Chain: Pearl’s Department Stores, Inc.
Date Opened: 9/22/1932 (6th store opened)
Date Closed:
Street Address(es) when open (Building name/block) [Current Address]: (#1) F A Phelps Block; burned down 12/12/1946 (#2)
Former Store(s) in Location(s): (#1) F A Phelps Block
Later Store(s) in Location(s):
Buildings still exist?:
Owners, Managers, Employees:
- Ruby Helfand, manager
- Miss Hessel Cyrus (Weber), saleslady c. 1942
Subsequent Owners if sold:
Extraordinary Events:
fire December 12, 1946
Articles, Pictures, Ads:
Article announcing opening of Brushton store (Fact & Fallacies 1932-09-22 p2)
Pearl’s ad (F&F 1932-12-08 p2)
Pearl’s Brushton Christmas as (F&F 1938-12-22 p2)
Pearl’s January Clearance ad (F&F 1939-01-26 p1)
Boy Scout display in Pearl’s window (F&F 1939-02-09 p1)
Dollar Days ad (F&F 1939-11-30 p1)
Store closes at 6PM (F&F 1940-01-25 p1) JIC Note: Not sure why this announcement ran for many months.
Joint ad for Brushton and St. Regis Falls (F&F 1940-05-30 p1)
Ruby Helfand, store manager, takes a mini-vacation to NYC (F&F 1940-10-03 p1)
Two ads the same day (F&F 1941-04-10 p1) JIC Note: Not sure what caused the shortage of merchandise, the attack on Pearl Harbor was months away.
Operating on Standard Time (F&F 1941-07-24 p1) JIC Note: Daylight Saving Time was a local option in 1941.
Closed for the Jewish Holidays (F&F 1941-09-18 p2)
August Clearance Sale (F&F 1942-08-06 p1) JIC Note: The store even sold canning jars!
Saleslady Miss Hessel Cyrus gets married (F&F 1942-08-13 p1) JIC Note: Husband had job in Buffalo. See clip below.
(F&F 1942-09-17 p1) JIC Note: Long distance marriages never work!
R. Helfand buying trip to NYC (F&F 1943-01-14 p1) JIC Note: The niece is Shirley Waldman, daughter of Rubie’s wife’s (Rose) sister Lillian who, with her husband Sam, ran the Pearl’s store in St. Regis Falls.
Christmas ad in 1945 (F&F 1945-12-13 p1)
Store closing hours (F&F 1946-06-13 p1) JIC Note: A good list of other local stores.
F&F 1946-07-04 p1) JIC Note: Customers were concerned prices would skyrocket after the war.
Fire destroys the Brushton store and two others! (The Massena Observer 1946-12-12 p1)
Brushton Fire (Ogdensburg Journal 1946-12-12 p8)
Brushton fire (F&F 1946-12-19 p1)
Recollections: