C. Crawford Hollidge was a women's clothing store of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

in the 20th century. The business was started by Clarence Crawford Hollidge in 1909, as a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and form ...

store in

Milton, Massachusetts Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller ...

just south of Boston. By 1930 he had transformed the store into a high-end women’s apparel and accessories store. At its height, C. Crawford Hollidge had four locations in wealthy towns in eastern Massachusetts:

, Wellesley, Cohasset on the South Shore, and Hyannis, a

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mon ...

resort town. The flagship downtown Boston store was located at 141

Tremont Street Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts. Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of Boston Common. Continuing in a roughly so ...

at Temple Place, directly across Temple Place from rival

R. H. Stearns Richard Hall Stearns (25 December 1824 – August, 1909) was a wealthy tradesman, philanthropist, and politician from Massachusetts whose eponymous department store became one of the largest department store chains in Boston and the surrounding a ...

. The architects were Fehmer & Page. On February 18, 1967 the building was engulfed by a

five alarm fire One-alarm fires, two-alarm fires, three-alarm fires, etc., are categories classifying the seriousness of fires, commonly used in the United States and in Canada, particularly indicating the level of response by local authorities. The term multip ...

. It was a total loss and had to be demolished. Crawford Hollidge reopened on

Boylston Street Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay, an ...

, but closed within a few years, and its branch stores also eventually closed.

In literature

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:C. Crawford Hollidge 1920 establishments in Massachusetts Defunct clothing retailers of the United States Defunct department stores based in Massachusetts