City Council Honors Adele’s Dress Shop for Service to Community

Adele’s Dress Shop owners, the Simon family, were recognized this month for “Making a Difference” when the Colton City Council presented Abe Simon and his family with a certificate to honor both the family’s and the business’s contributions to their community. Nominated for the award by Council Member Frank Gonzales, Adele’s Dress Shop has been family owned and operated for 75 years, with an established and true Colton history. After moving to Colton in 1939 with her husband and their two sons, Abe and Fred, Adele Simon opened Adele’s Dress Shop in the Anderson Hotel, where quality women’s clothing and accessories anywhere from casual to dressy were sold and still are sold today. “We have items you don’t see in most stores,” said Abe Simon, Adele’s son who continues to operate the business. “If you’ve never been in, you don’t know what you’re missing.” Abe’s mother Adele opened the dress shop with a $300 loan she received from her parents and grew a successful business doing what she loved most: selling women’s fashions. After business boomed and necessity called for a larger space, Adele moved her shop to a location on La Cadena Drive, half a block south of Valley Boulevard. A tragic accident nearly halted business, after a bakery fire two doors away caused severe smoke damage to the entirety of Adele’s inventory. With no insurance to cover the impairments, Abe recalled, “She cried all night. Oh boy, you know I remember that.” But Adele held tightly to her will to persevere, and once again started up her business at the same location. When developing infrastructure changed the area and a new freeway was implemented, Adele took out a bank loan and moved her business for the third time to 349 N. La Cadena Drive, about half a block north of Valley Boulevard, where the shop still operates today. Adele continued working at the shop even through her 1992 cancer diagnosis, and in 1994 when she passed away from her illness, her family continued on her life’s dream. “There’s so much sentimental value to it, and it’s been here so long. I hated to close it,” shared Abe. The March 2014 award is not the only award the business has received; in 2005, Adele’s Dress Shop and the Simon family were honored by the City of Colton with the “Business in the Spotlight” award for that year. Though he admitted to facing tough times in recent years with the downturn of the economy, he said he and his family were happy to hear of their recognition from their city council. “Recognition like this makes you realize that you’re not forgotten,” Abe said.