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Remember When, Chattanooga? Dean Clothing Co. was a downtown fixture

Chattanooga News-Free Press file photo via ChattanoogaHistory.com. Customers stand outside the Dean Clothing Co. on Market Street in 1951. The store was closing due to a lost lease but later reopened a couple of blocks away at 614 Market St. Chattanooga News-Free Press file photo via ChattanoogaHistory.com. Customers stand outside the Dean Clothing Co. on Market Street in 1951. The store was closing due to a lost lease but later reopened a couple of blocks away at 614 Market St.

By Mark Kennedy February 24, 2023 3 min read

In the spring of 1951, the conflict in Korea was dominating newspaper headlines as life went on here at home.

The accompanying April 1951 photo from the archives of the Chattanooga News-Free Press shows a downtown business, Dean Clothing Co. at 828 Market St., in the process of selling off inventory.

Billed as a “lost lease” sale, the men’s store advertised in the newspaper that it was unloading $135,000 in merchandise, the equivalent of about $1.8 million in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Liquidation pricing accounted for the long lines outside the business in this photo. According to ads, hourly specials included white shirts, $1.97; rayon shorts, 67 cents; sweatshirts, 97 cents: men’s pajamas, 97 cents; and men’s pants, $2.97.

A newspaper ad for the sale read, in part, “We lost our lease. Forced to vacate our present location.”