MARYSVILLE – All that’s left are the fixtures in a business that itself was a fixture in Marysville for more than half a century.
Marian Solvberg, owner of Marian’s Dress Shop, is retiring, after 54 years of providing formal dresses to a clientele that reached beyond the Canadian border.
She filled a niche in the dress business, providing formal gowns and long skirts worn by members of women’s organizations such as Order of the Eastern Star during ceremonies.
Women would come across the border with special orders, the 89-year-old Solvberg said. “I had a lot of Canadians.”
Solvberg was a pioneer, a sole proprietor in a time when women weren’t expected to work outside the home, said Zoe Hallgren, herself a longtime Marysville business owner and a member of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Solvberg was good at it, Hallgren said. “She’s had a wonderful reputation of customer service.
“My father always shopped at Marian’s shop for my mother,” Hallgren said. “I shopped there.”
Solvberg bought the business in 1950. “Mabel Holmes called me and asked if I was interested in a dress shop,” Solvberg said. “And I said OK.”
While her niche was dresses for women’s organizations, the formal gowns worked nicely for other purposes as well, Hallgren said. She would refer customers from her bridal shop to Marian’s for mother-of-the-bride dresses.
Hallgren called Solvberg “a true gentlewoman” and “an excellent business woman.”
Hallgren also praised Solvberg for her community involvement, giving time to organizations such as the Soroptimists and money to community funds. “You don’t often see that willingness,” she said.
In recent years, Solvberg’s family has played a bigger role in running Marian’s, Hallgren said. But those who knew her still saw Solvberg walking from her home to the shop every day.
The official closing date for Marian’s Dress Shop was Tuesday, but she and her brother Bud Solvberg had the inventory cleared out before then.
After decades of being active, Solvberg sounded like she wasn’t ready to slow down.
What happens next? She smiled. “I don’t know. Can you find me a job?”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
Dan Bates / The Herald
In addition to running her Marysville dress shop, Marian Solvberg has been active in community organizations such as the Soroptimists.
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