The Garment District

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Garment District is a vintage clothing store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is well known for its affiliated Dollar-A-Pound clothing store.

The Garment District started out as an offshoot of Harbor Textiles, a textile company which produced wiping cloths for industry, that began in the late 1940s. In 1979 as demand began to rise for used clothing, Dollar-A-Pound opened on the first floor of the property (then located at 164 Broadway), initially on Saturdays only. As the name suggests, customers could purchase large quantities of clothing by the pound. Clothing was usually retrieved by customers from piles, which eliminated the need for racks and price tags. In the 1980s, diligent shoppers could often find large quantities of vintage 1940s and '50s clothing.

In 1986 as demand for vintage clothing continued to rise (particularly among the Boston-Cambridge area's large student population). owners opened the more upscale Garment District on the second floor of the building. Unlike Dollar-A-Pound, The Garment District organized its merchandise in a more "traditional" manner, e.g. sorted and on racks, and sold its items individually, rather than by the pound.

In 2004 The Garment District was under threat of closure. The pressure to turn the buildings into residential condos almost succeeded. With help from the City of Cambridge, among others, The Garment District was able to acquire the buildings and as a result remain an integral part of the local community.