HISTORY FROM OHA: M. Goldberg & Sons – The Stores that Confidence Built

Meyer Goldberg, along with his sons, Moses and Benjamin, established a furniture and jewelry business in 1919 on North Salina Street in Syracuse after consolidating Meyer’s and Moses’ second-hand furniture store, located on North State Street, with Benjamin’s jewelry store, located on North Salina Street. Moses had recently returned from Europe after serving his country during World War I. Pooling their business resources, the trio of Meyer, Moses, and Benjamin launched M. Goldberg & Sons, a retail furniture and jewelry business at 259 North Salina St. 

In the early days, M. Goldberg & Sons was small in size, operating in about 3,000 square feet of space. The father and sons were later able to expand their operation by occupying the entire building, consisting of five floors plus the basement. 

The Goldbergs offered their customers a complete line of household furniture and jewelry for cash or credit. Their light product overhead created a quick merchandise turnover, which allowed them to operate on a smaller profit margin than other area stores. 

By the mid-1920s, M. Goldberg & Sons regularly advertised in the Syracuse newspapers and sold living room and bedroom-furniture suites, as well as mattresses. They also expanded their product lines to include rugs and linoleum flooring, mirrors, gas ranges, washing machines, tube radios, fans, and an oak ice box that could hold a record 100 pounds of ice. At Christmas time, the store created Goldberg’s Toyland and sold rocking horses, doll carriages, wagons, sleds, tricycles, and children’s furniture.

With their business continuing to expand, and needing extra storage space, the Goldbergs leased a warehouse on the corner of Plum and Wilkinson Streets in Syracuse in August 1931. The 20,000 square feet of floor space allowed the Goldbergs to increase their product lines and inventory. 

M. Goldberg & Sons not only survived, but even flourished, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Their newspaper advertisements stated that the Goldbergs would continue to promote honesty and not attempt to lure customers into the store with “ridiculously low prices” and then try to sell them more expensive merchandise. The business spent thousands of dollars each year on advertisements, viewing its ads as the “mouthpiece” through which M. Goldberg & Sons strived to build the public’s trust by not misrepresenting themselves, their products, and their prices. It was especially important to the Goldberg family to retain their loyal customers, as well as attract new ones during this time of extreme economic hardship. 

By 1935, the Goldbergs had opened additional stores in Fulton and Oswego. Both of these stores offered the same merchandise, prices, and payment terms as their Syracuse store. Meyer Goldberg’s other son, Solomon (Sol), managed the Fulton store until he left the company in 1946 to co-found the Raymour Furniture Company with his two sons, Bernard and Arnold. Today, it is known as Raymour & Flanigan Furniture Company. 

The Goldbergs remodeled their downtown Syracuse store façade in the spring of 1940. The remodel featured a spacious lobby entrance with curved glass windows and gray metal trim. The window area was divided into compartments to create furniture vignettes. By this time, M. Goldberg & Sons had physically expanded to two other properties on both sides of the original building. The store occupied 12 display floors in the three buildings, ranking among the largest furniture businesses in Central New York, and providing work for 75 employees. 

In September 1941, the Syracuse Herald Journal newspaper printed a full-page ad congratulating M. Goldberg & Sons on the company’s 30th anniversary. The ad included a letter written to Walter Bligh, the advertising director of the newspaper by Hal Wheatley, advertising manager at M. Goldberg & Sons. The letter extolled the Herald Journal’s support of local business advertisements, as well as keeping the buying public apprised of the latest merchandise and sales. Wheatley credited the newspaper’s advertising department with playing a crucial role in the company’s success.

During World War II, M. Goldberg & Sons joined a long list of local businesses that encouraged the public to buy defense bonds and stamps to help financially support the Allied war effort: “Buy All You Can, As Often As You Can!” The company also went on a hiring spree during the war years — looking for women to fill office, typist, and telephone-operator positions, as well as war-exempt men to fill furniture warehouse and appliance-repair positions.

Meyer Goldberg, co-founder of M. Goldberg & Sons, died in 1945. Born in Russia, he had lived in Syracuse for 40 years prior to his death. Shortly after Meyer’s death, his son Benjamin (aka Barney) became company president. In May 1946, Barney, and his son Leonard, filed a Certificate of Continued Use with New York State to continue M. Goldberg & Sons. Leonard had graduated from Nottingham High School in 1939 and joined the business in 1945 after serving in the U.S. Army during WW II. The following year, he graduated from Syracuse University. 

By January 1947, the three stores were selling EASY washing machines made in Syracuse, including the Spindrier model that included an automatic spin-rinse cycle, as well as the Whirldry model, a portable washer that weighed only 33 pounds, and allowed the operator to wash clothes on the kitchen table. The stores also began to cater to the needs of growing families during the early post-war era by offering baby merchandise, such as cribs, carriages, highchairs, playpens, and walkers.

