THE METTLE OF A MAN
Stephen Shooster - My father never told me this story. His father never told him. When I stumbled upon it in the interview tapes, I wasn’t really understanding that this is one of the key events in my grandfather’s life. I was flabbergasted to discover its truth. Today, with the help of the Internet and websites like Newspapers.com I was able to not only verify that Dora was telling a very earnest story, but that it must have been terri- bly difficult along the way. It is almost impos- sible for me to imagine my grandfather, a Jewish immigrant, involved in a case that went all the way to The Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania while along the way almost destroying the economic base of our nascent family. It started in 1930. The depression took a strong hold upon America. My dad was 5-6 years old at the time. His dad was driving around Chester and discovered a small trian- gular block of land on Madison and 24th Street that he thought would make a great retail location for a couple of stores. He had a business a hunch and acted on it. TEARS DROP IN HIS SOUP Dora Shooster - I want to tell the story about these stores. Frank went driving by on 24th street with the car. He did not know anybody on 24th street. There was a lot; there was a resting… what do you call it, with the trees, a little park? The house next door, the man had a little park. We didn’t have no money to go to a deal.” But, it came to his mind, Why can’t it be? He stopped the car, and he thought If I can buy that lot... if the man wants to sell it... if you had a store, you could place an American Store (Acme) on it and next door an A&P grocery store together. Frank didn’t even come home. He went right to the real estate office for Acme. Can I see the man that takes care of real estate here? Baron was his name. He went to the real estate office, and he met Mr. Baron, and he tells him, ‘I think I have a good location for you. Can I take you to see it?’
The fellow agreed, and Frank brought him down to see the property. Mr. Baron, ‘Mr. Shooster, I think you have something here.’ Frank, ‘Could you pay rent on this store?’ Mr. Baron, ‘The best I could pay is $85 a month.’ [1,581 - 2021] Frank, ‘Before I buy the land, I want to have a lease from you. The lease is only going to be good if I send it back to you and if I sign it. If it works out, I’ll sign it.’ Mr. Baron, ‘All right, that’s a good idea, Mr. Shooster.’ He signed the lease! Frank still did not come home. He took that lease and went right away to the A&P grocery real estate office. He didn’t tell them nothing about the Acme lease. They took him up to the manager. He showed the manager the ground, then he took out the signed lease that he entered with the American Stores. They agreed on the spot too. So, he’s got both an American Store, and an A&P store lease in one early afternoon. With this in hand, he went to the bank to see how much money they could advance him. With a promise from the bank, he went to a builder to see if he had enough money to build what he wanted. The builder told him, ‘Yes. I could build you a store.’ Frank went to the owner. She was a widow. She also had a house in Middle Chester. She told Pop that she would like to sell the land, the house, and the corner. Frank agreed and signed the leases. The builder started to build the stores. He built beautiful stores. With the glass, everything, he had the permit. So, the man that lived in the house near the property Frank bought wanted the builder to buy the cinders (paving blocks) from him to make the pavement. The man gave him a price, but it didn’t suit the builder; he could get it cheaper. He bought them from somebody else.
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