Collecting by city

[ScottF]

Okay, in two days I've doubled my normal 6-month post count, but I can't help myself.

Saturday I obtained a 4-hat mini-museum of Seattle hats - 4 hats representing three different Seattle stores (and a no-store Borsalino), to go with a 5th hat I just obtained from a 4th Seattle store.

Anyone collecting runs from hat stores in a particular city? (a 'type' collection of city hat-sellers?)

 

[gtdean48]

I've been focused on hat makers = Disney, Pilgrim, Marathon, Knox, Adams, Borsalino, Stetson, Resistol, Lee, Akubra, Beaver Brand, Biltmore...
Throw in some custom hatters & my hat space is overflowing...

 

[hatophile]

I have 2 Tildens from Henry the Hatter in Detroit. Other than that, mine are scattered from all over the US.

 

[alanfgag]

I haven't purchased a hat for its retail mark, though I was encouraged on a couple with interesting Buffalo provenance. I do find the store markings fascinating and sometimes beautiful. Like the hat manufacturers they sold, the store information provides a link to another time and landscape that is almost entirely transformed today. I've often thought of a post devoted to bygone stores - I'm sure there are threads for this already. My information is buried amongst thousands of hat photos - it would be a job to organize them. I do remember smiling one day when two boxes arrived from distant points with hats from Peoria, Ill.

 

[buler]

There is a "Pantke - Harpke" thread. Long running store in Milwaukee. Thread here -> Pantke Harpke

B

 

[ScottF]

...
Like the hat manufacturers they sold, the store information provides a link to another time and landscape that is almost entirely transformed today.
...

After posting this thread, I noticed that one of the store stamps was for 'Rhodes' - a department store in Seattle. Research showed that the store was formed by Albert Rhodes, one of the Rhodes brothers who had been doing business in Tacoma for many years. What's weird about this is that the afternoon after I bought the hat, my girlfriend and I did our customary one stop at an open house: one of three Tudor-style mansions built by the Rhodes family (same as my hat seller) around 1903.

 

[Landman]

I don't specifically look for them but when I run across a hat from a store in my hometown it definitely increases my interest in the hat. I have a Resistol western hat from a long gone western wear store that my Dad used to take me to buy jeans and boots as a kid. The hat is not really something I would wear and I only bought it because of the connection to the store. It brought back a lot of memories. This store not only sold western wear but also sold saddles, bridles, fencing material, chickens and rabbits. I can remember small pens in the store with baby chicks and rabbits under heat lamps.

 

[1mach1]

My hats are from all over. I would love to have one with a Virginia store branding, but have not run across that one yet.

 

[DougC]

Mark-did you have jury duty? The angle looks like your picture is from the courthouse.

 

[Rick Blaine]

I once had, and hope again TO have, a hat from my hometown of Athens, Ga. I have at least one from my spouses birthplace (a big enough city to have a local hatter).
I would definitely give a second look at a hat from a geographical locale (e.g. -Da's hometown, Mom's hometown, birthplace & so on) that had significance to me, even if it were not quite my style.

 

[mayserwegener]

A good number of my hats (different brands / countries of origin) come from the same German shops / stores (some over long time periods).

 

[Landman]

Mark-did you have jury duty? The angle looks like your picture is from the courthouse.

Doug, that is a photo I found on the internet. It does look like it was taken from the courthouse.