1608 Main Street
Site of Berry's On Main
In 1941, after years of working at his father's Assembly Street department store (B. Berry's), Joe Berry (1910-1979) opened Berry's on Main, which sold trendy women's fashions. By 1962, the business grew to occupy the neighboring three-story Manson building. Its top stories enclosed and adorned with an enormous sign, the vastly remodeled, ca.-1911 structure symbolized Main Street merchants' attempts to retain shoppers drawn to new suburban malls. Like other downtown Jewish clothing stores, such as Lourie's and Britton's, Berry's followed its clientele by opening additional stores in Richland Mall in 1960, a separate men's shop in 1968, and a branch at Dutch Square Mall by 1970. In 1982, Berry's on Main closed its Main Street location.
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Berry's on Main in 1949, before the expansion to the neighboring Manson building.Image courtesy John Hensel Collection, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia
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Exterior of renovated Manson building, 1980. Image courtesy Russell Maxey Collection, Richland Library
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Interior of renovated Berry's on Main. Image courtesy Barnett Berry
