Raymond's
Raymond's was an American department store company of the 19th and 20th centuries, extant from the 1870s to 1972 and located in Eastern Massachusetts. The main store was at Washington Street and Franklin Street in downtown Boston.
History
Shortly after the Great Boston Fire of 1872, which destroyed much of the downtown shopping district, George J. Raymond pitched a tent downtown and sold an assortment of hats he bought at a fire sale. His store then later became a permanent fixture on Washington Street.Raymond's was more downscale and freewheeling than nearby competitors such as Filene's and Jordan Marsh. A typical sale would find the contents of an entire distressed or overstocked out-of-town clothing store bought up and dumped in random piles on tables and counters. But Raymond's did carry many good-quality items, often at good prices.
Raymond's mascot was rustic bearded swamp Yankee Unkle Eph, who mangled English spelling; the store's slogan was "Where U Bot The Hat". Typical advertising copy was "Moar! Jess Arrived!... Nother big shipment ov the overstock frum a Midwestern Dept. stoar..." An annual sales stunt in the early 20th century was "originashun day", featuring the arrival of Uncle Eph from South Station in a hay wagon drawn by oxen, along with his hillbilly band and various rural vaudeville characters.
Unkle Eph was based on a real person, Congregational minister Harvey B. Eastman of Slatersville, Rhode Island.
There were, at times, also satellite Raymond's stores in Arlington, Dedham, Lynn, Malden, Quincy, Methuen, and Waltham. The first branch, in Quincy, opened around 1952. The second branch was created in 1954 by taking over the P. B. Magrane department store of Lynn. The Lynn store moved from the P. B. Magrane building to a new anchor store in a shopping plaza on State Street, then to a store on the Lynnway.