John C. Maclnnes Co. (454-468 Main Street)
Introduction
Author-Uploaded Audio
This narration was recorded by Anne Marie Murphy, author of A Proper Fit (working title), TidePool Press 2025, www.cityofcorsets.com
Text-to-speech Audio
On this prime chunk of downtown real estate (now a green space next to the Glass Tower building) was the John C. Maclnnes store, operating from 1878 to 1958. It was an emporium of dry goods, household items, and clothing including a corset department. Many advertising signs on the exterior drew the attention of the hundreds of customers who would pass by as either pedestrians or trolley riders.
Images
A 1922 display ad assures shoppers that the quality of service in MacInnes' "fifty and more Specialty Sections" will equal that of any "store carrying on only one kind of business," such as any of the downtown corsetiere shops.
The featured information about location in this ad -- opposite City Hall -- will be its undoing in the 1950s as the automobile began to eat away at the prosperity of America's downtown commercial districts.
The John C. MacInnes store on Main Street (circa 1900) enjoyed a prime position in Worcester's downtown, sitting directly across from City Hall, on trolley routes through the downtown core.
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Backstory and Context
Author-Uploaded Audio
This narration was recorded by Anne Marie Murphy, author of A Proper Fit (working title), TidePool Press 2025, www.cityofcorsets.com
Text-to-speech Audio
Born on the 4th of July, 1848, that date might have predicted the fate of John Comrie Maclnnes: he would leave Scotland to become a successful American merchant. First employed by the William Finlay & Co. dry goods store at 462 Main Street, Maclnnes appears to have parlayed that opportunity into decades of self-employment. When Finlay moved to Boston in 1878, Maclnnes took over the business and changed its name to his own.
Maclnnes' department store was a busy spot for the first half of the 20th century. As one of many stops for Worcester's consumers, Maclnnes was a place to shop for curtains, shoes for children, a coat for the husband, or a corset. It was one of various local options for all those items in the early 1900s and so we see in the accompanying photo (circa 1900) signs on the store's Main Street exterior façade vying for attention from Worcester's shoppers: "John C. Maclnnes Company. The Popular Store. Millinery. Underwear" ... "The Popular Dry Good Store" ... "Smart Clothes for Men Women Boys and Girls"
By the 1950's -- long after the death of Maclnnes in 1915 -- the store began to falter, as automobiles brought its previous clients elsewhere. "It closed in 1958, with some of the building subdivided and taken over by smaller tenants...By 1974, a 288-foot-glass-lined building shadowed -- and reflected -- the many older buildings that filled downtown Worcester" in the spot where the Maclnnes store once stood.
Sources
"Then & Now: Wilbar's Shoes, Main Street, Worcester," Mike Elfland Telegram & Gazette, March 28, 2022)
findagrave, John Comrie MacInnes (1848-1915).
Worcester city directories
Proper Fit (working title), Anne Marie Murphy, TidePool Press 2025. www.cityofcorsets.com
Anne Marie Murphy, from the 1922 Worcester city directory
Anne Marie Murphy, from the 1930 Worcester city directory
Image by photographer E. B. Luce, from the collection at Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Massachusetts