Iconic Boise business is closing. Its founder was 1st practicing Jewish governor in US
The curtain is coming down on one of Boise’s oldest businesses.
Literally.
Red curtains trimmed in yellow have been placed inside both windows at the store in the historic Hoff Building at 812 W. Bannock St.
“After serving the Boise community for 131 years, the curtains are closing at Alexander Davis as we move into retirement,” reads the sign placed on the window by the clothing store’s owner, David Graves, 60.
The store, which is set to close April 30, was founded in 1891, the year after Idaho became a state. Moses Alexander, an immigrant from Bavaria, was on his way to the Alaska gold rush from Missouri when he stopped in Boise to check out investment opportunities. He never left, and he later became Boise mayor and the state’s 11th governor.
“The curtain went up before Valentine’s Day — it was a teaser, no verbiage or explanation,” Graves said in an interview. “The verbiage came later, and that curtain will drop here in the next few days to 50%, and then by April it will drop again, when it covers the whole window.”
Alexander’s began outfitting gold miners
Alexander Davis Men’s Clothing is the 11th-oldest men’s clothing store in the United States, according to MR Magazine, a trade publication. It’s the oldest in the West and one of only two in the region older than 100 years, the magazine said.
Alexander’s began selling work clothes to miners, canvas tarps for Basque sheepherders, overalls for working men and union suits. The company at one point had 11 stores between Twin Falls and Baker City, Oregon. The company later was known for mid-priced shirts, pants and suits.
Moses Alexander is probably best known for being the nation’s first practicing Jewish governor, a progressive Democrat.
He led a group of local Jews in forming Congregation Beth Israel and building a synagogue at 11th and State streets that merged in 1986 with Congregation Ahavath Israel. It’s the oldest continuously in-use synagogue west of the Mississippi River, according to Intermountain Jewish News. And it’s still in use at the Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel site on Latah Street, where it was relocated in 2003.
As governor, Alexander established Idaho’s worker’s compensation law to benefit employees injured on the job. The first policy, numbered 1A, was issued to M. Alexander Inc. The framed certificate, issued Jan. 1, 1918, hangs behind Graves’ desk.
Alexander introduced the slogan “One Price Clothier,” in which prices were clearly marked on each item. The slogan figured prominently, placed in big letters on a sign on the roof of the original building at 5th and Main streets.
“At the time, most merchants liked people to haggle for their prices,” Graves said. “He set the price and aimed to treat his customers fairly.”
Alexander’s folded competitor Ralph Davis into the company
In the early 1980s, the Alexander family bought rival Ralph Davis, a Boise clothing store founded in 1927.
The two stores were operated separately until 1986, when then-owner William Simons, great-grandson of Moses Alexander, formed Alexander Davis Clothing Co. The combined name was formed as a sign of respect for both companies, Graves said.
Ralph Davis was known for higher-end suits. Its purchase changed Alexander’s reputation to that of a store known for mid- to top-tier clothing.
Graves, who grew up in Grangeville and moved to Boise to attend college, started with Ralph Davis in 1983. That store was located at 8th and Idaho streets, where Bittercreek Alehouse is now, a block away from Alexander Davis.
A Ralph Davis tailor, Mary Martiartu, took Graves under her needle and taught him to alter suits. She altered his suit for his wedding 30 years ago.
“She loved me and gave me the product knowledge and how things were assembled and had me deconstruct things,” Graves said. “She nurtured me and told me how I could use this as a tool, and that tool has been with me my whole life.”
Graves figured he wouldn’t be kept on by the owner of the combined company. But his knowledge kept Simons from accepting his resignation when Alexander’s bought Ralph Davis. Instead, Simons put him out on the floor and taught him to stand off to the side, rather than behind the cash register talking to other salespeople as they waited for customers to come in.
“It doesn’t bode well when a customer comes in and you’ve got two or three guys visiting in the front,” he said. “That gave me the ability to roam, and people got used to me, and then it just flourished.”
Graves and his wife, Kathleen, bought Alexander Davis in 2006.
Alexander’s outfitted Idaho’s best-dressed politicians
A Who’s Who of Idaho politicians bought suits from Graves: the late former Gov. Bob Smylie; the late Gov. Cecil Andrus and the five governors who followed him (Phil Batt, Dirk Kempthorne, Jim Risch, Butch Otter and Brad Little), some U.S. senators, and the late business tycoons Joe Albertson and J.R. Simplot.
Not long ago, a man came to the shop on a Saturday after the store had closed at 5 p.m. He was desperate, because he was attending a wedding that night and needed an outfit.
Graves found him a sport coat, pressed it and sent the man on his way with an hour to spare before the ceremony.
“As I zipped up the bag, I said, ‘You’re going to blend into the crowd beautifully,’ ” Graves said. “He turned around and says, ‘Well, I’m just not part of the crowd. I’m the groom.’ ”
Another time, a man was headed to a gala dressed in a tuxedo. He must have gone to a prefunction, Graves said, because he smelled of alcohol. He complained about the fit of a pair of shoes Graves had sold him a couple of days earlier.
“And he said, ‘What’s weird is that the left one is OK. It’s the right one that’s tight,’ ” Graves recalled. “I looked down, felt along the bottom of his pants and pulled out a shoe horn.”
Eagle resident Bob Yearsley, who has been an Alexander Davis customer for about 30 years, said in an interview that he’s sad to see Graves retire and close the store.
“He was able to fix me up with clothes when I was working,” said Yearsley, retired from operating a company that sold equipment to the food processing industry. “I made a lot of business calls, and so I always appreciated the way they took care of the clothing aspect.”
Having worked his entire career within one block, Graves even has a name for himself.
“I joke about being the mayor of 8th Street,” he said. “I’ve watched a lot of historical buildings get torn down, burned, new buildings have come up in the skyline.”
The Alexander family legacy of fairness and respect resonated with Graves. And that’s why he has chosen to shut down the business rather than seek a buyer. It has nothing to do with sales decreases — he said 2021 was a better year for Alexander Davis than in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“I really wanted to take a road where I would rather close the store than to have a corporate buyout where they wouldn’t have the historical reference in mind of how the business is,” Graves said, dressed in a suit and his characteristic bow tie. “I think it’s the proper thing to let a business with a family heritage rise, shine and go away with the family. And I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
He’s proud of his veteran staff. Sales clerk Kevin Hadway has worked with Graves for 27 years. Tailor Dinh Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam, joined the staff when Martiartu retired in 1992 at age 71. His office manager Linda, who didn’t want to give her last name because she said she didn’t want the notoriety, has worked for Alexander Davis for 34 years.
“I’m grateful to everyone I’ve been associated with,” Graves said. “We’ve been a family.”
And he feels the same about the customers who have patronized Alexander Davis all these years.
“It’s all bittersweet, and everything comes with its time and place, and I’m very thankful that the family thought of me to carry on the legacy a little further for them,” Graves said. “And that’s the reason why I want to go into retirement. It’s time for me and out of respect for the family.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 1:36 PM.
