Adolph Herz  

Adolph Hertz owned one on the cottages on the northern shores of Lake Maxinkuckee of which I have termed as the 'Forgotten cottages ' and he also was the owner of the Colonade Hotel building

1896 - Jul 7 - A. Hertz and family, of Terre Haute, are comfortably situated in the cottage for the season, near the Palmer house.

1916 - Sep - their cottage at Maxinkuckee returning to the city today. - Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, Saturday, September 16, 1916, Terre Haute, Indiana

1917 - Dec 19 Death of Mr. Herz

One of Lake Macinkuckee's most familiary summer residents - A Herz of Terr Haute died on Sunday, aged 74

For more than 40 years her as a merchant of Terre Haute.

He was a natice of Wurttemberg, Germanym and landed in New York in 1866, as a 26-year old bachelor from Schwabish Hall, Wurtemberg, Germany, Herz lived upstairs in the two-story building for a few weeks but soon relocated to the Terre Haute House. He had come to Terre Haute in 1867 with about $6 in his pocket.

From a salesman in a store he advanced to proprietor of one of the largest stores in the city. He was also director of the McKee National bank and president of the Rose Orphan's Home. For many years he was president of the Terre Haute Scoial Settlement and also served as presindent of the Chamber of Commerce.

He always had the welfare of the lake and the prosperity of the summer colony at heart. - Citizen

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Innovative, charitable and civic-minded, Adolph Herz ranks very high in the history of Terre Haute's most popular retail merchants.

For nearly 50 years, the native of Schwabish Hall, Wurtemberg, Germany, owned and managed a downtown store.

Born August 7, 1843, he worked briefly in New York City and Huntington, Ind., in 1866 before moving to Terre Haute thefollowing year. For a while he worked for tailor Joseph Erlanger.

On Feb. 17, 1869, Adolph Herz — with financial assistance from David and Adolph Arnold — purchased a hoop skirt factory and notions store at 12 S. Fourth St. in Terre Haute from Benjamin Weisz.

And sometime soon after in 1869, he opened Herz Bazaar on South Fourth Street north of Ohio Street, selling ladies skirt hoops and after a few months, making hoop skirts no longer was his principal income s ource. He specialized in ladies furnishings and notions.. As business flourished, Herz was able to pay off his obligation to the Arnolds and relocate to larger quarters.

The business soon outgrew the location moved to location in downtown Terre Haute as more space was needed to accommodate goods and customers . For nearly 20 years, he was located in the Deming Block at the northeast corner of Sixth and Wabash.

In 1906-07 William Riley McKeen erected an attractive five-story enameled brick building at 646-652 Wabash Ave. (next to McKeen Block). Built to Herz's specifications, the structure featured Green River Stone trim. Its mezzanine, wide aisles, mahogany countertops and fixtures, three large elevators, a pneumatic tube cash system was installed (the first in the city), it was piped for vacuum cleaning, attentive floor walkers and quality merchandise were the talk of the town; A. Herz department store, as it was called.

Reputedly, "A. Herz" as the business was called maintained the largest stock of ladies' furnishings, notions, rugs, curtains and leather goods in Indiana and boasted 250 employees. There were 600 feet of glass cases on the first and second floor salone. Elegant Herz Tea Room lured shoppers and businessmen for lunch. Though constantly seeking new ways to improve and promote the store and keep his employees happy, Adolph did not restrict his activities to the business. Whenever a local charitable or civic project materialized, he responded.

For many years he was a leader in the Commercial Club, predecessor to the Chamber of Commerce, and served three terms as its president. He was also a director at McKeen National Bank (a predecessor of Terre Haute First National Bank), long-time trustee at the Rose Orphan Home and a pioneer in the Terre Haute Retail Merchants Association.

Herz married Pauline Einstein of New York in 1872 and the couple raised four children: Bertha, Milton, Rose and Henrietta Pauline. They resided for many years at 309 S. Sixth St. and owned a summer cottage at Lake Maxinkuckee near Culver , Ind.

When Adolph died Dec. 17, 1917, at age 74, one local headline read, "City Loses Man Loved By People."

Though the funeral was private, downtown stores were closed in his memory.

After Adolph’s death, the employees united to engage Tiffany of New York to prepare an elegant bronze tablet as a memorial to the founder, which read:

“To Adolph Herz, merchant, citizen, philanthropist, friend, who established this business and guided it for almost forty-nine years, this tablet is inscribed by those who worked for him and with him as a lasting memorial of love and affection. 1843-1917.”

Pauline died Sept. 3, 1928, at age 80.

