Flint & Kent was an upscale department store based in Buffalo, New York.
It had its roots in a dry good store that opened in 1832 by Benjamin Fitch (1802–1883) at 288 Main Street, Buffalo.
In 1836, the store was called Fitch, Marvin & Co., then Fitch & Marvin — the second name reflecting Fitch's partner, Eurotas Marvin (1810–1887)[1] On February 17, 1865, the owners — (i) Ethan Howe Howard (1812–1898), (ii) Joshua Mortimer Whitcomb (1821–1897), and (iii) William Bradford Flint (1826–1887), operating as co-partnership under the name Howard, Whitcomb & Co. — dissolved their partnership and sold their interest to a newly formed co-partnership of (a) William Bradford Flint, (b) Henry Mellen Kent (1823–1894), and (c) R.P.
[1] In 1897, Flint & Kent moved its flagship store from 554 Main Street to a building that was designed by Edward Austin Kent, Henry Kent's son and noted Buffalo architect who died in 1912 as a passenger aboard the RMS Titanic.
[1] Jack Hahn, a Buffalo native and 1949 alumnus of Princeton University, sold the company in 1956 to The Sample and went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1960.