Glen of Michigan

ARCHITECT: Unknown
CONSTRUCTED: 1908-1909

In 1908, the site for a new shirt factory on Hancock Street was announced in Manistee. The land, originally owned by the estate of local lumber baron Louis Sands, was offered to the city as a market site. However, local entrepreneur Maurice Goldberg agreed to purchase the land from the estate and within the year Goldberg was operating the Goshen Shirt Factory out of a newly constructed building. By 1935, the Manistee Garment Company was operating here as a division of the Rhea Manufacturing Company, a garment operation from Wisconsin.

While working at the garment company, Lester Goldstein was employed as office and employment manager. In April of 1950, Goldstein, who had changed his last name to Glen, purchased the Manistee Garment Company to operate it as a separate business called Glen of Michigan which went on to became one of the country’s leading manufacturers of women’s and children’s sportswear. With a payroll of 2 million dollars, the company’s peak employment included roughly 500 people.

The company also produced four different size ranges with each size range including twenty to forty styles per line. Sales operations were conducted in New York where a permanent showroom was on display. Additionally, the clothes were sold in 48 states and the line was represented by many major clothing outlets. The company ceased operations in the fall of 1981 but would later be occupied by other garment companies such as Swan Industries, Ltd. and Great Lakes Stitchery.