The Newtown bee., 1907-02-01
TOWN TOPICS. LOOKING BACKWARD.
NEW HAVEN, 1852.

A whole half century of never ceas- ing merchandising carried on year in and year out, is a goQdly slice when clipped from history of most business houses. In quite number of instances it has constituted the entire history of many a business. Let us look back and note how steadily and surely this business of 55 years standing has climbed with it's inception in 1852 and entwined it's tendrils of steady growth around the city of it's birth. It would almost seem that with the advent of Edward Malley, the president and founder of this store. to New Haven the town itself took on a fresh squirt of wholesome civic activity. For we are told by old records that "In 1852 street paving had commenced by mac adamizing Whalley avenue with hand broken stone, proceeding about 1857 with Belgian blocks, in Chapel, State and Grand streets. Horse railroads began to appear in 1S6O." We are also informed that on July 22, 1852, "Pas- senger railroad trains passed the entire distance between New Haven and New London" A few years later, in mem- Orable 1862, the name of Admiral An drew Hull Foote, worthy son of New Haven, whose handsome residence stood then, where the old Kenwick house now does, on the corner of Chapel and Temple streets, was linked in his toric con njunction with that of Ulysses s. Grant in effectually breaking up the power of the Confederacy. To return more particularly to the career of the "New York Store," as it soon came to be called, under the able merchan- It was at that time wee two-story shanty. at 65 Chapel street, standing where the Insurance building does now, rented at trif1e of S75 a year, stocked with but $500 in dry goods, it's whole extent of floor space 15 feet wide, 20 feet deep, without gas, Shelv. ing or counters. But from this out, it's merchandising rise to the top of the tree was phenOmenally rapid and sOlidly steady. The new effective busi ness methods adopted by MT Malley, his introduction and unswerving ad- herence to the 'One-price" system, altogether new to New Haven, as we'll as to many other places, his low prices and accurate representations of mer- chandiSe, brought their reward very quickly. The little shop soon became too small to accommodate it's increas- more was quickly acquired. Adjoining stores were gradually rented. In pro- cess of time the rent rose from $75 to $500, and on 12-year lease took fur ther jump up to $l, 900. Some time later the lease of the Insurance build- ing fe1r through and could not be re. newed. It was then hen that -tQresSaignJed merchandising, with keen eye to the trend of values in real estate, made a further stride and secured the valuable corner of Chapel and Temple streets,
 which property, after a while, was pur- chased flor S140,0OO. Thus did the
 merchandising of the Malley store and
 it's surroundings keep even pace, side
 by side, with the welfare and prosperi-
 ty of the city, and in this, it's 55th year
 of trading history, its founder, Edward
 Malley, can certainly look back with
 contentment and justifiable pride to
 those secure foundations which he laid
 down so judiciously in 1852, and which
 have resulted in the firmly built edifice
 of 1907.