DelMonico Hatter

950 Grand Avenue (demolished)

Del Monico The Hatter, 950 Grand Avenue c. 1918 exterior. Photo courtesy of DelMonico’s website.

Interior. Photo courtesy of DelMonico’s website.

Established in 1908 by Ernest DelMonico as “Del Monico The Hatter,” the venerable New Haven headwear store was originally located on the ground floor of 950 Grand Avenue, near the corner of Olive Street. Ernest’s son Joseph DelMonico ran the store for seven decades, from the 1920s until his death in 2001 at age 90. Joseph’s son Ernest DelMonico II ran the store from 2001 until his death in 2018, reinventing it as an e-commerce retailer that ships worldwide from its storefront location on Elm Street. The store had previously moved to State Street in the early 1960s, then to a location on Elm Street in 1965, and to its current location at 47 Elm in 1982. Delmonico won a “Hat Retailer of the Year” award from the National Headwear Association in 2008. In the 1940s there were 27 hat stores in New Haven (including another one on Grand Avenue owned by Isidore Ladin, father of Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven founder Harvey Ladin), but DelMonico is the only one that remains. It is currently run by fourth-generation family member Ben DelMonico.

Text sources: DelMonico Hatter website, Link; Torrellas, Derek. “DelMonico’s 4th Generation Hats a City.” New Haven Independent, March 24, 2015, Link.