare. I'm just wary of using information that's based on the writings published by the company. Thank you, I really appreciate it!