Benjamin (Barney) Goldberg, president of M. Goldberg & Sons since his father’s death in 1945, passed away in 1959 after suffering for many years with his own illness. His son, Leonard, who had worked with his father since 1945, assumed the company presidency upon Barney’s death. 

By 1962, Leonard Goldberg shared company responsibility with his brother, Frank, and his cousin, Lester (Moses’ son). As company president, Leonard also was VP of the Fulton store. Frank was company VP and Lester was president of the Fulton and Oswego stores. 

Soon after Leonard, Frank, and Lester took the company helm, M. Goldberg & Sons expanded to add its fourth store in DeWitt, which opened in 1962 at 3160 Erie Blvd. E.

M. Goldberg & Sons opened its next store as part of the multi-million-dollar Camillus Plaza complex built by Wilmorite, Inc. along Route 5 in May 1965. The Camillus store featured air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpeting, and soft background music for shoppers. 

In early 1966, M. Goldberg & Sons was informed that it would have to close its original downtown Syracuse store at 259 N. Salina St. and Herald Place to make way for Interstate 81. The store was demolished that year, and in October 1967, the company announced the new store would be located at 476 S. Salina St., the site of the former Casa Lorenzo restaurant. The Goldbergs renovated the building and built an addition that would extend through to South Clinton Street, providing the business with 30,000 square feet of retail space. The new store opened in June 1968. Leonard and Frank Goldberg, along with Jack Wander, the new store’s manager, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony on that June 6th. The new store featured a cathedral type façade, resembling gothic arches, and embellished with bronze mesh grillwork and diffused lighting. Occupying an entire city block, with entrances on both South Salina and South Clinton streets, the interior consisted of two levels connected by a circular staircase and elevators. 

Soon after opening the new store in downtown Syracuse, M. Goldberg & Sons announced that the company would move its main operation to 506 S. Main St. in North Syracuse in September 1968. Along with offering the usual merchandise at the other Goldberg stores, this location also had a warehouse to store the company’s large inventory. 

M. Goldberg & Sons continued to expand in the 1970s by increasing the size of its North Syracuse store and warehouse by an additional 40,000 square feet in 1972, effectively doubling the size of the usable space. The company had grown from a modest 3,000 square feet in its original location to 170,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space at all its locations. It now employed 125 people. 

After having occupied its location on South First Street in Fulton for many years, the company renovated the old Montgomery Ward store in downtown Fulton and reopened it during a grand-reopening ceremony in May 1979. 

M. Goldberg & Sons celebrated its 70th anniversary in 1980. Frank’s son, Andrew, and Leonard’s son-in-law, Michael Ergort, representing the fourth generation, had joined the business as customer-service manager and warehouse-operations manager, respectively. Goldberg stores could now be found in Syracuse, Fulton, Oswego, DeWitt, Camillus, and North Syracuse. The family added its seventh store on Grant Avenue Road in Auburn, in June 1984. Following the opening of the Auburn store, the Goldbergs opened yet another store in Rome, in 1991. 

Long-time company president, Leonard Goldberg, passed away on Oct. 19, 1995, at age 74. Leonard had been active in the business for 40 years, helping his ailing father operate it since returning from WW II in 1945. Leonard’s wife, Ethel, credited her husband with working diligently day and night to keep the business afloat. 

Leonard’s brother, Frank, then became company president after Leonard’s death. His cousin, Lester, continued to manage the Fulton and Oswego stores.

The North Syracuse store underwent a $2 million renovation in March 2000 while the store remained open to the public. The company hired a San Francisco design firm to completely refurbish and modernize the store that had originally opened in 1968.

However, the renovation did not keep M. Goldberg & Sons in business for too many more years. Competition from other furniture and appliance dealers, fuel costs, and the general state of the economy during the Great Recession, along with Frank Goldberg announcing his retirement in the summer of 2008, changed the business’ imminent future. With his retirement, Frank passed the business onto his son, Andrew. They then decided to sell three of the four remaining Goldberg stores in Fulton, Oswego, and Auburn, and consolidate the business within its last store, in North Syracuse. The plan was to build upon that store’s eight-year old renovation and create one Goldberg superstore. 

But, after working on this concept for only about 14 additional months, this last Goldberg store closed its doors in November 2009. In September 2010, Stickley Audi & Co purchased the former Goldberg store and warehouse in North Syracuse — and its 103,600 square feet of retail and warehouse space — for almost $1.5 million 

So, after lasting for almost 100 years, managed by four generations of the Goldberg family, M. Goldberg & Sons ended its run as one of the longest-running local businesses in Central New York’s history.          

