Some early Melrose hat makers were the Grein sisters (c1906), the Hart sisters (c1908), Tillie Latzka, Elizabeth Pickard, the Thoreson sisters, and Mrs. John Lampert. The worked out of their homes.

In 1900, Margaret Stafford planned to open a hat shop at 219 E Main. Recently widowed, with two little girls to support, she took a course at a St. Paul millinery and worked hard to prepare for the grand opening of her Millinery and Dressmaking Parlors. That night, the building burned to the ground. She had no insurance, but the community rallied and the St. Paul Millinery agreed to stand half the loss. She re-opened at 430 E Main. Later that year, she married druggist William Stock. In 1906, she moved her shop to the back room of his pharmacy at 409 E Main. The Stocks moved away later that year.

Burns Millinery opened at 0 S 4^th Ave E in 1912. Subsequent owners were Mrs. C. Erickson in 1914 and Elizabeth McCoy in 1916.

Mary Lockhart became a Melrose legend as she operated her hat shop at 203 E. Main Street from 1939 to 1959. She displayed her hats in the front room and sometimes lived in the rear. An imposing figure in her long sweeping dresses and high piled hair topped with one of her chapeaux, she called her customers ‘honey’ and ‘darling’ and convinced each one that she had chosen the best, most flattering hat.