Rubenstein’s Outlook Cloak & Suit Co.

Outlook Cloak & Suit Co. was a chain store that likely began in Topeka, Tennessee around 1909. By 1914, Austrian merchant and Spanish-American war veteran Emil Wald (1870-1940) managed a branch at 1616 Main Street in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1916, Mac Rubenstein & Co. of New York—which operated a chain of stores known as The Rubenstein Co.—purchased the Columbia location as “their first venture into the south.”¹ Joseph Rubenstein (1893-1956), was sent to manage the store that same year and noted “I am very well please with the reception with which we have met here.”²

In 1921, Joseph passed management of the store over to his future brother-in-law Charles F. Donen (1893-1954). In September, Charles moved the store to 1425 Main Street, where advertisements more frequently advertised the shop as Rubenstein’s Outlook Cloak & Suit Co. Following the move, the Rubensteins and Charles reiterated their commitment to quality, writing “As in the past so it will be in the future, our policy to handle only the best merchandise that can be bought for the price, and we believe we are able to do this as we have a New York Office who keeps in constant daily touch with all manufacturers.”³

Rubenstein’s Outlook Cloak & Suit Co stopped appearing in local newspapers and city directories by 1926, and in 1930 Charles was living in New York.

¹ “Rubenstein & Co. Buy Outlook Cloak & Suit Co.,” Columbia Record, January 18, 1916, 3.
² Ibid.
³ Advertisement, Columbia Record, September 26, 1921, 3