Mayhon & Daly
Life Span: Oct 1871-March 1872 (temporary), 1872-TBD
Location: 157 Michigan avenue (temporary),NE corner Wabash and Van Buren
Architect:
- Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1871
Mayhon, Daly & Co. whol. millinery, 75 and 77 Wabash av.
Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1873
Mayhon W. F. & Co. (William F. and J. J. Mayhon) millinery, 274, 276 and 278 Wabash av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Mayhon W. F. & Co. (William F. Mayhon) millinery, 244 Wabash av.
- Mayhon & Daly’s Temporary Building on Michigan Avenue.
Chicago Tribune, March 23, 1872
CHICAGO’S WHOLESALE TRADE.
Has She Lost or Gained in It Since the Great Fire?
The Question Answered in the Experience of a Leading Millinery House.
Will Chicago retain the wholesale trade which she enjoyed before the fire, or will her calamity prove the benefit of other Western cities, by enabling them to seize and divert to their own channels the business which Chicago had previously attracted to herself? These questions were anxiously asked after the fire, but since that time a steady stream of answers have poured in, affording small comfort to those envious competitors who fancied that their “opportunities” had arrived.
The fact is fixed that, so far from losing any portion or department thereof, Chicago has actually increased her trade since the fire, and it is the experience of nearly all our leading houses that their sales have been larger than ever before during the same period. This has been especially true of the wholesale millinery trade, which, from its starting point in the feminine love for novelty and display, has developed and grown into a distinct and important branch of business. Take, for example, the experience of Mayhon, Daly & Co, who, previous to the fire, were located at Nos. 75 and 77 Wabash avenue. Although suffering terribly in the great conflagration, their faith, was unabated in Chicago’s future, and in six days they had built a store of their own on the lake front, being the first wholesale house in the city to resume business on Michigan avenue. Although they had been in business but a year, they proved to be equal to the shock, and, having come to an amicable understanding with their Eastern creditors, once more stood firmly on their feet, all malicious and unfounded reports of their enemies to the contrary notwithstanding. Laboring under disadvantages in their temporary quarters on the lake front, Mayhon, Daly & Co. lost no time in securing a building adapted to the needs of their rapidly-increasing trade. Their new establishment is at Nos. 274, 276, and 278 Wabash avenue, at the northeast corner of Van Buren streets, in a fine four-story brick building, sixty feet front, which has been constructed with especial reference to the needs of their business, being lighted on three sides, so that delicate seated by steam, with a steam passenger steam passenger elevator running from the bottom to the top of the building. They will now be able to divide the business into three departments—the fancy goods, the millinery, and the pattern bonnet room departments—and to display and handle to advantage a stock larger than ever before. Mayhon, Daly & Co. are probably the most extensive importers in their line in Chicago. They have buyers constantly in Paris and Nottingham, ready to seize upon and forward to Chicago the very latest things in millinery and fancy goods. They have their own peculiar branch of bonnet ribbon, silk, and velvet, and cordage ribbon, which are manufactured to their order in Europe, and which they can furnish cheaper than they can be bought in New York. From imported styles and materials they manufacture extensively both their pattern bonnets and artificial flowers; while their lace importation among the heaviest and most varied in the Northwest, embracing every grade of European manufacture, from real thread and point applique in sets at $200 each, including biond, valenciennes, guipure, etc., down to the basest imitations. The artificial tower department is one of espeotal interest and importance, including every grade of foreign and domestic manufacture, and is under the management of a French salesman engaged in Paris by Mr. Wm. F. Mayhon, who has just returned from Europe laden with the latest and most fashionable styles to be seen on the boulevards of the French capital. Possessing so many advantages, by which they are able to offer goods at less than New York prices, it will readily be understood how Mayhon, Daly & Co. have secured a trade which they claim to be among the most extensive in America. Their facilities will be greatly increased in their new bailding, which they expect to occupy about April 1.
Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1872
DISSOLUTION.
The firm of MAYHON, DALY & CO. is this day dissolved by mutual consent, JAS. H. B. DALY retiring. The business will continue by remaining partners, under the firm name of W. F. MAYHON & CO. Chicago, Aug, 27, 1872.
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