Because of this, the neighbor made a peti- tion that they don’t want the stores on 24th street. He was a big politician. All the neigh- bors signed that they wanted the stores at 24th and Madison to be taken off. You could imag- ine when we find that news out. So we took a big lawyer, Ranker, to fight that thing for four years. Every penny we made went to pay for the lawyers and the bank. Without the income from the property! Stephen Shooster - According to the Ches- ter Times, there were two problems. The build- er encroached upon public land a few inches and only built a one-story building instead of the permitted two. Frank asked the city for a permit change, but it was denied. This placed him in a bad position. He had to pay the bank for the build- ing and the lawyer to help him with the city with no revenues. Our family was desperate. Harry, Izzy, and Frank pooled everything they had to make the payments, but it wasn’t enough. The costs kept mounting. Dora Shooster continued - The new build- ing stood vacant. Eventually, the property was foreclosed and sent to the Sheriff’s office for auction. We couldn’t pay the taxes. We couldn’t pay any more. I didn’t have nothing left to pay for it. So, the building has to go to a Sheriff’s sale. Herman was a little kid. Frank comes home that night, Friday night, with his head down. I had a habit when- ever I saw that he was unhappy. I never both- ered him until he gets through eating. I gave him his supper, and while he was eating his soup, I saw his tears drop into the soup. I thought, what can happen now? Frank, says, ‘You know who is going to buy that build- ing tomorrow?’ I says, ‘What? Who?’ He says, ‘Savitzky.’ He says, ‘Savitzky was going to come there tomorrow. His son is the dentist; he’s gonna buy the property.’ Because all you had to have was money.
I says, ‘Don’t worry Frank. I’m going into Mrs. Savitsky; she happens to be a neighbor on 4th Street.’ I go to Mrs. Savitsky, but I didn’t have time to go in the house and be neighborly. I came by to ask her for a favor, but I didn’t have time to gossip around and talk about this one and that one. She was surprised to see me. I said, ‘Mrs. Savitzky tomorrow was supposed to be Yom Kippur. She was a very religious woman. Mrs. Savitzky, do you know why I came to see you? Tomorrow you’re gonna go to the synagogue, and you gonna ask G-d to forgive you.’ I’m choked up; I can’t even talk about how I felt. I says, ‘You’re going to go to the synagogue for all the things you and your family have done through the year. Tomorrow morning you’re gonna cut our throat. For what?’ I said, ‘The building has gone to the Sheriff, not because we robbed anybody, not because we done [sic] anything wrong and everybody in Chester knows it. I came to ask if you have a conscience, please stay away from it. Tell your- selves to stay away from it tomorrow morning.’ If you have to become richer, then you have become, don’t butt into that because our blood is laying there. So, she gave me the answer. ‘Mrs. Shoost- er, I didn’t know exactly the story. Now that I know it, if you want to give me that building as a present, I wouldn’t let my son go near it.’ Years prior, Frank helped a fellow named Casey who only had the use of one arm. Pop done an awful lot for him. Frank saw to it that he should go into business as a real estate man. So, Frank got him started, and he did well. This Casey never forgot Frank. He would cut his right arm for Frank. [Casey suffered from Infantile paralysis on his left side.] When Casey heard the trouble Frank was having at the 24th Street building he says, ‘Frank, don’t worry. I don’t have no money, but I have collateral stock. I’ll go in tomorrow morning, and we will use the stock to secure the building.’ [Pop got the building back with Casey’s help.] Four years later, The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania heard the case, and the judges made a decision, He decided that The City of
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