Meyer I. Grinberg sold house furnishings and electrical supplies in his popular store, which had locations in downtown Pittsburgh (where the PNC building is now going up) and in Braddock as well.
Meyer Grinberg in front of his store (source: Allen Grinberg via the Homestead Exhibit Photographs)
Truck Advertising Meyer Grinberg’s Store, 1925 (source: Allen Grinberg via the Homestead Exhibit Photographs)
Undated picture of the interior of Meyer Grinberg’s store (source: Grinberg family donation to Heinz History Center)
Ralph Grinberg fixing up a display, 1940 (source: Grinberg family donation to Heinz History Center)
Remodeling the store, March 1940 (source: Grinberg family donation to Heinz History Center)
The Great Flood of March 21, 1936 was the worst flood in Pittsburgh’s history. During the prolonged power outage, the Grinberg family made oil lamps!
Allen, Meyer, Tiby, Rhoda, and Ralph Grinberg after the Great Flood of 1936 (source: Allen Grinberg via Homestead Exhibit Photographs)
Ralph, Meyer, and Bernard Grinberg after the Great Flood (source: Grinberg family donations to the Heinz History Center)
Meyer & Tiby Grinberg after the Great Flood of 1936 (source: Allen Grinberg via the Homestead Exhibit Photographs)
Here is the paper they are holding, The Pittsburgh Press from 3/20/1936. You can read it here! According to the archivists at the Heinz History Center, people call several times a week offering to donate copies of the newspaper covering this event.
Ralph Grinberg was my grandfather’s cousin. Would love to get in touch with the family.
Ralph was my uncle. Allen (Ralph’s brother) was my father. Working the Grinberg family tree so would love to find out how we might be related.
Rhoda, Ralph’s wife was somehow a cousin to my grandfather, Sidney Schwartz. Wish I knew more. They did attend my wedding!
When I was a v
Young child growing up in the late fifties/early sixties, it was just well-know that if you wanted furniture, you went to Grinberg’s; if you wanted clothing, Friedlander’s! Homestead and Braddock were happening places at that time! Friday’s were paydays for most milk workers (and also my father, a leader and supervisor at Mesta Machine Company in the microfilm department); this every Friday evening, families shopped for groceries, strolled along Eighth Avenue with dainty bags of candies from the local Candy Store.
While I was in high school, I began working at Post’s Shoes on Eighth Avenue. Our wonderful Manager Milton Wolfe left “the girls” in charge of the store, as he went to schul to begin Shabbat. And it would not have been a real evening there until Mr. Sol Post sent one of us trailing over to Isaly’s to buy ice cream for everyone!
My Mother worked in the H & H Restaurant on Eighty Avenue; one has difficulty finding empty tables on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, as the food was great, the prices were right, and the service friendly and family-like. Of course, the US Seel Mills we’re running at full capacity, and most of the milk workers stopped there for a coffee and piece of homemade pies from Blue Bonnet Bakery after their shifts were over, waiting for their bus to take them up the lengthy Whitaker Hill or Spur Road.
Thank you so much for this stroll down Memory Lane, when Homestead was Hoppin’! May God richly bless and safely keep each here, in the Name of Yeshua, Amen! ✝️♀️
My mother worked at Grinbergs in Homestead when we emigrated to the USA from Germany in the mid 1960’s. She always said the Grinbergs were very nice people to work for.