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How Main Street measured up then

For many once-young residents of small-town Huntington Beach, one of the earliest recollections was of going with their mother or father to Jack Robertson’s Men & Boys’ store to buy some back-to-school clothes.

Robertson’s store was a Main Street fixture for more than 50 years, and during that time the store occupied four different locations.

Jack Robertson was born on Nov. 19, 1898, in Porterville, Calif. After finishing high school there, he went to work in Thomas P. Smith’s clothing store.

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But just as things were looking up for Jack, World War I started and he joined the military. He served with the 8th Army Division in France.

When the war ended, Robertson returned to Porterville, but like so many returning soldiers, the travel bug struck and he found his way south to the little beach town of Huntington Beach.

At this time our town was just beginning its rollercoaster oil-boom years and after his arrival here Jack fell in love with the town and its people. He returned to Porterville and convinced his boss to open a branch of Thomas P. Smith’s clothing store here, for even oil workers needed clothes for work and a new suit for Sunday.

In October 1921, Robertson opened that branch store at 122 Main St. In those first years there were a few oil boomers in the city, and Jack had to tie his goods to the counter at times to keep them from being carried away.

One time a mother came in with her young son to buy a new suit of clothes for him. Just before paying for the outfit, the mother asked where her son could get a drink of water. She was told that the water was at the back door, and she started with her child to head that way. Robertson became suspicious and told her he would fetch the water. He called his employee, George Clapp, to watch the front door while he got the water because he had lost three suits of clothes already on that drink trick.

In January 1939 Robertson moved to a temporary location at 118 Main St. while he finished moving into his new location at 115 Main St. He would remain at this location throughout the 1940s and ‘50s.

Robertson had married a girl named Ruth, and they lived at 931 10th Street and in later years at 1721 Main St. In the late 1950s, their son Jack Jr. worked as a salesman at his father’s store.

By the mid ‘60s Robertson had relocated a fourth time to a store at 203 Main St., where he would remain until 1972.

In those fifty-odd years, Robertson was a member of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, the Masonic Lodge and the local American Legion post.

Times have changed on Main Street. Gone is the local men’s clothing store we used to know, but the memory of going into Robertson’s store as a child with mom will live on in the hearts of our residents.

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