The Wood Mortuary

Men wore tailored suits and long coats and hats of the Edwardian period.It’s also when a Greer resident founded Smith and Vaughn men’s clothing store at 228 Trade St. in downtown Greer.Today the store is known as Smith & James, and it’s celebrating its 100th anniversary.It is the oldest retail store in Greer and third oldest business behind Citizens Building & Loan and the Wood Mortuary funeral home, according to Brandon Price, the latest to run the family-owned men’s clothing store.“Our business is built on relationships,” said Price, explaining how Smith & James has survived two world wars, the Great Depression, several recessions and competition from big-box retailers and malls. “It’s all about customer service —just going the extra mile.”The Price family held a celebration Thursday night at the store for longtime customers and friends. The store adjoins Chelsea’s Ladies Clothing & Accessories at 224 Trade St., also run by the Price family.One of the store’s oldest customers, Ron Allison, said he started shopping there in the 1950s and '60s.He said he still has many of the same outfits he bought 50 years ago.“They’ve come back in style,” said Allison, whose wife, state Rep. Rita Allison, presented a plaque of congratulations from the S.C. House of Representatives to Price and his father, the semi-retired Bernard Price.“The clothes that you buy here are going to be around for a long time,” Ron Allison said. “They’re honest. They do a good job,” he said of the Prices.Rita Allison echoed the praise.“Thank you personally as a wife for taking care of my husband all these years,” she said. “Family is what it’s all about.”The store was known for carrying “exclusive up-to-date Gent’s furnishings” when it opened in 1916, the Greer Observer reported.In 1919, the name changed to Smith & James when Vaughn sold his share of the store to Don James.From the 1930s through the 1970s, Paul Smith Sr., the founder’s nephew, continued to build on the store’s reputation of integrit...