Truly Yours Best Hats

I am obsessed the hats and get sad when I think that not too long ago there was a haberdashery or two in nearly every neighborhood in New York. And now we have, maybe, three or four real hats stores in the City. (I don't count the places that sell a limited selection of ready-mady baseball caps, Kangol caps and cheap, too-small straw porkpies and call themselves hat stores. That's like buy a bunch of loaves of Wonder bread and Drake's coffee cakes, sticking them on the shelves and calling yourself a bakery. I mean Worth & Worth, JJ Hat Center and the like.)

I found this matchbook the other day. It was remarkable enough in that it was a matchbook for a hat store, not a bar or restaurant. I don't think I've ever seen that before. But the address, 139 Nassau, corner of Beekman, rang a bell. Seemed to me I remembered a hat store being on that corner.

I was right. The corner was the home of Young's Hat Store until recently. The faded sign is still visible, though the shop is gone. At some point it was also called Hat Corner. According to this New York magazine listing, Hat Corner began selling hats there in 1959, and Truly Yours began doing business in the 1890s. So the address was associated with headgear for more than a century. Remarkable.

Found an ad for the store from 1957. As on the matchbook, they proudly proclaim this is "Our Only Store." And they feature their "Bankers Hat," which is manufactured by and sold only at their store. They carried Homburgs, Tyroleans, Flat Tops, Light Weights. "Water Blocked" and "Richly Lined." Nifty.