The Garment District Information

The Garment District opened in 1986 as an off-shoot of a textile company called the Harbor Textile Waste Co., which manufactured and sold wiping cloths and gloves to a variety of industries. In 1981, Harbor Textile decided to put out a few bales of clothing every Saturday morning for the public to browse through and buy by the pound. By The Pound (or, as it was then known, Dollar-A-Pound) became a Saturday staple, and a few years later The Garment District opened to complement the By The Pound business. The Garment District building at 200 Broadway in Cambridge is the last standing structure associated with the city's once-booming soap manufacturing industry. Our building dates back to 1893, when an older factory on the site was destroyed by fire. Until World War II, the building housed soap manufacturer Lysander Kemp & Sons. In the postwar years, the building was occupied by several businesses, including the Cambridge Printing Co, a bronze foundry, and Harbor Textile Waste Co. In 2007, Boston Costume joined The Garment District and By The Pound at 200 Broadway. Boston Costume has been a Boston institution since 1965, and was previously located in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood.