Galesburg retail icon the The Continental is closing after over 120 years in business.
Carl Sandburg was 17 years old when Continental Clothing known for men’s suits and dress clothes opened in Galesburg.
Pat Burns is the fourth generation of his family to own the retailer.
He says it’s simply “time”, after spending 45 years at the shop himself.
At 67 years of age and with two grand children Burns feels it’s time for he and his wife to “have their free time.”
It’s fitting that Burns would leave behind the store for family.
It’s been a family affair from the beginning.
Burns great-grandfather and his brother were hired as the store’s first manager in 1895, then they got the chance to buy it in 1920.
Even Pat’s children had worked part-time in the shop at different times, technically making them the fifth generation.
“I’ve been very lucky,” Pat says. “I got to work with my dad every day for 35 or 40 years and I started when I was 8 or 9 years old running errands.”
Over it’s long run, Burns says The Continental has called three or four locations home.
They were on East Main Street, from 1961 to 1998, at what now houses the American Red Cross and before that on the corner of Main and Prairie.
Burns says they don’t have an exact closing date, but the end of the year is what he’s guessing.
Starting Thursday is when the public sale begins.
