“My father was the vice president of sales. It was located on Harrison Ave. in the South End section of Boston. They manufactured dresses and women’s wear on site until it closed around 1960. I know he traveled from Maine to New Jersey selling their wholesale line to independent retail stores and small chains. It was hard to get into the large department stores as they wanted to buy from larger manufacturers. Boston Maid was a small-sized manufacturer but it was a “factory” that occupied a large floor space in an assembly line fashion. Assembled dresses were hung on hand-pulled trollies that were like closet rungs with wheels suspended from the ceiling on tracks like a uni-rail. These rails ran throughout the the factory space with “switch tracks” veering in different directions to various work stations.
Dresses were designed, patterned, cut and assembled there at Boston Maid. I’m sorry I do not know about the company’s founding or early history only its last few years as I witnessed it when I came into work with my father on an occasional Saturday, when I was still a boy. I spent many happy hours pulling, by rope, the overhead trollies around the shop floor, hooking several together like a train.
I can tell you that the company appeared to do very well before economic conditions changed. Manufacturing on the scale it had been accustom to had been profitable. The front offices were well appointed, like a Mad Men set, secretaries, intercoms, desks and couches in the offices. I suppose it was the beginning of the end for these small but regional dress manufacturers as this era came to a close.
I hope this small bit of information was helpful to the Boston Maid legacy.”
Written by Ron Levitan
from a 1940s dress
Courtesy of dorotheascloset
from a mid 1950s party dress
Courtesy of pinky-a-gogo
from a 1980s dress
Courtesy of ohmyvintage
