Stern’s Department Store
Merchant
1940-1989
Assembly Street
Columbia, SC
FAMILIES: Stern, Solomon
Gabriel Stern (1892-1981) was a Polish immigrant who came to the United States in 1912, arriving in New York before moving to Columbia, South Carolina in 1915. Stern married his wife, Rose Sribnick (1897-1954), in May of 1917, and they had five children together. Gabriel operated a department store in Lexington County before opening Stern’s Department Store at 1424 Assembly Street in Columbia in 1940. Gabriel’s son Henry Morris Stern (1918-2010) and his son-in-law Theodore “Ted” Paul Solomon (1922-2020) both served in World War Two, after which they joined Gabriel’s business. By 1949, Henry and Ted took over as the proprietors of Stern’s, positions they held in partnership with their wives Anne Solomon (née Stern) and Sarah Kramer Stern (1920-1993). Stern’s department store rebranded as a shoe store around 1975, staying in the same location but changing names to Stern’s Shoe City (sometimes referred to as Stern’s Discount Shoes). Stern’s closed its doors for the last time in 1989 due to Ted and Henry’s desire to retire while they were still young.
Main Image: Photo of Stern’s storefront at 1424 Assembly Street, 1976. Courtesy of the Columbia Architectural Survey, Richland Library, Columbia, SC.
Above Image: Photo of Henry Stern fitting a customer with shoes, c.1980. Image courtesy of Marcie Baker.
Above Image: Advertisement for Stern’s Department Store, 1941. Reprinted from The Columbia Record, December 10, 1941.