Bellevue Square losing a classic; but Albert Ltd. may go online

Emotion fills Dick Brown's voice. The owner of Albert Ltd. in Bellevue Square just announced that he's closing the 63-year-old clothing store.

"It has been increasingly more and more expensive to offer our high level and quality of products and service, such as special hangers and custom garment bags," Brown said. "Around the first of the year, I thought I could tough it out. Then on top of the area's high unemployment and the demand being down for men's suits and sports coats, the war talk started.

"We can't stand the prolonged economic hiccup."

Albert Ltd. has been the store for classic men's and women's wear, Ivy League quality and styles. Many things, such as shirts, are custom-made for customers.

The company, founded in 1940 by Harold Alexander Hoak, opened in downtown Seattle. In 1968, Hoak recruited Brown from the now-defunct but then top-drawer Frederick & Nelson. Two years later, Brown bought the company and opened a Portland branch. He started a Pebble Beach, Calif., store in 1979.

The Portland store had a 15-year run, and the Pebble Beach resort shop was open five years.

In 1981, Brown and his wife, Judy, moved the business to the second floor of Bellevue Square, where their Tudor-style, dark-oak door has welcomed Seattle's and the Eastside's rich, famous, corporate leaders and many just plain folks.

The store has even had the same tailor, Norbert Adler, since 1969.

"We probably have the measurements of more local men than any other store in the area," said Brown, who is the same age as the store. He grew up in Renton, graduating from the University of Washington in 1963.

He chokes up a bit when he talks about the Retirement Celebration Sale beginning Thursday.

Even so, it may not be the end of the Albert Ltd. name.

"The store doors may be closing, but Dick Brown doesn't intend to retire," he said. "I'm thinking about providing the same services online. One chapter of history is closing but a new one will open when this is over."

Rock 'n' roll: Look for Mayor Connie Marshall to show up at Bellevue's 50th-anniversary Sock Hop tonight in costume.

Just don't call her pink circle skirt, reminiscent of 1953 clothes, a poodle skirt.

While other women and girls will be wearing traditional poodle skirts that usually feature an appliquéd cutout of the dog, Marshall's will show off a sheepdog.

"How could I wear a skirt with a poodle when we're a sheepdog family?" she said. "My daughter, Emily, helped me make a sheepdog that looks like our Sadie."

The Sock Hop at Bellevue Community College begins at 6 p.m. Tickets, $5 each, are available at the door.

Dance city: Folks will be dancing in Kirkland, too.

Pacific Northwest Ballet sends instructors into local elementary schools for Discover Dance, a several-week program to introduce students to ballet. Proud parents and families will be at the Kirkland Performance Center watching students perform "The Great Migration: A Ballet."

(Talk about a double whammy of art education. The ballet was inspired by Northwest artist Jacob Lawrence's "Migration Series." A Lawrence show happens to be on display at the Seattle Art Museum.)

Rose Hill Elementary School (Kirkland) students performed last night, John Muir (Kirkland) students dance today at 2 p.m. and the Eastgate Elementary (Bellevue) students at 7:30 tonight.

Meanwhile, Kirkland's most noted dancer and president of the Kirkland Dance Center, Tim Hickey, will host acclaimed tap teacher Lane Alexander today and tomorrow.

Alexander, on the faculty at Northwestern University in Illinois, was a Chicagoan of the Year recently for his choreography and work with the Illinois Arts Council.

Graphic display: Burt Huelmann and other members of the Bellevue Sunrise Rotary Club will be at Factoria Mall today and tomorrow.

You can't miss them. They'll be standing around an old iron lung, once used to keep polio victims breathing.

Like all Rotary Clubs, the Bellevue Sunrise group is working to eradicate polio worldwide. The Sunrisers will also be happy to talk about their other service projects, including their upcoming home repair/remodel for a needy family as part of the Christmas in April program.

Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com