Tee Time

Mendel Dumas originally went into business as a service uniform vendor at 220 King Street. Gradually, the family enterprise evolved into the men’s fashion apparel provider that it is today, introducing many big-name brands to the Lowcountry—it was the first store in the area to sell Levi’s, for example. In 1947, Mendel passed ownership of the company on to his two sons, Joe and Abe, who relocated the shop to the corner of King and Society in 1973 and handed it down to current owner David Dumas in 1990. To many Charlestonians, M. Dumas & Sons is remembered not only as a store, but as a meeting place. Known for keeping a set of golf clubs on hand, Joe Dumas (pictured here around the late 1950s) loved to catch up with customers over a little swing practice.