Son Milt who married Mae Herman of Cincinnati succeeded his father as manager of A. Herz Department Store and it continued to prosper. Bertha married Adolph Joseph, son of Terre Haute merchant Max Joseph; Rose wed Max Hammell; and Henrietta married Harry W. Cohen, founder of General Investment & Realty Co.

After Milt died Jan. 24, 1932, at age 55, the family sold its interest in A. Herz, Inc. to outside investors. In 1946, it became a part of Alden's Department Store chain and was renamed "Alden's-Herz", under Alexander Stern's management. Eventually, "Herz" was dropped from the store name. The building was razed in about 1971. - Wabash Valley Profiles

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Adolph Herz. Probably no business establishment of the city of Terre Haute is more widely known than the department store of A. Herz. During the past year, thousands of patrons have stopped to examine a handsome Tiffany bronze tablet which occupies a well chosen position in the store. Underneath the portrait is the following inscription:

To Adolph Herz Merchant - Citizen - Philanthropist - Friend who established this business and guided it for almost forty-nine years this tablet is inscribed by those who worked for him and with him as a lasting memorial of love and affection.

1843-1917

As well as a few brief and well chosen words could do so, that tablet tells the story of a long life and throws some light upon the character and achievements of a great merchant. Adolph Herz was born in Schw. Halle, Wurtemberg, Germany, August 7, 1843, and his boyhood days and school years were spent in his native town. The family home was erected more than two centuries ago, and is still occupied by some of the Herz family. His keen commercial instincts led him into business while still a boy, and before he left he native land he was spending large part of his time traveling as a wholesale salesman in southern Germany. It seems natural that his boundless ambition early felt the restrictions of the old world and sought the better opportunities of the new. He reached New York in 1866, having a little over six dollars in his pocket, and for a year peddled notions and small wares, to the little dealers of the east side of New York. For the sake of economy he shared a bleak room and scant board with another hard working and poorly recompensed young man. On leaving New York he came west to Huntington, Indiana, and was employed as a clerk in a general store there, and thence cone to Terre Haute, where he found work as salesman in the clothing store of Joseph Erianger.

In 1869, just fifty years ago, through money furnished by A. Arnold, Adolph Herz became a merchant of Terre Haute. The firm of Herz & Arnold began business February 17^th in a small store at No. twelve South Fourth Street. The business consisted mainly of corsets and small wares and centered about a hoop-skirt factory employing two workers. Four week s later the store was moved to No. 323 Wabash Avenues, where it remained three years. In the meantime Mr. Herz bought out Mr. Arnold, and from that time forward the business with all its growth and development has been known simply as A. Herz. For fourteen years the store was at 412 Main Street, and in 1887 was moved to 512-514 of the same street, known as Wabash Avenue. In September, 1897, the business was moved to a newly remodeled building at 606-608 Wabash Avenue, and ten years later again changed to the new building and handsome quarters now occupied by the business.

This great store with its organization and great volume of merchandise is in effect a memorial to Adolph Herz. But such was the vitality and the breadth of his sympathy and nobility of nature that a dozen or more other institutions and organization of Terre Haute must be mentioned to show even briefly the extent and influence of his file.

To understand the variety of his interests it would only be necessary to open the records and read the resolutions passed at the time of his death by such well known organizations as the Indiana Retail Dry Goods Association, the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Harrison Saving Association, the Citizens Mutual Heating Company, Morris Plan Company, McKeen National Bank, Retail Merchants Association, the Rose Orphan Home, Public Health Nursing Association, the Terre Haute Social Settlement, Vigo-American Clay Company, Jewish Orphan Home, the Phoenix Club, Independent Order of B'nai B'rith and Temple Israel, all of which organizations through committees had something significant to add concerning the service, the devotion and philanthropy of the late Mr. Herz.

In 1883, in conjunction with W. H. Brown, Mr. Herz bought out the organization of business men under the name of Terre Haute Board of Trade.

He was one of the organizers of the Commercial Club, for years was one of its directors and a number of terms president, and has been called father of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce. For years he was a director of the Society for Organizing Charities, was president of the Social Settlement, and at the time of his death was president of the Rose Orphan Home. He was director in the several banks and business organizations just noted, and it was a fitting tribute to the universality of his interest that at the time of his funeral practically every business house in the city and the city schools and courts suspended and paid silent tribute to him for fifteen minutes.

Adolph Herz died December 16, 1917. In New York City, Mary 26, 1872, he married Pauline Einstein, They had been betrothed before he left Europe. They were the parents of four children, three daughters and on son, the son being Milton Herz. -- Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood Chicago: American Historical Society, 1919, Dunn, Jacob Piatt, pg. 1871-2