Vincent’s Specialty Store on Federal Hill is part of Norma Walsh’s earliest memories. She remembers a day when her father, Vincent Pantalone, came home from the store to retrieve a coat he had bought for her. Pantalone took the coat back to the store for a customer.
“The customer comes first,” Walsh said. “Those were the days when business was really business. He ordered me another one, of course.”
After 73 years in business, Vincent’s will close during the third week of August.
“We have decided to retire,” Walsh said. “It is a family business. Just about everybody in my family has worked here. My sisters ran it, and I’m the last. I’m retiring too.”
The store, which specializes in Christening gowns and Communion dresses and suits, was opened in 1927 by Pantalone, who came to Providence from Naples as a young boy. Descended from a long line of merchants, Pantalone was at the store until his death at the age of 87 in 1985. Walsh then took over the business.
Vincent’s carried some ladies’ clothing in the beginning, and later specialized in children’s’ wear.
“Eventually we took it down even further, to christenings and babies,” Walsh said. “We sell more christening gowns than anyone in Rhode Island.”
Even the Great Depression didn’t adversely affect business at Vincent’s.
“Because of the immigrant population – they were all here,” Walsh said. “It was a mass of humanity. There were tenements as far as you could see. Times change. Now it [Federal Hill] is all restaurants. Competition brings business. You need competition to do business.”
But it’s not just the neighborhood that has changed.
“People used to be paid on Saturdays,” Walsh said. “We worked late hours back then.”
“Saturdays we used to be packed,” said Geraldine Spirito, a Vincent’s employee for 53 years. “Remember? Oh my God”
“Lifestyle is so different now,” Walsh said. “With women working, they shop wherever they are. It’s changing times, that’s all it is. Family businesses don’t really exist anymore, but this one has lasted longer than most.”
CELEBRATING VINCENT’S 5oth ANNIVERSARY with the founder, Vincent Pantalone in the center are staff and family members. The three women depicted on page 1 are included; Norma Walsh at far right, Grace Mansolillo, second from left, and Geraldine Spirito behind Vincent.
The only place time has stood still – a little bit – seems to be the store itself: the old wood and glass display cases for bibs and layette items; plastic bags that keep the clothes clean and dust-free; the walls decorated with pictures of young customers; the nursery rhyme watercolors painted by the store’s founder.
Spirito remembers switching to full-time status in 1947.
“I was working here part time,” she said. “I quit school – I was 16 years old – and I asked Vincent if I could come in here steady. I’ve been here ever since, and I love it. It’s my first and only job.”
“We’re steady as rocks,” said Grace Mansolillo, who has worked at Vincent’s for 58 years.
When the store shuts its doors for the last time, will they be looking for other jobs?
“I don’t think so,” Spirito laughed.
Mansolillo doesn’t remember her first day of work.
“I wasn’t even out of school – that’s the honest truth,” she said. “If I can remember, my mother came in here to buy me a gymsuit.”
“What did she do, just leave you here?” joked Spirito.
Since word of the store’s closing started circulating through the grapevine of Vincent’s regulars around three months ago, four generations of customers have been coming by to pay their respects.
“A girl came in here a little while ago – she’s a grandmother – with her daughter,” Mansolillo said. “I hadn’t seen her in 40 years.”
“It’s very sad, but it’s been very nice,” Walsh said. “It’s been nice doing it this way. You have to go through the process. It’s a wonderful tribute.”
Mansolillo agrees.
“These customers really enjoyed coming here,” she said. “It’s personalized selling with a lot of love. I can’t think of any other way of saying it.”
