Fifty years of The Menter Company
Albany’s first Menter store, 21 North Pearl Street, circa 1918.
Menter began in Rochester as Menter & Rosenbloom in 1889. They expanded about one store a year until 1904, when they incorporated. Their Albany store appears to have opened at 21 North Pearl in 1905.
Albany’s first Menter store, 21 North Pearl Street, circa 1918.
Back then it was impossible for a working man or woman to secure a loan from a legitimate lender. Menter & Rosenbloom took advantage of this by offering men’s, ladies, and children’s clothing on credit.
By 1912 they had opened 75 clothing stores, most east of the Mississippi. In that same year, co-founder Max Rosenbloom died, and the business became simply The Mentor Company. Mentor himself died the following year, but his clothing chain lived on and prospered.
Interior of a typical Menter store, this on in Pueblo, Colorado, circa 1920.
In 1920, Menter moved to a new, larger store at 119 North Pearl, where it would remain for the next three decades.
119 North Pearl Street
1920’s Menter trade coin, good for a discount.
In the years following the 1929 stock market crash, more than half the Menter stores closed. By 1937 only six stores remained. The Albany store downsized, moving to 63-65 South Pearl in the early 1950’s.
Its final years were at 44 South Pearl. The Albany store was the last Menter to go, closing in 1957.
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