fter Morris Loveman (1812-1887) and his son David (1838-1914) relocated to Nashville during the Civil War, both established businesses there. Morris opened a wholesale dry goods and notions house on Cedar Street, while David set up a corset and hoop skirt manufacturing company at 60 North College Street, just north of the City Square.  It advertised "Skirts made to order at the shortest notice. Dealers in Ladies Furnishing Goods; also old skirts repaired, altered and shaped as new. A full stock constantly on hand.”

Both Morris’ and David’s businesses prospered. David’s, which became D. Loveman & Company, expanded beyond hoop skirts, which eventually became unfashionable, into a larger dry goods establishment. With the addition of partners Samuel W. Berger and Henry Teitelbaum in the 1890s, it became a department store and took the name Loveman, Berger & Teitelbaum, and the sobriquet, “The Satisfactory Store.”

Loveman’s was regular advertiser in the business directory and newspapers of the day. By 1870 the business was not only manufacturing hoop skirts, but importing French corsets and dealing in a full line of white goods, Irish linen, hosiery and human and artificial hair.

The company prospered in the first half of the 20th century. In 1951, it opened a suburban location at Harding and White Bridge Roads , which became its flagship store. The downtown store was vacated in 1961, sold and torn down in 1966. One of Nashville's greatest mercantile houses, it closed its doors in 1976. 

Nashville Loveman's Advertisement, The Tennesseean, June 2, 1946. Click to enlarge.