Fred Payton
Prince Albert Historical Society
An announcement in the Daily Herald of seven merchants planning to be closed for two days mid-week in September, 1916 caught my eye recently. I shortly thereafter came across a similar announcement in a September, 1917 Daily Herald. One reason why the announcement caught my eye was a story I had read previously a few weeks previous to that regarding the barbers of Prince Albert petitioning our city council to allow them to close for a half day (Wednesday afternoon) each week. It struck me as ironic that some merchants could simply announce that they would be closed for an entire day or two in the middle of the week, while other service providers would need to gain the approval of city council to close each week for a half day.
The seven merchants who were planning to close their stores in 1916 were The Prince Albert Trading Company, The Buffalo Hall, The North-West Company, The Hub Clothing Company, People’s Secondhand Store, Fayerman Brothers, and P.A. Hide and Fur Company. In 1917, the same list of stores appeared, with the exception of Caske, the Furrier, which had replaced P.A. Hide and Fur Company.
You likely will have noted that all these merchants were owned by Jewish businessmen. All of them had their businesses located on what was, in those early days of the Prince Albert community, River Street West. The days on which they planned to be closed was the Jewish religious holiday, Rosh hashana (the Jewish New Year).
Shortly after seeing these announcements in the Daily Herald, I had a conversation with another volunteer at the Historical Museum. He had retired from an accounting firm, where he had had a number of Jewish clients, and his work in the archives had prompted him to talk about the impact of Jewish business people on the local community.
Both having lived in Prince Albert in the 1960s, we were familiar with the names of the Jewish families who lived here at the time: the Aarons, the Barskys, the Fayermans, the Binskys, the Katz family, and several others like Tadman, Palay, and Lifshitz. There were enough families at that time for them to maintain their synagogue (Congregation Beth Jacob) and a resident rabbi.
Looking back, I found that the first Jewish business man to be listed as resident in Prince Albert was Singer Aaron, a dealer in grain and real estate. This was in 1908. How long he remained resident here is unknown, as he was not listed in later editions of the Henderson’s Directory. In 1911, there were several Jewish businesses listed: The Prince Albert Trading Company, The Union Trading Company, and Yewdall & MacKenzie, as well as a dry goods firm owned and operated by Jacob Schacter (often spelled Shacter). Norman Wasserman and Max Coffsy owned the P.A. Trading Company, while Charlie Horwitz (Horowitz?) owned The Union Trading Company, and Hyman Yewdall was co-owner of Yewdall & McKenzie.
By 1913, Harry Finkelman owned The Union Trading Company. Harry was active in the community, running unsuccessfully for City Council in 1917, but elected to council in 1920 and again in 1921. Finkelman was not, of course, the only Jewish businessman to sit on council. Allan Barsky sat as an alderman on council for five years in the 1950s, and as mayor for four terms (not consecutive) starting in 1959.
After the First World War, Prince Albert was home to numerous Jewish families, with the men involved in a variety of occupations. In 1919, David Rabinovitch owned The Prince Albert Trading Company, and Harry Finkelman the Union Trading Company. Jacob Schacter owned The Buffalo Hall, as well as The North-West Trading Company. Samuel Shrog and Harry Helfgott co-owned The Fair, selling men’s clothing and furnishings. Fred Shnay and Benjamin Tadman owned a furniture business, and Joseph Lifshitz was a gunsmith. Samuel Finkelman was the proprietor of a clothing store, and Samuel Fayerman owned a produce dealership, while William Wolman was a furrier.
These businesses were all located on River Street West. They appeared to thrive over the next five or six years. It is possible that many of the Ukrainian immigrants who arrived during this time, especially those from the southern Ukraine, dealt with these Jewish businesses, as they had dealt with, and been comfortable doing so, with Jewish businesses prior to emigrating to this country.
In 1925, there appears to have been a down-turn for some of these businesses. Both The Buffalo Hall and The Union Trading Company had closing out sales. But both Jacob Schacter and Harry Finkelman remained in Prince Albert, either opening a new business or working in a similar business (such as Ramsey’s, a store owned by a family which had arrived from Edmonton).
As they had when living in Europe, many of the Jewish people lived in suites above their family run business, or in apartments above the businesses owned by other Jewish people. As a result, many of them lived on River Street West, or above businesses on Central Avenue. The Central Avenue businesses included Le-Vine’s Dress Shop (owned by David Levine), the shoemaker, Max Palay, and Little E. Katz, meat market.
By 1932, The Blue Chain Stores had opened on Central and River Street. More recent citizens of Prince Albert will be familiar with the building as that which later became Davidner’s. The Blue Chain Stores, although associated mostly with the Barsky family, originally had a co-owner by the name of George Richman.
Shnay and Tadman had moved by 1929 to a location immediately south of the Avenue Hotel (it was in the former St. Regis Hotel, which amalgamated with the Avenue Hotel). After his father and Fred Shnay retired, Sam Tadman moved the store to 1320 Central Avenue (currently the site of As Good As New). Binsky’s, which later was located where the Salvation Army is currently, started out immediately north of the Avenue Hotel, where the Metropolitan Store used to be.
Fayerman’s, which was located on River West in the building which later housed the Army and Navy, and later still the Prince Albert Food Bank, was as mentioned, a produce dealer. They later turned to dealing in raw furs, and later still to wholesale hardware with a facility at the corner of 1st Avenue East and 13th Street (where Cherry North Insurance is currently).
The Aaron family were originally in the shoemaker business. Thomas H. Aaron had a shop at 841 Central Avenue. In 1936, Oscar Aaron had a shoe store at 930 Central Avenue. Alex Aaron originally owned a men’s clothing store (at 930 Central), and when he moved into 1126 Central, it was a men’s and ladies wear store. He eventually moved into ladies’ apparel only, finally closing his store in the mid-1960s. The space at 1126 Central was thereafter occupied by Prince Albert’s first Ricki’s store, managed by Samuel Vance, descendant of Alex Vance, a second-hand dealer from River Street
Esar Katz owned a meat shop on River Street in 1925, and had a meat market on Central Avenue in 1929. Nathan Katz was a livestock dealer in the same year. But the Katz family, known as fur, hides, and metal dealers, had moved into hides and furs by 1927, a business in which they continued until retirement.
Davidner’s, known as a clothing store, was started by Samuel Davidner, who in 1932 was an insurance agent, and in 1936 was a second-hand dealer. Herschel started the clothing store with his father, and ran it until his death in 2013.
The Congregation Beth Jacob had their synagogue in the unit block of 10th Street East until 1987. Rabbis through the years included Hymie Berezezvor, Joseph Goldstein, and Y Khalmar.