Thomas Hunter is curator of collections at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.

Meyer Goldberg, along with his sons, Moses and Benjamin, established a furniture and jewelry business in 1919 on North Salina Street in Syracuse after consolidating Meyer’s and Moses’ second-hand furniture store, located on North State Street, with Benjamin’s jewelry store, located on North Salina Street. Moses had recently returned from Europe after serving his country during World War I. Pooling their business resources, the trio of Meyer, Moses, and Benjamin launched M. Goldberg & Sons, a retail furniture and jewelry business at 259 North Salina St. 

In the early days, M. Goldberg & Sons was small in size, operating in about 3,000 square feet of space. The father and sons were later able to expand their operation by occupying the entire building, consisting of five floors plus the basement. 

The Goldbergs offered their customers a complete line of household furniture and jewelry for cash or credit. Their light product overhead created a quick merchandise turnover, which allowed them to operate on a smaller profit margin than other area stores. 

By the mid-1920s, M. Goldberg & Sons regularly advertised in the Syracuse newspapers and sold living room and bedroom-furniture suites, as well as mattresses. They also expanded their product lines to include rugs and linoleum flooring, mirrors, gas ranges, washing machines, tube radios, fans, and an oak ice box that could hold a record 100 pounds of ice. At Christmas time, the store created Goldberg’s Toyland and sold rocking horses, doll carriages, wagons, sleds, tricycles, and children’s furniture.

With their business continuing to expand, and needing extra storage space, the Goldbergs leased a warehouse on the corner of Plum and Wilkinson Streets in Syracuse in August 1931. The 20,000 square feet of floor space allowed the Goldbergs to increase their product lines and inventory. 

M. Goldberg & Sons not only survived, but even flourished, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Their newspaper advertisements stated that the Goldbergs would continue to promote honesty and not attempt to lure customers into the store with “ridiculously low prices” and then try to sell them more expensive merchandise. The business spent thousands of dollars each year on advertisements, viewing its ads as the “mouthpiece” through which M. Goldberg & Sons strived to build the public’s trust by not misrepresenting themselves, their products, and their prices. It was especially important to the Goldberg family to retain their loyal customers, as well as attract new ones during this time of extreme economic hardship. 

By 1935, the Goldbergs had opened additional stores in Fulton and Oswego. Both of these stores offered the same merchandise, prices, and payment terms as their Syracuse store. Meyer Goldberg’s other son, Solomon (Sol), managed the Fulton store until he left the company in 1946 to co-found the Raymour Furniture Company with his two sons, Bernard and Arnold. Today, it is known as Raymour & Flanigan Furniture Company. 

The Goldbergs remodeled their downtown Syracuse store façade in the spring of 1940. The remodel featured a spacious lobby entrance with curved glass windows and gray metal trim. The window area was divided into compartments to create furniture vignettes. By this time, M. Goldberg & Sons had physically expanded to two other properties on both sides of the original building. The store occupied 12 display floors in the three buildings, ranking among the largest furniture businesses in Central New York, and providing work for 75 employees. 

In September 1941, the Syracuse Herald Journal newspaper printed a full-page ad congratulating M. Goldberg & Sons on the company’s 30th anniversary. The ad included a letter written to Walter Bligh, the advertising director of the newspaper by Hal Wheatley, advertising manager at M. Goldberg & Sons. The letter extolled the Herald Journal’s support of local business advertisements, as well as keeping the buying public apprised of the latest merchandise and sales. Wheatley credited the newspaper’s advertising department with playing a crucial role in the company’s success.

During World War II, M. Goldberg & Sons joined a long list of local businesses that encouraged the public to buy defense bonds and stamps to help financially support the Allied war effort: “Buy All You Can, As Often As You Can!” The company also went on a hiring spree during the war years — looking for women to fill office, typist, and telephone-operator positions, as well as war-exempt men to fill furniture warehouse and appliance-repair positions.

Meyer Goldberg, co-founder of M. Goldberg & Sons, died in 1945. Born in Russia, he had lived in Syracuse for 40 years prior to his death. Shortly after Meyer’s death, his son Benjamin (aka Barney) became company president. In May 1946, Barney, and his son Leonard, filed a Certificate of Continued Use with New York State to continue M. Goldberg & Sons. Leonard had graduated from Nottingham High School in 1939 and joined the business in 1945 after serving in the U.S. Army during WW II. The following year, he graduated from Syracuse University. 

By January 1947, the three stores were selling EASY washing machines made in Syracuse, including the Spindrier model that included an automatic spin-rinse cycle, as well as the Whirldry model, a portable washer that weighed only 33 pounds, and allowed the operator to wash clothes on the kitchen table. The stores also began to cater to the needs of growing families during the early post-war era by offering baby merchandise, such as cribs, carriages, highchairs, playpens, and walkers.

