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After 56 Years In Clearwater, Webb's Men's Store Closing
Tribune photo by JAY CONNER
Kernan Webb's father, Harold, came to Clearwater from Utica, N.Y., where he'd had a men's store since 1935, and opened Webb's Gentleman's Apparel in 1952.
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Published: August 27, 2008
CLEARWATER - For three generations, the well-dressed men of Clearwater needed to know nothing more about fashion than the business hours of Webb's Gentleman's Apparel store.
The next generation is on its own.
After 45 years in the downtown clothing store his father opened in 1952, Kernan Webb is checking out.
"The pink building on Fort Harrison," as it is commonly known, is out of business. The trademark American flag, which Webb stakes on the street corner upon opening each morning, will fly no more.
All that remains is the furniture, and it's for sale. Half of it is gone already.
"It's time," Webb said this past week, relaxing in an oak chair in his hollow showroom. "It's time. We had a good long run."
"Pushing 70," and with his four children grown and off to other pursuits, Webb closed the doors for good May 17, marking an end to the last free-standing men's clothing store in Clearwater.
"It was an institution downtown," Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer said.
As a young lawyer, Greer had a law office in Webb's building at 501 S. Fort Harrison Ave. before becoming a county commissioner and then a judge.
"Whenever I had an election, I bought a blue suit from Kernan, and he would throw in a tie for good luck," Greer said Friday, a day he happened to be wearing the suit he bought for his 2004 election.
Bob Clark, a former city commissioner and long-time friend of Webb, said the store was the last vestige of an era when downtown was the big shopping and meeting destination.
"When you lose a store like that, Clearwater loses some of its character, I think," Clark said. "Unfortunately, it's a vanishing breed – high-end men's stores that were so popular in Clearwater years ago."
Clark bought the first blazer he owned from Webb. "I don't have a coat or suit in my closet that doesn't have his label in it,'' he said.
Webb's father, Harold, came to Clearwater from Utica, N.Y., where had a men's store since 1935. Enamored with the city's tropical, laid-back lifestyle he bought a winter home. Like a lot of people, he stayed for good.
He soon found a market for resort style clothing, a blend of conservative tailoring and eye-popping colors. Pants and coats in yellow, green, raspberry – he filled his rack with them, and people bought them, his son said.
In 1964, he bought the old fruit stand across the street at Fort Harrison and Court Street. Down went the old, up went the pink – Webb's signature two-story building with the Bahama shutters.
"If you went to Bermuda or the Bahamas you could plunk it down on the street and it would fit right in," Webb said.
Webb joined his father in 1963; his mother, Mary, ran the office. With its personal attention, a team of tailors and top-notch quality, the store appealed to those whom Webb calls the "quiet rich."
"CEOs of this, that and the other thing," he said. "We had customers from 50 states and Europe."
It was a time when wealthy businessmen and financiers came to the nearby Belleview Biltmore for the entire winter, when people dressed for dinner, and when cocktail parties and soirees were can't miss.
"And they always dressed well," Webb said.
The men quickly fell for the bright-colored trousers and jackets too outlandish to find up North, where winter was defined by grays, browns and blacks. "I could buy anything, and someone would buy it," Webb said, a sparkle in his eye.
The clothiers knew most of their customers and made a point to keep track of transactions lest two customers show up at the same function with the same coat.
They got caught only once, Webb said. It was a wool paisley sport jacket. "We bought four. We tried to make sure they went out of town," he said.
At least two of them didn't. They met at a party. "We heard about that for years," he said, letting go a laugh.
Beyond the colors, Webb's featured a collection of classic apparel, living up to the "Fine Mens Wear'' signs that hang outside. "Clothes you were going to wear for 10 years,'' Webb said.
They sold only two-button jackets. Three-button was too trendy, double breasted too hot.
They never yielded to the anything-goes styles of 1960s and 1970s - "We didn't do Nehru jackets," Webb said – or the swing to corporate casual, which "swung all the way to slovenly."
Local men, and their sons after them, came to depend on the store. "I've watched three generations of families, and put clothes on them," he said.
He also has seen them grow. When he began selling, trousers started at a 28-inch waist and ran to about 40 inches. By the end, he stocked nothing smaller than 34 inches, and most of what he sold was 38 to 44 inches.
"It's got to be the good food," he said.
Sometimes, customers stopped in just for coffee and to chat in the sitting area. The parquet wood floors, the fireplace adorned with his mother's antiques, his grandfather's handmade clothing cabinets, and the center-room chandelier "made it a very pleasant atmosphere," Webb said.
He still spends three days a week at the store, trying to sell what remains of the furniture. "I hate to put a price on it, but I have nowhere to put it," he said.
Webb said he plans keep the building and lease out the 4,200 square-foot store space.
Looking around the showroom, he said the store provided a good living, allowing him and his wife, Margaret, to put the kids through college. And he knows he will miss the place, except for maybe the Thanksgiving rush and Christmas Eve, "when we worked to the final bell.''
But, he said, that was the kind of thing you did for your customers.
"We didn't want to disappoint them," he said. "A Webb's box under the Christmas tree meant a lot."
Reporter Steven Girardi may be reached at (727) 385-5689 or sgirardi@tampatrib.com
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