Andrew Saks (June 5, 1847 – April 8, 1912) was an American businessman known as the founder of department store

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washingt ...

Biography

Saks was born to a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

family, in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, Maryland, the son of Helena and William Saks. He worked as a peddler and paper boy before moving to Washington, D.C., where he established a men's clothing store with his brother Isadore in 1867. In 1902, they opened a store in New York on 34th Street as Saks & Company. Andrew Saks ran the New York store as a family affair with his brother Isadore, and his sons Horace and William.

Personal life

Saks married Jennie Rohr with whom he had three children: sons, Horace Andrew Saks and William Andrew Saks; and daughter Leila Saks. He died on April 9, 1912. His daughter, Leila Saks Meyer (1886–1957), returning to attend her father's funeral, survived the sinking of the RMS ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

'' in 1912 (five days after his death); her husband, Edgar J. Meyer, son of financier Marc Eugene Meyer and brother of publisher Eugene Meyer, perished. In 1923, his son Horace sold a majority interest in Saks & Company to

Gimbel Brothers Gimbel Brothers (known simply as Gimbels) was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the compa ...

, Inc. for $8 million which included Saks & Company's $4.5 million flagship store that was under construction; Horace Saks remained as president. In 1924, Horace Saks and his cousin, Bernard Gimbel, opened

in New York City.

References

External links

Saks Fifth Avenue
Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Saks, Andrew 1847 births 1912 deaths American businesspeople in retailing American people of German-Jewish descent 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Baltimore

Biography

Personal life

See also

References

External links