Michaels-Stern & Co. papers

The manufacture of men's clothing in Rochester, NY began in the mid-nineteenth century, when the city was still very young. It quickly became one of the largest men's clothing markets in the United States, and the leader in quality. An important manufacturer of the time was Henry Michaels (1822-1894), one of Rochester's first pioneers of ready-made men's clothing. In 1849 he founded the successful firm of Michaels-Stern & Co. (also written as Michaels, Stern & Co. or Michaels/Stern & Co.), which became the longest-lived and largest independent clothing manufacturer in Rochester, lasting 128 years in the highly competitive middle-priced men's clothing market.

Henry Michaels came to America in 1845 from England, opening his own tobacco business in Massachusetts. In 1849, he moved to Rochester and established a small clothing firm located downtown on Exchange St. near the aqueduct that carried the Erie Canal across the Genesee River. Michaels gained the reputation of producing quality suits at reasonable prices. However, during the next decade, Michaels' products exceeded retail demand, forcing him to open stores throughout the surrounding area to get rid of the surplus. Additionally, in 1861 Michaels hired Rudolph Lichtenstein, Rochester's first travelling salesman of men's clothing, which proved to be a wise decision. Lichtenstein was so successful throughout the country as a salesman for Henry Michaels that he oversold his product, and the company had to close some of the extra retail stores in order to have enough merchandise to honor Lichtenstein's contracts.

Originally known as Henry Michaels-Clothing Merchant, the company underwent several name changes and partnership agreements throughout its early years. In 1853, Henry Michaels joined with Mark and Isaac Sloman to form Michaels and Sloman Clothiers, only to end the partnership after two years and resume the name of Henry Michaels Clothing. In 1868 he formed a partnership with Nathan Levi, changing the name to Michaels and Levi, which lasted five years. In 1875 the company was reorganized under the name of Henry Michaels & Co. when Henry's sons Marcus and Joseph joined the firm. Two years later, Henry's son-in-law Morley A. Stern became a partner, and in 1885 the company adopted the final and permanent name of Michaels-Stern & Co.

At this time, contract shops and private homes were slowly being eliminated as a source of manufacturing for clothing firms, as more and more criticisms of sweatshop conditions spread throughout the industry. It was becoming increasingly necessary for companies to contain all of their operations under one roof. In 1894, Michaels-Stern & Co. became the first clothing manufacturer in Rochester to build its own modern facility to allow for better supervision of working conditions and product quality. The new seven-story building, located at 87 Clinton Ave. North at the corner of Pleasant St. (the former site of Henry Michaels' family homestead), became the company's headquarters, and contained elevators as well as areas complete with modern equipment for cutting, trimming, and stock maintenance. Michaels-Stern & Co. remained headquartered here until its dissolution in 1977.

Business boomed throughout the 1920s for Michaels-Stern & Co. and for the clothing industry as a whole. It became necessary for the company to expand its operations, establishing factories on Child St. and Smith St. in Rochester and one in Clyde, NY. A pant factory was also constructed in Penn Yan, NY, fifty miles southeast of the city. The 1930s Depression years brought some financial difficulties to Michaels-Stern & Co., but the company was able to survive because it specialized in a medium-priced product at an excellent value to the consumer. Privately owned and operated, the company did not experience any of the public panic that other firms encountered, and the Michaels and Stern families bore most of the financial burden themselves.

In 1938 Michaels-Stern & Co. reorganized under the leadership of Felix Mayer from New York. Mayer had successfully reorganized a troubled firm in Cleveland, and Michaels-Stern & Co. was again experiencing financial difficulties and in need of managerial assistance. The company had spread its line too thin, and sales and profits were down. Under Mayer's leadership, Michaels-Stern & Co. converted from a partnership into a corporation, streamlined both its production and its product, and joined the Rochester Clothiers Exchange, accepting the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) as the sole bargaining agent for its workers. Michaels-Stern & Co. was the last clothing manufacturer in Rochester to recognize the ACWA, after refusing to do so in 1919 prompted a bitter strike. Once again, the company was profitable, taking its place among the top four men's clothing manufacturers in the nation in the competitive middle-priced field, becoming Rochester's largest independent men's clothing producer.

Michaels-Stern & Co. contributed to the World War II effort by making U.S. naval officers' uniforms. After the war, the company increased its productivity, and in 1951 it absorbed the Rochester firm of Levy-Bros. & Adler-Rochester, Inc. Included in the takeover were the rights to the successful "Adler-Rochester" and "Mt. Rock" overcoat labels, as well as Levy-Bros. & Adler-Rochester's Hand St. factory, where Michaels-Stern & Co. subsequently concentrated all of its sewing operations. However, the 1950s saw a steady decline in the men's clothing industry of Rochester as the city failed to keep pace with expansion in other parts of the country.

In 1963, Michaels-Stern & Co. was purchased by Lester E. Frankenstein of Chicago. James M. Weil and Henry M. Stern, Jr., who were both great-grandsons of Henry Michaels, remained active in the company. Unfortunately, the 1960s and 1970s brought further declines to the men's clothing industry. Foreign competition, declining sales, high interest rates, and an overall less tailored look in men's clothing, combined with the inability of the new management to supply strong leadership, forced Michaels-Stern & Co. to declare bankruptcy in 1977. All manufacturing was ceased and inventory sold, making Bond Clothing Stores and Hickey-Freeman Co. the only remaining men's clothing manufacturers in Rochester.