crawl space find, montgomery ward pwer house chore jacket‏

[HarpPlayerGene]

... somewhere between 1929 and 1952,...I think I will be hard pressed to narrow it down anymore.

Yeah, but didn't you say the house dates to the '40s? I know someone could have owned the jacket since 1929 and then left it under the house in 1945 or so, but that's unlikely given the condition. I think you've successfully narrowed it to within one decade or less. Well done on the find and the research!!

 

[jim_wombat]

Well it was not found under the house as we have a basement. It was found in a crawl space in the attic. The attic is finished, and there are 2 crawl spaces to access wiring, plumbing, etc. It was found folded in there. The house was built in 1940, this is not the only thing found in the attic crawl spaces, old newspapers from 1940, broken lead toy cars, and light fixtures from the 1940's. By the way according the Automobile for sale section in the paper from 1940, you could buy a new Buick for 600 USD.

I am pretty sure at this point the jacket dates from the 1940's. Since the house was built in 1940 and the jacket is from 1951 or earlier, it had to been produced somewhere between 1939 to 1951. There was a huge blue collar worker population here in Tacoma back then, ranging from the railroad, shipyards, and factories. the markings on the jacket might correspond with some factory here, and the jacket might have just been some shop jacket that was stolen, and forgot about. I have zero proof of this, but I think its more realistic than it belonging to some prisoner. The third idea is the markings might have been apllied by the garmet factory itself for some long forgotten reason.

I have to say for a free 60-70 year old jacket I am pretty stoked.

 

[PoohBang]

well I did a bit more research, looks like Montgomery Wards Powr House line exsisted from 1929 to 1960. So the jacket falls somewhere in that time frame. Since there is not a RN located on the jacket, that would possible put the jacket somewhere between 1929 and 1952, so I was able to cut off about a decade. After looking at some old catalog scans, I think the jacket is a powr house pioneer jacket and not a chore jacket. I think I will be hard pressed to narrow it down anymore.

Where did you find those dates?

 

[handlebar bart]

Nice find Jim. You make me want to give my attic another once over.

 

[jim_wombat]

the info about the Powr House line of clothing
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Montgomery_Ward
RN numbers information I pulled of the internet, I will get a link to it, I am looking for it.