Hawkins Hats closing in Milwaukee, staple of north side community

MILWAUKEE - Hawkins Hats and Things has been an anchor business along West Fond du Lac Avenue for more than three decades. But 81-year-old owner Mabel Hawkins-West said it is time to close shop.

It's one of the few places in Milwaukee that carry Sunday church suits and hats. Longtime customers, like Beverly Dixon, who shops there for her mother, are sad to hear the news.

"I'm going to have to cry," she said. "I've been shopping here for years."

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Dixon said the closure will be a loss for the community; Hawkins-West cares about shoppers. That’s another reason why the hat shop has been in business so long, even as traditions have changed.

"A lot of times you don’t have to have all that it costs," Dixon explained. "(Hawkins-West) will say, ‘Today is a good day. I’m going to give you a discount.’"

Hawkins-West opened the store in the early 1990s. Her shop quickly became the place in the city to buy elegant church hats and suits.

Mabel Hawkins-West talks to a customer

"Well, you know, I have to do the whole thing when they buy the hat," Hawkins-West said. "The suit, the jewelry, the purses. Everything but shoes."

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Few Black-owned businesses in Milwaukee have stayed open as long as Hawkins Hats and Things.

"I've been in the 53216 all my life. I know Ms. Hawkins from the neighborhood I grew up in," said Lorenzo Davis, who owns a barbershop next door.

Hawkins-West said three things led to her decision: the change in fashion, her age and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, after which she said business never bounced back.

Hawkins Hats and Things on West Fond du Lac Avenue

"It has been a journey, a good one. It’s time for me to bow out gracefully," she said.

The store will have two sales – one for Easter, one for Mother’s Day – before it closes for good at the end of May.