101 North Washington Street
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Chapter 1 (conclusion)
This talk of pogroms isn’t some foreshadowing of terrible things to come in Starke Center. In fact the future was bright. The three Jewish families, merchant, junk dealer, and pickle packer, would all thrive. In this regard our story is commonplace; describing the thriving Jewish experience in small towns all across America.
Chapter 2
It was a short and pleasant walk home after closing the store. The fine spring weather coincided beautifully with a very nice take in the till. Easter was the second most important selling season at the Weiss Department Store. Good weather in the weeks leading up to Easter always inspired the shopper to dig a bit deeper in her purse. The millinery department was booming; hats were big this year, figuratively and literally. Open only 5 years and Abe was so optimistic about business that he felt financially comfortable building the finest home in town.
This talk of pogroms isn’t some foreshadowing of terrible things to come in Starke Center. In fact the future was bright. The three Jewish families, merchant, junk dealer, and pickle packer, would all thrive. In this regard our story is commonplace; describing the thriving Jewish experience in small towns all across America.
Chapter 2
It was a short and pleasant walk home after closing the store. The fine spring weather coincided beautifully with a very nice take in the till. Easter was the second most important selling season at the Weiss Department Store. Good weather in the weeks leading up to Easter always inspired the shopper to dig a bit deeper in her purse. The millinery department was booming; hats were big this year, figuratively and literally. Open only 5 years and Abe was so optimistic about business that he felt financially comfortable building the finest home in town.
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Sara had made most of the decisions about the house. Although Abe had nixed the Chicago architect in favor of a South Bend firm, she got pretty much what she was after: sun rooms downstairs and upstairs, a fine library, and grand staircase in an impressive entry hall, 2 parlors, and a dining room with fireplace and leaded glass windows. It is what we would call “Prairie Style Influenced” if we wanted to project a certain priggish sophistication. We might even go on about the Art Nouveau or the Frank Lloyd Wright influence. But that is pretty much ridiculous. In fact the place was a big square house just like the few other grand big square houses in town. It had the bric-a-brac fine touches in the sconces and chandeliers and the tile around the hearth where today a realtor would discover the Prairie School influence for the benefit of a sale. A really cheesy real estate sales lady might even insinuate in a stage whisper, “Who knows, I don’t think anybody has really researched it, but this could be a genuine Frank Lloyd Wright house!”
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As Abe turned the corner onto Washington Street he could see his stucco upper story and his slate roof rising above the intervening modest clapboard dwellings of his neighbors. He thought, “It’s kind of a shame we don’t have a street or section of fine homes in Starke Center. There just isn’t enough wealth in town.” Of course that wasn’t the first time he had that thought. Those exact words were proclaimed upon several private and social occasions in the past and he was destined to repeat those exact words again, so often, as to become quite a bore on that point.
As Abe turned the corner onto Washington Street he could see his stucco upper story and his slate roof rising above the intervening modest clapboard dwellings of his neighbors. He thought, “It’s kind of a shame we don’t have a street or section of fine homes in Starke Center. There just isn’t enough wealth in town.” Of course that wasn’t the first time he had that thought. Those exact words were proclaimed upon several private and social occasions in the past and he was destined to repeat those exact words again, so often, as to become quite a bore on that point.
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