Download or read book Manchester's Shoe Industry written by Kelly Kilcrease & Yvette Lazdowski and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Famous for its dominance in textile production, Manchester was also affectionately called "Shoe City." More than seventy different shoe companies once called Manchester home, and thousands of area residents worked tirelessly to produce some of the best-known shoes in America and throughout the world. The largest manufacturers were the F.M. Hoyt Shoe Company, maker of Beacon Shoes, and the granddaddy of them all, the McElwain Company, known for its popular brands, including the iconic Thom McAn shoes. Authors Kelly Kilcrease and Yvette Lazdowski reveal how these and other Manchester-based shoe shops were vital to the area's economic and employment prosperity, especially among the immigrant population, as well as how the McElwain Company was an integral part of the Melville Corporation, known today as CVS.