Houston, Harris County
Edward Joseph Hamilton arrived in Houston in 1883 at the age of 21 and promptly founded a menswear business, Hamilton & Scurry, which became Hamilton & Mason by 1886 and Hamilton Bros. by 1887. Originally offering "hats, caps, and gents furnishing goods," the business grew to include custom-made shirts, which remain the core of the company's business. From day one, the business defined itself by the exacting quality of its products, as well as an emphasis on family. By 1910, five of Edward's six younger brothers, James Brooke, William, George, Bernard, and Arthur, were co-owners of Hamilton Bros. Since 1883, the Hamilton family has continuously operated the company in Houston, channeling four generations of expertise to help clients around the country achieve their signature style through sartorial guidance and expert detailing. For its first 66 years, Hamilton Bros. was located in the Rice Hotel block, on Main Street between Prairie and Texas. The second generation of owners moved the Hamilton Shirt Company to three separate Main Street locations, each farther from the city center that the last. The third generation relocated west to a custom-built workshop and showroom on Richmond Avenue that opened in 1975, five years after the opening of the nearby upscale mall, The Galleria. The company's skilled artisans craft every shirt from start to finish in the workshop, which is visible from the showroom. Hamilton Shirts, the firm's name since 2007, is one of the oldest continuously operating retail businesses in the city. For more than 130 years, it has outfitted Houstonians and other prominent Americans, including entertainers, politicians and captains of industry. (2017)