Wakefield Clothing Company :390 Main Street, circa 1923
Description:
This building, occupied by the Wakefield Clothing Company in 1923, once numbered as 390 Main Street, was located across from Avon Street. While most prominent buildings in downtown Wakefield were often referred to by either the name of their builders or occupants, this building is not as identifiable. It could have been called the Daland Building in the late 1800s, as it was owned and occupied at the time by the Everett G. Daland Dry Goods Store. The store measured 75' x 20' and provided a "large and fine assortment of dry goods, children's clothing, men's furnishings, hats and various small wares too numerous to mention." It is reported that Everett George Daland, a Wakefield native, opened the dry goods store in 1878 at the age of 18. He opened the store for 23 years and went on to work as a traveling salesman for Simon, Hatch and Whitten Company of Boston, a wholesale men's furnishings company for the next 30 years. The building itself is similar to, and often mistaken for, the Butler block which is located on Main Street across from Albion Street. Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2019 Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.
