Thomas Welsh - Strouss: Youngstowns Dependable Store

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Thomas G. Welsh Jr. and Michael K. Geltz

All rights reserved

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.810.2

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.799.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Dedicated to fond memories of Susan E. Welsh and Doris D. Dolly Geltz.

People live in cities, not states or nations.

Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro

Contents

Acknowledgements

This project benefited from the guidance and support of numerous colleagues, friends and relatives. We would like to offer special thanks to H. William Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, for permitting the use of scores of historical images from the organizations collection. We would also like to thank Pamela Speis, archivist for the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, who provided invaluable assistance at the early stages of this project. Mrs. Speis not only tracked down volumes of material related to the history of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co. but also assisted in the selection of images that would eventually be included in this volume.

Also worthy of appreciation are the many people who agreed to be interviewed regarding their memories of Strouss Department Store and Youngstowns former retail district. Interviewees included Janet DeCapua, James Gray Doran, Anthony Dudzik, C. Clark Hammit, Reverend Deacon John C. Harris, Josephine Houser, Sally Joseph, Ray Laret, Ben Lariccia, Concetta Lariccia, Amelia Marinelli, Terry OHalloran, Richard S. Scarsella, Mary Ann Senediak, Patricia Sveth and Betty Swanson. Notably, Reverend Harris extended the additional courtesy of permitting us to use photographs he took in the vicinity of Strouss Department Store in the 1980s. Likewise, Ben Lariccia and his aunt, Concetta Lariccia, shared family photographs related to the stores history. In addition, Mary Lou Moss Godleski was kind enough to share with us a reproduction of a commemorative booklet that had been presented to her great-aunt, Ann Moss, by the Strouss-Hirshberg Co. at the time of the firms golden jubilee in 1925. While conducting general research for this project, we benefited from the assistance of the following individuals: Debbie Bushmire, Sally Freaney, Michele Mellor and Hannah Moses, reference librarians at Youngstowns Reuben-McMillan Public Library. We owe a special word of appreciation to Elaine M. Welsh, who, among others, served as an excellent (and remarkably patient) proofreader.

Thomas G. Welsh and Michael K. Geltz

October 18, 2012

Youngstown, Ohio

INTRODUCTION

Built for the Future

On the afternoon of November 2, 1926, a lone biplane hovered over the $2.5 million complex of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co. in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. As an excited crowd gathered below, the airplane swooped toward West Federal Street, the heart of the citys retail district, while the pilot released a cardboard box attached to a silk parachute. It had been planned to have it sail gracefully into the street, the Youngstown Vindicator reported later that day, but the winds out of the canyon-like street caused the parachute to travel north. The box instead nestled, rather unceremoniously, on a cornice of the new building, and as a department store worker scrambled to retrieve it, Youngstown mayor Charles F. Scheible waited patiently at the buildings main entrance, surrounded by a clutch of city officials.

When the box finally reached him, the mayor promptly opened it, removed a floral wreath and presented it to Clarence J. Strouss Sr., president and general manager of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co., now one of the largest retail outlets in the city.

This illustration, which appeared in one of Strouss-Hirshbergs in-house publications, reflects the pride the company took in its flagship store. Courtesy of Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

Therefore, few were surprised when hundreds of people showed up for the department stores grand opening, and the moment Clarence Strouss accepted the mayors floral tribute, the crowd surged forward, forcing members of the citys traffic squad to raise their batons and push back. After a brief struggle, the store was officially opened to the public, and the crowd streamed into the buildings main floor. These first-time visitors were undoubtedly dazzled by the sights that awaited them.

Designed by the prestigious architectural firm of Starrett & Van Vleck, the Strouss-Hirshberg Co. building offered a taste of East Coast sophistication to a city that was still struggling against its reputation as a scrappy industrial town. The buildings neo-Renaissance faade, which stretched more than 118 feet along West Federal Street, featured cream-colored, semi-glazed terra cotta. Even in the pale light of autumn, the department store was a gleaming presence in the citys downtown. Twenty-two display windows graced the structures northern and southern entrances, and those who entered the ground floor found twenty-two-foot ceilings and flooring composed of Italian travertine, a form of limestone that the Vindicator termed as durable as marble without the danger of slipping.

The six-story building, which was designed for the addition of two more stories, offered a total floor space of 239,803 square feet, while the basement alone contained 25,000 square feet. The facility was illuminated by 1,553 lamps, and its sprawling electrical system powered five passenger elevators, two freight elevators and spiral-chute conveyors that were intended to speed the delivery of packages. In addition, the building was outfitted with an intricate network of pneumatic tubes, enabling salespeople to dispatch money to central cashiers as well as charge checks direct with express train speed. The fifth floor featured a massive fur vault in which $1 million worth of furs could be stored, while the sixth floor contained an auditorium capable of seating five hundred people.

Standing guard on the structures roof were two massive tanks holding twenty-five thousand gallons of water each and a smaller one that held ten thousand gallons. Wells sunk 150 feet under the foundation of the building, supply water to electric pumpers which lift it to water softeners and then into huge reservoirs upon top of the building, the Vindicator reported, one day prior to the grand opening. They serve the sprinkler system protecting the structure in the event of fire, the paper observed, exclaiming that the store had been built for the futurea future that would, in all probability, involve the citys continued expansion. The new store is not built for the Youngstown of 160,000 souls today, but for the great industrial center of tomorrow with a population of 300,000, the Vindicator stated.

More than eight decades later, the former Strouss-Hirshberg building still dominates Youngstowns West Federal Street, although the department store and its branches have long disappeared from the scene. Indeed, the citys once vibrant downtown is still recovering from the combined effects of suburbanization, depopulation and deindustrialization, which reduced the district to a veritable wasteland in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Its apparent that the heady predictions of the 1920s never were realized, and Youngstowns population, at 66,982, stands at less than half of what it was when the Strouss-Hirshberg complex first opened its doors. Yet, memories of the Strouss-Hirshberg Department Store (or Strouss, as it became known in later years) remain vivid in the minds of area residents and former residents alike.