Benjamin (Barney) Goldberg, president of M. Goldberg & Sons since his father’s death in 1945, passed away in 1959 after suffering for many years with his own illness. His son, Leonard, who had worked with his father since 1945, assumed the company presidency upon Barney’s death. 

By 1962, Leonard Goldberg shared company responsibility with his brother, Frank, and his cousin, Lester (Moses’ son). As company president, Leonard also was VP of the Fulton store. Frank was company VP and Lester was president of the Fulton and Oswego stores. 

Soon after Leonard, Frank, and Lester took the company helm, M. Goldberg & Sons expanded to add its fourth store in DeWitt, which opened in 1962 at 3160 Erie Blvd. E.

M. Goldberg & Sons opened its next store as part of the multi-million-dollar Camillus Plaza complex built by Wilmorite, Inc. along Route 5 in May 1965. The Camillus store featured air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpeting, and soft background music for shoppers. 

In early 1966, M. Goldberg & Sons was informed that it would have to close its original downtown Syracuse store at 259 N. Salina St. and Herald Place to make way for Interstate 81. The store was demolished that year, and in October 1967, the company announced the new store would be located at 476 S. Salina St., the site of the former Casa Lorenzo restaurant. The Goldbergs renovated the building and built an addition that would extend through to South Clinton Street, providing the business with 30,000 square feet of retail space. The new store opened in June 1968. Leonard and Frank Goldberg, along with Jack Wander, the new store’s manager, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony on that June 6th. The new store featured a cathedral type façade, resembling gothic arches, and embellished with bronze mesh grillwork and diffused lighting. Occupying an entire city block, with entrances on both South Salina and South Clinton streets, the interior consisted of two levels connected by a circular staircase and elevators. 

Soon after opening the new store in downtown Syracuse, M. Goldberg & Sons announced that the company would move its main operation to 506 S. Main St. in North Syracuse in September 1968. Along with offering the usual merchandise at the other Goldberg stores, this location also had a warehouse to store the company’s large inventory. 

M. Goldberg & Sons continued to expand in the 1970s by increasing the size of its North Syracuse store and warehouse by an additional 40,000 square feet in 1972, effectively doubling the size of the usable space. The company had grown from a modest 3,000 square feet in its original location to 170,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space at all its locations. It now employed 125 people. 

After having occupied its location on South First Street in Fulton for many years, the company renovated the old Montgomery Ward store in downtown Fulton and reopened it during a grand-reopening ceremony in May 1979. 

M. Goldberg & Sons celebrated its 70th anniversary in 1980. Frank’s son, Andrew, and Leonard’s son-in-law, Michael Ergort, representing the fourth generation, had joined the business as customer-service manager and warehouse-operations manager, respectively. Goldberg stores could now be found in Syracuse, Fulton, Oswego, DeWitt, Camillus, and North Syracuse. The family added its seventh store on Grant Avenue Road in Auburn, in June 1984. Following the opening of the Auburn store, the Goldbergs opened yet another store in Rome, in 1991. 

Long-time company president, Leonard Goldberg, passed away on Oct. 19, 1995, at age 74. Leonard had been active in the business for 40 years, helping his ailing father operate it since returning from WW II in 1945. Leonard’s wife, Ethel, credited her husband with working diligently day and night to keep the business afloat. 

Leonard’s brother, Frank, then became company president after Leonard’s death. His cousin, Lester, continued to manage the Fulton and Oswego stores.

The North Syracuse store underwent a $2 million renovation in March 2000 while the store remained open to the public. The company hired a San Francisco design firm to completely refurbish and modernize the store that had originally opened in 1968.

However, the renovation did not keep M. Goldberg & Sons in business for too many more years. Competition from other furniture and appliance dealers, fuel costs, and the general state of the economy during the Great Recession, along with Frank Goldberg announcing his retirement in the summer of 2008, changed the business’ imminent future. With his retirement, Frank passed the business onto his son, Andrew. They then decided to sell three of the four remaining Goldberg stores in Fulton, Oswego, and Auburn, and consolidate the business within its last store, in North Syracuse. The plan was to build upon that store’s eight-year old renovation and create one Goldberg superstore. 

But, after working on this concept for only about 14 additional months, this last Goldberg store closed its doors in November 2009. In September 2010, Stickley Audi & Co purchased the former Goldberg store and warehouse in North Syracuse — and its 103,600 square feet of retail and warehouse space — for almost $1.5 million 

So, after lasting for almost 100 years, managed by four generations of the Goldberg family, M. Goldberg & Sons ended its run as one of the longest-running local businesses in Central New York’s history.          

Thomas Hunter is curator of collections at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.