Tru-Value Dress Shop
119 N. Main (Last Chance Gulch)
1940-1959


LES JORUD PHOTO FROM THE BAIRD COLLECTION
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE IN A NEW WINDOW

The newly-opened Tru-Value Dress Shop, 119 N. Main (Last Chance Gulch), Feb. 16, 1940. The building was previously home to the R. C. Wallace Grocery.

Tru-Value was a New York-based chain of dress shops owned by the Klaber brothers., Frederick, Leopold, and Hans. They had quite a few shops across the nation from about 1927 to 1963. Just how many shops there were is difficult to say, because the number given in various local newspaper ads for new Tru-Value openings varies quite a bit, even within the same year. The highest number I found was 60 in a 1954 ad. I looked for a company history of some sort, but none was found. It appears that most of the shops were in the midwest and the south, with only a few west of the Rockies.

In 1945, one of the chain's founders, Leopold Klaber, died suddenly in New York. All Tru-Value shops across the nation closed on the afternoon of his funeral, Feb. 13.

The Helena shop went out of business in 1959, and the space was soon occupied by Gamer's Shoes. The building was demolished by the 1970s urban renewal project. The Arcade Building is now on the site.