Pauline Pollock

PLAZA RETAILER

Honored February, 1986

Pauline Pollock

As some show business children are said to be born in a trunk backstage, with performing in their blood, Pauline Pollock was practically born in a clothing shop, with a predestined love for fashion and retail.

Pauline was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1903. Her German-Jewish merchant parents brought their only child to Santa Fe as a tiny baby. In 1912, the year of statehood, they opened "the first style store in Santa Fe" on the plaza. Called the White House, it was the first store that didn't sell "wagon wheels and whips" along with clothing, according to Pauline. "We had everything: infants, children, preteen, juniors, and we used to have piece goods, too."

In those days all women's ready-to-wear stores were called either the White House or the Emporium; and all shoe stores were called the Guarantee. Later on, the plaza store was named the Guarantee, after the shoe division Pauline's husband ran. This business lasted for four generations.