Felix Fuld (19 July 1868 – 20 January 1929) built one of America's well-known department stores –
L. Bamberger & Company with his partner,
Louis Bamberger
Louis Bamberger (15 May 1855 – 11 March 1944) was the leading citizen of Newark, New Jersey, from the early 1900s until his death in 1944. He and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld co-founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Ne ...
. He was an early 20th century philanthropist contributing to many local, regional, and international organizations. He arrived in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[Caroline Bamberger Fuld
Caroline Bamberger Frank Fuld (nickname, "Carrie"; March 16, 1864 – July 18, 1944) was an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She and her brother Louis Bamberger co-founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Bio ...]
who carried on his charitable work after his death at age 60, including the establishment of the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
.
Early life
Felix Fuld was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, the son of Ludwig and Theresa Fuld who came to New York when Felix was 12. Fuld's father was a partner in the New York City banking house of Sternberger, Sinn & Fuld.
Sternberger, Sinn & Fuld later became
Gruntal & Co. Through his father, Fuld found a job at the Chesapeake Rubber Company in Baltimore where he met Louis Bamberger.
L. Bamberger & Company
Felix Fuld joined Louis Bamberger and Bamberger's brother in-law, Louis M. Frank, to launch
L. Bamberger & Company in 1893,
a store with the tag line: ''One of America's Great Stores''. A number of the store's policies were new to retailing such as merchandise labeled with prices, money back guarantees, and charge accounts.
The store was very successful, achieving sales of $1,331,000 in 1898, $2,000,000 in 1908, $6,300,000 in 1913 and to a peak of $38,000,000 in 1928, the fourth highest in national department store total sales and the country's highest in per capita sales. Radio station
WOR was launched in the store with Fuld's approval in 1922. Many of Bamberger's employees went on to successful careers in other notable stores: Harry Hatry became president of Jay Thorpe, Inc. in New York; James Schoff became president of
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. Bloomingdale, Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the bus ...
; Max Robb became president of
Lit Brothers
Lit Brothers was a moderately-priced department store based in Philadelphia. Samuel and Jacob Lit opened the first store at North 8th and Market Streets in 1891. Lits positioned itself well as a more affordable alternate to its upscale competitors ...
, Philadelphia; Hector Suyker became president of
The Fair Store
The Fair Store was a discount department store founded in 1874 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
Founder Ernst J. Lehmann decided on the name "The Fair Store" as he felt "the store was like a fair because it offered many different things for sale at ...
, Chicago; and Pasqualo Gueriere became president of
Kresge-Newark
Kresge-Newark was an upper-middle market department store based in Newark, New Jersey. The firm was started in 1923 when its founder Sebastian Kresge purchased the L.S. Plaut Department store "S. S. Kresge Enters New Enterprise— Twenty-five-Mi ...
. When Bamberger's was sold to
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
in 1929 for an estimated $25,000,000, the partners, Fuld and Bamberger, set aside $1,000,000 to be divided among their ″co-workers″ (how they insisted employees be referred to).
Philanthropic work
With his business partner and brother-in-law, Louis Bamberger, Felix Fuld contributed to numerous Newark and New Jersey institutions. Their generosity helped launch a building drive for the Newark YM-YWHA in 1922 that led to the construction of the impressive 654 High Street building in 1924, with an auditorium named 'Fuld Hall.
' They were also major donors to the first hospital in Newark that freely offered a place for Jewish doctors to practice,
Beth Israel Hospital. Fuld providing one third of Beth's original funding.
Personal life
The three initial Bamberger's partners (Frank, Bamberger, and Fuld) lived together with Bamberger's sister
Caroline (Carrie) Bamberger who was Frank's wife in a rented house in
South Orange, New Jersey
South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...
. They later bought a large home on Centre Street in South Orange. Louis Frank died suddenly in 1910. Carrie Bamberger Frank remained a widow for eight years until 1918 when she married Felix Fuld. The Fulds continued to live with Louis Bamberger, a bachelor, until the last survivor died in 1943. Felix Fuld succumbed to influenza and pneumonia and died on January 20, 1929, at his home in South Orange.
A memorial service was held in the
Old First Presbyterian Church in Newark attended by many of the City's notables. He was buried at the B'nai Jeshurun Cemetery,
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuld, Felix
1868 births
1929 deaths
American businesspeople
American Jews
People from South Orange, New Jersey
Hutzler family