Charles Brewster is one of the first businessmen in Mountain View, and is still very successful through Anchorage today. He owns two stores, soon to be three, called Brewster's Clothing and Footwear. When he first arrived in Anchorage he was an iron worker. Then he started a laundromat in Mountain View. Mr. Brewster called it the Mountain View Washaroo. He decided to put clothes in the store. He continued to add clothes and footwear. Now his stores are exclusively clothes and footwear. At his stores Charles Brewster sells pants and shirts. His business is selling clothes and a little bit of cowboy stuff. This year will be Brewster's 48th year in business.
Charles Brewster arrived in Alaska June 1, 1946. Charles Brewster came up here on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. He rode his motorcycle to Seattle, then took a ship to Seward, then he rode a train to Anchorage. When he came to Anchorage there were probably seven or eight thousand people living here.
Charles Brewster has had many exciting experiences here in Alaska. During the earthquake in 1964 he was standing in the doorway of the Brewster's boiler room. Charles Brewster remembers when President Eisenhower signed the paper to make Alaska the 49th state. He also loves horses. Mr. Brewster owned a beautiful horse named Head Honcho. He rode his horse every year for twenty-three years in the Palmer parade,and in the Fourth of July parade. He also rode his horse in the annual parade in Kenai until 1981. He never rode his horse again after he was in a automobile accident. He was driving his car on Rabbit Creek road and came around the corner and there was a moose in the middle of the road. His car went under the moose and he broke his neck. Charles Brewster had the same injury as Christopher Reed had, and he had to wear an "Earthly Halo" and twelve screws in his head and neck. One can go the Brewster's Clothing and Footwear store and see Mr. Brewster in his "earthly halo" and pictures of the business growing up through the years. Also at the Mountain View Brewster's Clothing and Footwear is the 140 pound silver saddle that Mr. Brewster's horse, Head Honcho, would wear to ride in local parades.
