WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES APRIL 2, 2020 11
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Family-owned candy shop remains cherished in Woodhaven
PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
It is a remarkable photograph,
capturing a moment in time many
years ago. Beneath the elevated line,
the store’s neon signage promises soda
and candy. Look closely in the window
and you’ll see an assortment of boxes
of chocolate and candies on display.
It is an old picture, taken back in
the 1940s when cobblestones covered
the street and trolley cars rolled up
and down Jamaica Avenue. If you
were standing across the street the
day that picture was taken, you’d be
able to walk inside and browse the
beautiful display cases loaded with
jellies, fudge and cremes.
After emigrating from Germany,
the Schmidt family started their
shop in late 1926, using home-grown
recipes for making chocolate and
hard candies. The chocolate was
hand dipped and made on-premises
by Grandpa Schmidt in the basement
of the store at 94-15 Jamaica Ave.
And if you were to walk into that
basement, you would find Grandpa
Schmidt hard at work making caramels
and dipping chocolates and mixing
hot candy on his big marble table,
readying it to be pulled into candy
canes or ribbons or other delicate
shapes.
Grandpa Schmidt wasn’t alone on
Jamaica Avenue – Buck & Edebohls,
The Muller Brothers, Meyer’s,
Neuenburg’s, Grader’s – all were
popular confectionery stores in
Woodhaven at the same time. But one
by one, for one reason or another,
the old-fashioned candy stores and
soda shops began to disappear.
If you stand near where that picture
was taken on Jamaica Avenue
today, you won’t see the cobblestones
or the trolley cars, but you will see
Schmidt’s Candy, still looking very
much the same and still going strong
90 years after it opened.
Walk inside Schmidt’s Candy today
and you’ll find the same display
cases, now antiques, and arranged
inside the cases you’ll find the same
impressive selection of hand-dipped
and homemade candies.
Nearly 90 years later, the tradition
is carried on proudly by Margie
Schmidt, who not only uses some
of the very same recipes that her
grandfather used, she actually still
has some of his original utensils, including
the same marble table that
Grandpa Schmidt used to make the
hard candies. It is this adherence
to tradition and the “good old days”
that residents of Woodhaven are so
proud of.
And it is not just the luscious
chocolate packages for Valentine’s
Day or Easter that residents are
proud of, nor is it the homemade
and hand-pulled candy canes they
buy each Christmas. Though the
endurance of Schmidt’s Candy can
be attributed to the quality of their
product, what makes Schmidt’s truly
unique is the feeling you get when
you walk through the front door.
It’s like walking back in time. The
beautiful tile floor, the metal scales,
the display cases – these features
of Schmidt’s Candy aren’t merely
old-fashioned; they’re old, they’re
original and they’re beautifully
preserved.
Margie Schmidt grew up around
the store, and gladly talks about the
old days, sharing tales of tasting
freshly made candies and learning
the trade. Her father had other hopes
for Margie and encouraged her to become
a pharmacist, but after a year
in St. John’s University she decided it
wasn’t for her and sought a different
destiny.
When her father passed away at
the young age of 64, her mother still
had bills to pay and since Margie
knew how to make the chocolate
and the candies, she stepped in to fill
the void. Over 30 years later, she’s
still making the chocolates and the
candies, now the owner of Schmidt’s
Candy, the third generation Schmidt
to make and sell chocolate and candy
on Jamaica Avenue.
Woodhaven has quite a few businesses
with a number of years under
their belt. Manor Delicatessen,
which sits directly across the street,
is about as old as Schmidt’s. Popp’s
Restaurant opened in 1906. Walker
Funeral home goes back to the late
1800s, as does Ohlert-Ruggiere. And
Neir’s Tavern stretches back all the
way to 1829.
But Schmidt’s is unique in that
there is a direct line of ownership
over so many decades within the
same family, from Grandpa Schmidt,
to his son Frank Schmidt, to his
granddaughter Margie, who carries
on the tradition that says hard work
makes for great candy.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
Schmidt’s, circa 1940.
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