Brown's Apparel
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HUNTINGTON — Irvin Polan Brown owned and operated
Brown’s Apparel Inc.
in the Hotel Frederick building at 946 4th Ave., for more than 50 years.
Brown was born in 1904 in East Bank, West Virginia. He
graduated from the
Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1925. A
veteran of the U.S. Army, he was a member of American Legion
Post 16, the Elks (BPOE Lodge 313) , B’Nai B’Rith
Lodge 795 and the B’Nai Shalom Congregation.
In early 1985, he announced that after 52 years of
helping the women
of Huntington dress in style, he was closing his shop and retiring.
Charlotte Jones, business manager of the Huntington
YMCA, saw
Brown’s announcement as the opportunity she had been looking for.
In an interview with The Herald-Dispatch, Jones said she
had wanted
for some time to get involved again in retail sales “but I never
thought I would get the right opportunity.” So she called
Brown to discuss things with him, a call that resulted in
her purchasing the store’s name and assets.
Jones said she hoped to continue the same high
standards of personal service that Brown
had established at the long-time store.
According to records in the West Virginia Secretary of
State’s office,
Charlotte Jones’ business, C.J. Inc., was dissolved in 1990.
Irvin Brown died in 2005. He was 100 years old.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Dec. 17, 2019.
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