Furchgott’s Women’s Apparel Shop

In September 1930, Oscar Reginald (1890-1949) and Nathalie Sachse Furchgott (1896-1977) established Furchgott’s Women’s Apparel Shop at 132 West Evans Street in Florence, South Carolina. Oscar was born to Max (1844-1921) and Bertha Raffman Furchgott (1855-1912) and grew up immersed in his father’s business, later known as M. Furchgott & Sons. In 1914, Oscar married Nathalie in Atlanta, Georgia and then returned to Charleston to continue working with his father into the 1920s. Nathalie was also raised in an entrepreneurial family and was born in New Orleans to dry goods merchant Frederick (b. 1869) and his wife, Josephine Hart Sachse (b. 1875). By the late 1920s, Oscar, Nathalie, and their three daughters—Beatrice (b. 1916), Fredye (1917-2009), and Jane (1921-1995)—moved to Manhattan where Oscar operated a leather goods store. In 1930, the Furchgott family moved back to South Carolina and settled in Florence. Together, Oscar and Nathalie opened Furchgott’s Women’s Apparel Shop where they sold dresses, swimwear, hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, and handbags with the tagline “the store of better values.” In February 1937, they also added a ladies shoe department. When Oscar died unexpectedly in 1949, The Columbia Record described Furchgott’s Women’s Apparel Shop as “one of the most modern stores in town.” The following year, Nathalie established a charter under the name Furchgott’s Inc. and was operating at 146 West Evans Street by 1952. Her daughter and son-in-law, Fredye and Morton Glass (1912-1982), operated Furchgott’s until they sold the store in the 1970s.

¹ “Furchgott’s,” Florence Morning News, October 13, 1930, 3.

² “Death Claims O. Furchgott at Florence,” Columbia Record, June 13, 1949, 13.