Goldstein’s Department Store, excerpt from C.B. Arnette’s ‘Mink Slide to Main Street’
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For more than three quarters of a century, the name Goldstein was synonymous with top quality and high fashion in ladies’ and men’s ready-to-wear. As Marshall-Field, RH. Macy, and Sachs-Fifth Avenue were at the national pinnacle in this merchandise category, Goldstein’s held a similar ranking in middle Tennessee.
The founder of the firm was William Goldstein, who arrived in Murfreesboro in 1885. He had recently disembarked in New York City from a ship that had transported him from his home town of Vilna, Lithuania.
He arrived in Murfreesboro with his personal luggage and a backpack which contained his entire merchandise inventory. Evidently, the contents of his backpack were versatile and desirable enough to whet the buying appetites of many people around Murfreesboro and surrounding counties.
He soon married a new arrival in Murfreesboro whose name was Dora Cohen. From that union, there were three sons, David, Maurice, and Bernard, and one daughter, Leah.
From a mixture of plodding perseverance, good business acumen, and frugal living, William was able in 1900 to negotiate the purchase of the brick store building on the southeast corner of the Public Square. The building was on the same parcel of land which William Lytle had reserved for himself before the auction of the Public Square lots in 1812. William Goldstein, the immigrant from Lithuania who still had difficulty with the English language, could now discard his pack and display a much larger inventory on counters and tables.
As his business grew, his children grew, and his inventory grew. David and Bernard followed aptly in their father’s steps. They purchased the adjoining building on the west side to accommodate the expanding inventory of ladies’ and men’s ready-to-wear and cloth materials.
The corner building became the ladies’ department, and the adjoining newly-acquired store housed the men’s suits, hats, shoes, and accessories. From the early years, the Goldsteins insisted on the best
quality name goods and the latest styles that were on the market in New York. Flo, David’s wife, and later Sis, Bernard’s wife, augmented the search and procurement of those goods that would soon make the name Goldstein’s a household word in middle Tennessee. The family possessed a flair for salesmanship and instinctive appreciation for quality and taste-characteristics which seem to be inherent in the Hebrew race.
There is another trait which this writer believes to be unique among Jewish store owners. William, who died in 1929, had a certain chair by the front door which he occupied every day. David and Bernard stood
outside the front door each day that the weather was suitable. Sam Licker, already mentioned in this story, was to be found in front of his store as well as was Sol Arbit, who is to be mentioned later. I have noticed, in dealing with Jewish antique shop owners in Scotland, England, and Holland, that they observed this same custom. Frank Burgdorf, the tall, handsome manager of the men’s store at Goldstein’s, was not of the Hebrew race, but he also engaged in this high visibility custom when he was not busy in the store.
Goldstein’s, in more than seventy-five years on the Public Square, employed many local men and women. My mother, Sarah, and my Aunt Annie, who later became Mrs. Tom Dill, both worked as salesladies there
prior to 1912. The store generated more media advertising than any other business in Murfreesboro for several decades. There was full-page advertising toward the end of every week, and preceding special observances such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day.
It was about 1935 when Goldstein’s purchased the old fire hall, which stood at the rear of their store. The fire hall was demolished, and the store was expanded all the distance to Vine Street. That involved a huge innovation, since the upper floors and basement were extensively rebuilt and remodeled.
Goldstein’s continued to flourish during and after World War II. In the 1970s, Bernard, the surviving son of William, the founder, leased the store and their name to Alden’s, the catalog store in Chicago. Alden’s operated there into 1983, when the lease expired and the business was closed. In February 1984, the building was sold at auction to Dr. Charles Smith, Bill Webb, and this writer (ed. C.B. Arnette). In 1987, the owners sold the property to Joe Swanson, who subsequently sold it to the City of Murfreesboro.
Thus ended one of the most important and most famous business enterprises in the history of the Square. The Goldsteins would have to rank high on the roster of merchant princes of Murfreesboro. Theirs was
a story of humble beginnings with high aspirations and success probably beyond their aspirations.