The Sellers of Knox Hats in Elmira

by Erin Doane, senior curator

The Knox Hat Company of New York City produced fine hats for nearly 100 years. Before his speech at the Cooper Institute in 1860, Abraham Lincoln purchased a new Knox stovepipe hat. He was one of 23 U.S. presidents who wore the company’s hats. But you didn’t have to be elected to the highest office in the country to wear a hat made by the Knox company. Regular people could purchase a Knox hat right here in Elmira. CCHS has seven of them in our collection, four of which have labels from local stores.

Knox label inside a fedora sold by Burt’s, Inc. in Elmira

First, a brief history of the Knox Hat Company. Charles Knox, an immigrant, founded his company in lower Manhattan in 1838. At first, he sold beaver hats out of a small shop, but the business quickly grew. His son Edward, a Civil War veteran, took over in 1878. By the turn of the century, Knox hats were being sold all over the country, and the company’s factory was one of the largest in the world. Edward died in 1916, but the company continued until 1932 when it merged with Cavanagh-Dobbs, Inc. and Dunlap & Company to form the Hat Corporation of America. Hats were still being produced under the Knox brand name until the early 1980s.

The Knox Hat Company put a large portion of its budget into advertising and had thousands of sales agents throughout the country. One could purchase Knox hats in Elmira from the late 1890s through the 1970s.

Advertisement for Knox hats at Callahan’s,
106 West Water Street, Star-Gazette, May 14, 1898

H. Strauss 

Knox Hat Co. derby sold by H. Strauss, early 1900s

Label inside the derby

H. Strauss was the sole agent of Knox hats for men in Elmira from the early 1900s through the 1920s. Herman Strauss, founder of the company, came to the U.S. from Baden, Germany in 1863 when he was 17 years old. He started as a peddler, carrying a 120-pound pack door-to-door. In 1872, he opened a haberdashery at 205 East Water Street. He sold men’s clothing and accessories at that location for 59 years and was active in the business until just a week before his death on March 23, 1932 at the age of 87.

H. Strauss advertisement, Star-Gazette, August 23, 1912

Herman’s son Charles W. Strauss took over the business in 1932. The store was closed briefly to settle the estate but reopened after renovations in September of that year with all new stock. In 1937, the shop moved to North Main Street after 65 years in the same location. It was forced to close after the flood of 1972. At that time, Charles’s nephew Harold Unger was leading the company, and had been doing so since Charles’s death in 1964. Rather than reopening downtown, H. Strauss opened a new store at the mall. That lasted until 1991 when Bruce R. Chalmers, who had worked at H. Strauss under Unger and purchased the company in 1985, moved the store back to Elmira. He set up shop at 311 College Avenue. In 1994, H. Strauss relocated to 636 West Church Street and it remains there today, though it is currently only open by appointment.

Burt’s Inc.

“Foxhound” style Knox fedora sold by Burt’s Inc., 1953

Burt’s label inside fedora

By the 1930s, H. Strauss was no longer the sole agent of Knox hats in Elmira. They could also be purchased at Burke O’Connor Men’s shop in the Mark Twain Hotel. The primary seller of Knox hats by the mid-1940s, however, was Burt’s Inc. at 157 North Main Street.

Advertisement for H. Strauss, Star-Gazette, May 28, 1945

0Arthur H. Burt and Walter Daily received an official charter for Burt’s, Inc. from the New York State Department in 1922. Burt was born and raised in Elmira and Daily came here in 1917. That year, the pair established Burt’s Inc. to sell men’s and boy’s clothes. Their first store was at 113 West Water Street. In 1922, they purchased the clothing store of Fred J. Bernet at 103 Water Street and began conducting business there. Burt continued to run the business when Daily left in 1935. The store moved again in 1937 to 157 North Main Street. It remained there until 1963 when Burt passed away and the store closed.

Burt’s Inc. advertisement, Star-Gazette, November 2, 1944

Burt’s Inc. started selling Knox hats in the later 1920s and continued selling them through the store’s final closing in 1963. Jerome’s at 350 North Main Street took over sales of Knox hats after Burt’s closing and continued selling them through 1979.

Mrs. G.W. Cornish and The Cornish Shop

Ladies’ Knox hat sold by Mr. G.W. Cornish, c. 1910

Label inside the hat

The Knox company did not only make hats for men. They also produced women’s hats. In 1906, Mrs. Gene W. Cornish began her millinery business at 111 West Market Street, offering a fine line of trimmed and untrimmed hats. She traveled regularly to New York City to purchase new merchandise - including Knox hats - and to visit family.

Advertisement for Mrs. G.W. Cornish, Star-Gazette, September 28, 1906

The change in the business name to the Cornish Shop first appears in the local newspaper in 1914. That year, the store also relocated to 108 North Main Street. It continued to be the purveyor of Knox hats, offering the latest seasonal styles for fashionable women.

The Cornish Shop advertisement, Star-Gazette, October 13, 1919

Fourteen years later, in 1928, the Cornish Shop moved into one of the storefronts in the Mark Twain Hotel where it continued to carry Knox hats. It’s interesting to note that in the 1930s, S.F. Iszards, the Mark Twain Hotel’s neighbor just down North Main Street, also sold Knox hats.

The Knox “Midshipman” sold by The Cornish Shop, 1920s

Labels inside the “Midshipman”

The Cornish shop remained at the Mark Twain Hotel until 1936. It moved to a couple other locations downtown over the next few years and was located at 107 W. Church Street in 1942 when its proprietor passed away after an extended illness. Gene Cornish’s passing marked the end of the Cornish Shop but one of her long-time employees, Blanch K. Holland, took over the store, renamed it the Holland Hat Shop, and continued selling Knox hats there through the middle of the 1940s.