Solomon "Sol" Young

Photographer - Sol Young Studios

http://photo-sleuth.blogspot.com/2009/10/musing-in-manhattan.html

Solomon Young was born in Kraków, Poland - then part of Galizien Kroenlande (Galicia Crownland), Austrian Bohemia - on 7 April 1865, son of Isaac L. Young and Lena Wachsmann. He emigrated to the United States in June 1882 (or 1883) at the age of 17, where he settled in New York and became a naturalised citizen some five years later on 1 August 1888. By this time several other members of his family, including his widowed mother and married sister, had also arrived in New York. He appears to have set up as a publisher and book seller from premises in Norfolk Street, in what is now the Lower East Side, until about 1891-1892.

Sol married Minnie Marx on Boxing Day 1892 in Manhattan, New York, and opened his first photographic premises near Union Square the following year. He continued to operate a studio at 17 Union Square West, with a home at 152 East 116th Street (East Harlem) until at least 1899. The trade directories list only his name, but since

The decade from 1900 until 1910 is something of a mystery, as no records have been found, although it is clear that Sol must have thrived and operated a successful photographic business partnership with his wife during this period. The 1910 Census shows him and Minnie living with his mother at Number 210, 107th Street (Riverside Park).

Five years later, 1915 New York city directory listings show him with seven branches in New York, and a further studio in Bridgeport (Connecticut) which had been opened two years earlier.

Young Sol photo 40 W34th, 1807 Amsdm av, 1204 Bway 985 Lex av 142 W23d 109 W125th & 474 E Tremont av h600 W 116th Young Sol, photographer, 129 Wall (Bridgeport, Conn.) List of branch studios, c.1910-1915

However, a listing of branches on the reverse of a card mount from around 1910-1915 (shown above) suggests an even greater early expansion of the business, with at least twelve branches in existence across New York, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Newark by the time this portrait was taken. The device of a lion brandishing a sword was already well established as the studio's "mark" by this time.

At about this time he and Minnie also moved their home to 600 West 116th Street, between Columbia University and the Hudson River. Sol and Minnie had been industrious, and it was obviously paying off. Between July and September 1914 they were able to take a long holiday with a trip to Europe, travelling to Germany, Austria and Holland, and presumably leaving their studios in the capable hands of their managers and employees.

It seems likely that they had intended to visit family in Krakow but their timing was not the best. The outbreak of war throughout Europe in late July was perhaps unexpected, in spite of the build up in tensions between the Eurpean nations for some years. News of the Russian attacks on East Prussia in late August (Battle of Tannenberg), although well to the north of Sol's homeland in Bohemia, seems likely to have rapidly precipitated an early homeward departure.

The swift German invasion through Belgium and into north-western France in late August and early September, culminating in the First Battle of the Marne, may have disrupted the plans for their journey home considerably. In the event, they must have travelled with some trepidation across the German state which was now at war on several fronts, vying for space on trains full of Imperial troops mobilising for the front. They departed from the neutral Dutch port of Rotterdam on 12 September 1914 aboard the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, and arrived back home in New York nine days later, somewhat relieved, I feel sure.

Some time between 1910 and 1915, they had moved their primary premises from Union Square to 40 West 34th Street and it appears to have remained the main branch for many years. On Friday 23 September 1921, however,

Solomon Young died, aged only 56. New York Times, 24 Sep 1921 Sol Young, founder of a chain of eighteen photographic studios, died yesterday at his home, 600 West 116th Street, at the age of 56. He was one of the pioneers in the pastel and crayon industry, opening his first studio in Union Square in 1893.

The brief newspaper obituary states that eighteen branches were operating at that time. Minnie Young was clearly quite capable because she continued to operate many of these branches for some years with a posse of managers and assistants. They must have earned her a decent income, as she employed a chauffeur in 1922 and made an extensive trip to mainland Europe in the summer of 1923, visiting Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Switzerland and France. In March 1931 Minnie travelled abroad again, paying a brief visit to London, England.

The business flourished throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. By 1933 Minnie Young appeared to be in the process of handing over the reins of the business to her husband's nephew, Arthur Lewis Pawliger (1891-1970), who is shown as president and treasurer of Sol. Young Photographer Inc. in a directory of that year. Two years later, at the age of 63, Minnie Young died.

During the years of the Depression, the firm came up with a marketing plan to keep the once successful business afloat. They reputedly sent photographers out on the streets of large cities with ponies, hoping to entice customers with children to have "studio quality" portraits taken with the animals.

I haven't yet been able to determine how long it remained in business, but it seems unlikely to have survived much beyond the onset of the Second World War. In their time, however, they operated from a huge number of different addresses. I have attempted to provide an interim list of these, together with some dates of known operation. 35 University Place - 1893 840 Broadway - 1894 1204 Broadway - c.1900s, 1915 850-852 Broadway, Brooklyn - c.1910s, c.1920s 5606-5th Avenue, Brooklyn - c.1920s 17 Union Square West - 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, c1910s 40 West 34th Street, N.Y. - 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1925 38 West 34th Street (3d fl) - 1933 1807 Amsterdam Avenue - 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920 985 Lexington Avenue - c.1910s, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1925 970 Lexington Avenue, N.Y. - 1922, 1933 142 West 23rd Street - c.1910s, 1915 107-109 West 125th Street, N.Y. - 1915, 1916, 1920, 1922, 1925 111-113 West 125th Street, N.Y. - c.1910s 112 West 125th Street - 1933 474 East Tremont Avenue, Bronx - c1910s, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922 414 East Tremont Avenue - 1933 298 Willis Avenue - 1916 23 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn - c.1910s, c.1920s 24 Arlington Place, Brooklyn - c.1910s 129 Wall Street, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1913 129 Wall rms, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1918, 1923 207 Golden Hill, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1918 803 (6) Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn. - 1918, 1921, 1922, 1927, 1928 157 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, N.J. - c.1910s, c.1920s 923 Broad Street, Newark, N.J. - c.1910s, c.1920s 116 Springfield Avenue, Newark,N.J. - c.1910s 1622 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Penn. - c.1920s 31 Elm Street, Rochester, New York - c.1920s 2 North Broad Street, Trenton, N.J. - c.1920s 197 Market Street, Peterson, N.J. - c.1920s 700 Bergenline Avenue, Union City, N.J. - c.1920s I welcome any additions to this list, in the form of new addresses or dates. If any readers are able to provide further information, please email me.

Site of Sol. Young's flagship studio, c.1915-1933 38-40 West 34th Street, Manhattan, New York Image © & courtesy of GoogleMaps