WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 13, 2018 39
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Cypress Hills Street), where the Philip
Dietz coal yard was later located.
Flugge supplied milk and cream to
ice cream parlors and candy stores
in the area. In 1902, he organized the
High Ground Dairy and then sold out
in 1911 to organize the Metropolitan
Dairy Company Inc.
SPICES AND APPETIZERS
In addition to dairies, other local
enterprises supplied food products.
August Bauer, who was born in
Rothenfels, Bavaria, in 1853, came to
America in 1879 and settled in Williamsburg.
In 1883, he started selling fresh
horseradish, and then added mustard
and pickles. In 1903, he moved from
Williamsburg to 1446 Metropolitan
Ave., not too far from Caccioppo’s dairy.
The dairy may be long gone, but
Bauer’s mustard remains in operation,
although it relocated from Ridgewood
to Long Island years ago. You can still
fi nd a jar of Bauer’s mustard at local
meat markets and delis, and online at
abauersmustard.com.
In 1907, Valentine Steuber opened
his pickle factory at 2806 Myrtle Ave.,
Glendale, on the south side of the street
between Commercial Street (later
called Fosdick Avenue and now 69th
Street) and DeBoo Place (now 68th
Street). It had been a blacksmith’s
shop and then Herman Sonntag’s
wheelwright shop.
Today, many shoppers go to the
supermarket and push a shopping
cart around, grabbing whatever they
need while strolling up one aisle aft er
another. But before the age of the
supermarket, our neighborhood had
plenty of smaller businesses where
shoppers picked up what they needed
every week.
THE BUTCHER, THE BAKER
AND THE SUPERMARKET
MAKER
Who were some of the stores that
served our area?
Andrew Kehl, who was born in Balinghausen,
Germany, in 1874, came to America
and settled in Glendale in 1895. He
opened a butcher shop at 2512 Myrtle Ave.
and, by 1912, opened a second shop on the
north side of Myrtle Avenue, between
Parkview Avenue (now 80th Street)
and Dry Harbor Road (now 81st Street).
By 1906, Frederick Blankenhorn had
opened his butcher shop in Glendale
on the corner of Cooper Avenue and
Tompkins Avenue (now 70th Street).
Then there was Henry C. Bohack,
who was born in Germany in 1865,
came to America in 1882 and opened
his fi rst grocery store in 1887. By 1915,
he had about 20 stores.
In 1924, Bohack opened the
forerunner of a modern-day supermarket
with a store at the northeast corner
of Sprague Street (now 76th Street) and
Myrtle Avenue in Glendale that sold groceries,
meat, fruit and vegetables, bread
and dairy products, all under one roof.
HEADING TO THE
CHECKOUT LINE
How much were the goods you wanted
more than a century ago? Get ready
to read and weep.
In 1906 in Ridgewood, one could
fi nd freshly ground coff ee selling for
15 cents a pound. Bacon was 13 cents
per pound, and butter retailed for 18
cents per pound. You could get a dozen
eggs for 12 cents.
By 1909, grocers were selling loose
milk for 6 cents a quart, and heavy
whipping cream for 20 cents a point.
Local bakers such as John Schmid, who
had a bakery at the southwest corner of
(Ridgewood Times archives)
Myrtle Avenue and Webster Avenue
(now 71st Street), sold a baker’s dozen (13)
rolls or buns for 10 cents. He delivered
the hot rolls and buns freshly made to
his customer’s home early each morning.
In June 1912, butcher shops catering
to better-paying customers sold sirloin
steak for 33 cents a pound. A week earlier,
it had been 30 cents; a year earlier,
it was 23 cents.
By 1912, New York City was consuming
2 million quarts of milk per day, and it
took 150,000 cows to supply the city. However,
the farmers upstate were not very
happy with the price they were getting
for their milk. In the summer, they were
being paid 11 cents a gallon, and in the
winter, that price rose to 14 cents a gallon.
The consumer at the grocery store was
paying 8 cents per quart in the summer
and 9 cents per quart in the winter.
In July 1917, the U.S. government published
a report that showed that food
prices in the previous 10 years had risen
much faster than wages. They cited
a railroad worker earning $1.40 a day
in 1917 working a 10-hour day, six days
per week. By 1916, that worker was getting
$1.62.5 cents per day for a 9-hour,
40-minute day, six days per week.
In 1907, $5 bought 50 pounds of food,
but by 1917, that same amount of cash
only bought 35 pounds; infl ation had
caused a 15 percent cut in wages over
that 10-year period.
Sources: the April 4 and April 11, 1985,
Ridgewood Times.
***
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.
A bovine lying in the grass on a farm in early 20th-century Ridgewood
Christmas time at a Ridgewood butcher shop, as shown in this 1913 photo