HOULTON, Maine — Jessica Miles was bemoaning on Thursday the loss of formal clothing stores in downtown Houlton, especially for women.
Miles and a friend were discussing the need to find dresses for their daughters for formal events at the end of the school year and an upcoming spring wedding.
“I knew that we would either have to drive to Presque Isle or Bangor to find them, unless we wanted to shop online,” she said.
Miles and others recalled that as young women growing up in the community, there were several stores that offered both formal wear and high quality clothing.
“I have several memories of my mother taking my sisters and I to shop and Lads and Lassies when it used to be located in the downtown,” she said. “We got our First Communion dresses there, and when we were in high school, we all got our dresses there for the winter balls that we went to each year. It was a great little store.”
Leslie Martinson, a former Houlton resident who now lives in Portland, said she also shopped at Lads and Lassies when she was younger. She also recalled fond memories of Bither’s Ladies Shop, which owner Mildred McIntosh opened in 1965 and operated for more than 30 years in Market Square.
“It was a wonderful store,” she said Thursday. “She used to have formal wear downstairs, and I purchased my bridal gowns down there. She was a really nice person, which I know is how she stayed in business for so many years.”
Tara Stewart, a former Houlton resident who lives in Presque Isle, said she remembers shopping with her mother at the J.C. Penney in Market Square for her first “really nice” dresses that she purchased for a job she got after she graduated from college in 1982.
“To me, a town really needs to have a store like that,” she said. “I also recall all of the clothing stores we used to have in Houlton. Each was unique from the other. It was wonderful.”
Martinson said she feels that Houlton needs more stores like Lads and Lassies and Bither’s Ladies Shop.
Miles agreed.
“When Town and Country left, that was a huge blow,” she said. “I know personally that I have heard a lot of people say that we really need a big anchor store or a nice clothing store to pull more businesses into the downtown.”
