Sacred Ground

Last summer, Uncle Roland and I met to talk about family history of the Alberts. The topic of Pepere's business came up, I became very interested in the information that he was sharing with me.  That meeting motivated me to want to write a larger piece about "The Men's Shop".  Next time I am in Maine,  I am hoping I can capture Roland's attention again to get a fuller picture and history of this once great family business.

The image below was taken from the 1924-25 edition of the "Directory of Westbrook" (page 204). It lists the clothing businesses operating at that time. Benoit's is the business where Pepere started working as a fourteen year old boy.

I remember when my brothers and sisters used to visit Pepere at the Men's Shop. It was like we were entering sacred ground. Even though we were kids, he'd always greet us like we were VIP's, and was always happy to see us! There was a time I worked in the backroom folding clothes but I hated it just like Pepere did when he first started working at Benoits. Like him, I preferred to be interacting with people.

When I asked some of my students the other day what their earliest memory was, one girl said she remembered ushering as a little girl at her church. She must have viewed going to church as a special place because of the importance her family placed on its role. We viewed the Men's Shop in the same way - a special place where the magic of selling and cultivating customers was going on.
Pepere was president of the Westbrook Chamber of Commerce for a time and around 1960, he received one of the most distinguished recognitions in the clothing industry - the Brookfield Clothing Award. The article shown here came from one of my mother's scrapbooks. The source is most likely the Westbrook American.

Auguste 'Gus' Albert (1900-1982)

There has been no figure as respected and loved in my family than my grandfather, affectionately known as "Pepere". He was not only loved by his family but also by the community he created as the owner of a clothing store in Westbrook, Maine. He seems to have been born as a natural business man. Soon after his mother died at the age of eleven, he was knocking on the doors of local businesses on Main Street asking them if they needed any help. His mother's death forged a sense of independence and probably spurned a desire for connections with other people. During these early interactions with local businesses, he must have presented himself in a kind, genuine manner with an intense sociability which certainly carried into his adult life.  He was hired as a child to work as a clerk at Benoits which was a large clothing store at the time.  About ten years later in 1923, he and two other friends opened up their own store called The Men's Shop.