Tag Archives: Georgia Jewish Merchants

Leader-Rosansky House, 1903, Vidalia

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This home, with Neoclassical and Queen Anne elements, was built for Moses Leader and Nahum Aaron Rosansky, likely by Ivey P. Crutchfield. It’s the only surviving home associated with any of Vidalia’s founding fathers. Leader and Rosansky were Polish Jews who immigrated to America in 1890 to escape anti-semitism. They first met in Augusta and formed a business partnership. Moses Leader came to Vidalia first, while Rosansky stayed behind in Augusta building capital. Leader peddled goods from door to door at first. Rosansky was in Vidalia by about 1895, when the two opened their store. The Leader & Rosansky Store was the biggest in Vidalia from the late 1890s until its closure, and the owners were instrumental in developing the commercial district of the town. The pair also bought over sixty acres of land and developed it for commercial, religious, and residential purposes. Mr. Leader’s sister, Rosa, came to Vidalia in 1902 and married Mr. Rosansky. It was a thriving family business. Rosa Rosansky died in the flu outbreak of 1918 and the store was closed by 1928. Mr. Rosansky died in 1930. They had two daughters, but only one, Anna Rosansky Bauman, lived to adulthood. She sold the house to Marvin Shuman in 1945. The Shuman’s daughter, Anita Shuman Momand notes that when they purchased the home the spindles on the cast iron fence were each painted a different color.

National Register of Historic Places

Samuel Farkas House, 1889, Albany

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This Second Empire home is one of the most interesting in downtown Albany. Samuel Farkas came to Albany from Hungary at the age of 18. He couldn’t speak a word of English and only had fifty cents in his pocket. He came to Albany to work with his uncle who had set up a successful mercantile business after the Civil War. In 1872, Farkas opened a stable which focused on the sale of mules. In twenty years, he had amassed a fortune.

National Register of Historic Places

 

First National Bank Building, 1903, Fitzgerald

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Home over the years to everything from the Fitzgerald Police Department, a dentist’s office, cafe, barber shop, and tattoo parlor, the First National Bank Building in recent years was known as the office of General Insurance Company. Connie Kruger adds: This building was also, for a time,, the offices of the Hebrew Commercial Alliance, which was begun to lend financial aid to Jewish merchants, when other sources were not readily available to them.

Archival Photo Courtesy of Louie Harper

I recently got a tour of the building from local builder and preservationist Louie Harper, who will soon renovate it.

This is the ground floor, which was originally home to the First National Bank. It’s remembered in recent years as the office of Joe Hair’s General Insurance Company.

These rooms on the second floor were the offices of early Fitzgerald dentist and businessman Dr. C. A. Holtzendorf.

The basement was once the National Barber Shop, as well as the Fitzgerald Police Department headquarters, and lastly, a tattoo parlor.

Fitzgerald Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

 

Friedlander’s Department Store, 1936, Moultrie

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At the age of 16, in 1907, Louis Friedlander (1891-1975) came to Colquitt County and began a business of peddling sundries to local farmers, first on foot and later with a mule and wagon. He opened a small store at this location in 1908, known originally as the Bargain Store but soon thereafter changed to Friedlander’s. He built this structure in 1936, even though the community was suffering immensely from the ravages of the Great Depression, and it became one of the most successful retailers in South Georgia. A recent restoration reinforces the importance of this local landmark, a fine example of Art Deco architecture.

Many Moultrie folks have great memories of Friedlander’s. Fay Brock writes: I worked in the office at Friedlander’s from November 1967 until August 1970. I loved my time spent there, I really learned a lot working for this family owned and operated business. The books from all of the stores were kept in this main location. There were about 6 or 7 stores in Georgia and two in Daytona Beach, Florida. They gave me my first real job, and I will be forever grateful that they had enough faith in me to give me the opportunity. Judy Plymel recalls: wow..if this store could talk.. bought so many cool clothes here.. my first prom dress.. when I was a little girl.. my Easter shoes.. Easter dress on occasion.. it was 3 stories.. and the only one in town with an elevator for many years.. such a cool store at the time.. I can add that my hometown of Fitzgerald also had a Friedlander’s store when I was a boy. My great aunt, Gladys Brown, worked there for many years and visiting her was always a treat.

Moultrie Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

 

H. B. Ehrlich House, 1898, Bainbridge

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Henry Bartow Ehrlich (1849-1929) came to Bainbridge from Germany in 1871, to take over the business of his brother, Abraham, who had been wounded in the Civil War and later died as a result of those wounds. In addition to a booming merchandising business, Mr. Ehrlich was a founder and first president of the Citizens Bank & Trust Company. This was the first home in Decatur County with electricity and one of the finest surviving Queen Annes in South Georgia. Thanks to Sarah Gail Ehrlich Hytowitz, the great-granddaughter of the builder, for the identification.

Evan Thibeault shared this: According to a front page article in the March 31, 1898 Bainbridge Democrat, the superintendent of construction of this house was W. H. Carr, who was, at the time of the article, handling the design and construction of the “Belcher Block” on the northwest corner of Broad and Water Streets. The article mentions the Ehrlich house being under construction and was to cost $5000! It was to be “two stories, with all modern improvements and conveniences, steel ceilings, plate glass windows, etc. and will be the finest in the city.”

Bainbridge Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Rabinowitz Building, 1915, Alma

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Jewish immigrant William Rabinowitz (1873-1935) constructed this landmark along with a garage and house to the rear of the property. Those structures are no longer standing. The glazed green and white bricks on the facade of this were a specialty of local builder Manning Sullivan and represent a significant example of artisan brickwork not often seen in small rural towns, at least in my experience. There was space for two businesses downstairs and one large space upstairs. Rabinowitz operated a dry goods store in one half of the downstairs, but more significantly the upstairs space served as the de facto Bacon County Courthouse from its construction until a permanent courthouse was completed in 1920. Bacon County had only been created in 1914. After Mr. Rabinowitz moved to Atlanta in 1924 the building had numerous subsequent tenants, including a church, theatre, dentist’s office, furniture store, and garment factory. Today, it’s’ the home of the Alma Telephone Company.

National Register of Historic Places

 

A. S. Harris Department Store, 1953, Ocilla

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The byline on the front awning said it all. A. S. Harris Department Store was “Irwin County’s Trading Center” for much of the twentieth century. Many of my Irwin County friends remember buying school clothes here, but more than that, this was a “cradle to the grave” sort of store, where everything from baby clothes to funeral attire could be found. Martha Jo Felson Katz shared this history: My grandfather, A.S. Harris opened the store in 1907. For 93 years, it was the cornerstone of our little town. He married my grandmother Ida Bank Harris from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1910 and she moved to Ocilla where she loved, lived and died there. We grew up working in the store. My grandfather started the First State Bank, built the Community House, and owned several other buildings on the main street. He helped my mother and father open Felson’s next door to A.S.Harris’s. Abe died in 1947 and in 1952, the old store was torn down, and the new one built in the same location. We built a red brick building on Cherry Street as a temporary building while the new one was being constructed. It seems like the end of an era now with all of our family there gone.

I never shopped here, but I knew Mr. Harris from meals shared at the Fitzgerald Elks Lodge with my parents. He and his wife, Esther, were two of the nicest people around. I have good memories of them.