Sticking with Third Street

Crown Hardware reaches 50 as the community changes

Among the white Milwaukeeans directly affected by the race riot of July 1967 was Marvin Edelstein, co-founder with his late brother Jerry Edwards of Crown Hardware & Plumbing Supply.

The store, located on what was then called Third Street, had all its windows broken in the rioting.

But it didn’t sustain much more damage than that, and Edelstein said he and his brother were able to fix up the place and continue to make a living.

In fact, as of this year, Crown Hardware has spent 50 years in the same location and is one of the few small businesses remaining on the street now called Martin Luther King Drive. Crown will celebrate that anniversary from Dec. 10-15 at the store.

Edelstein has seen many changes in the neighborhood. As he explained during an interview in the store, when he and his brother opened it in 1957, the Third Street area was “the second largest retail street in Milwaukee” after Wisconsin Ave. downtown.

Many of these businesses were owned by local Jews, Edelstein said.
The brothers were not alone in their retail pursuit. As an immigrant group, many Jews were drawn to retailing, according to Ruth Traxler’s “The Golden Land: 150 Years of Jewish Life in Milwaukee” (1994 publication for the community’s sesquicentennial celebration).

“Beginning in small stores, staffed by the owner and family members, many of these businesses flourished and became an important component of Milwaukee’s retail trade.”

Even before the 1967 riot, Third Street had begun to change. After it, many of the businesses closed or moved away. “The perception of the street was horrible,” said Edelstein, 79. He himself felt tempted to pack up and move.

But “we were flexible enough to adapt to the times,” Edelstein said, and “we were persistent in trying to make a living.” They lost a few customers who were afraid to go to the store, but “I think we have a good reputation in the neighborhood. We treat everybody alike.”

Crown even managed to persist despite the rise of what Edelstein called the “big boxes” — large-scale chain hardware stores like Home Depot and Menards.

“We offer personal service that they can’t,” said Edelstein. In fact, “a lot of people are sent here from the ‘big boxes’ because they don’t have an item or don’t have trained people. We’re very competitive. We not only offer service, but also fair prices.”

Today, the neighborhood has been improved tremendously. Edelstein credits the city of Milwaukee for having made it “a business improvement area.”

And Crown’s persistence and distinctive character has attracted local notice. In October 2002, Milwaukee Magazine featured it among its “best of Milwaukee” institutions.

And Vikki Ortiz in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s March 31, 2007, issue, wrote, “Some stores are worth visiting even if you think you have no use for what they sell. Such is the case with Crown Hardware & Plumbing….”

Native Milwaukeeans, the brothers both attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Jerry majored in marketing and Marvin studied accounting, but never graduated.

Both also spent some time in the U.S. Army, Jerry at the end of World War II and Marvin during the 1940s. Jerry also spent some time in California. He tried to find work, but nobody would hire him. After he changed his last name to Edwards, he was hired right away. “There was a lot of anti-Semitism,” said Marvin.

As for Marvin, “I always wanted to be in business for myself, and not work for somebody else,” he said.

Eventually, the brothers started a plumbing supply business in Milwaukee in 1953, and in 1957 bought the Century Hardware store on Third Street and changed its name to Crown.

Jerry died about four years ago, said Marvin. Today, the business is run by one of Marvin’s two sons, Jack, in partnership with a former emplooyee, Richard Stuckert.

Jack said he had been working in the store since age 7 and came back to it after majoring in accounting and finance at UW-Madison.

Stuckert started as an employee in the 1990s and “couldn’t leave,” he quipped. “I’m still enjoying it.”

Marvin, who holds the title of “president” of the store, is “semi-retired” and still comes in four days a week for about five hours a day, “doing whatever they ask me,” he said. “It is my occupational therapy.”

According to a release, the 50th anniversary celebration will include “refreshments, prizes, raffles and specials.” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is planning to visit the store on Thursday, Dec. 13, at 10:30 a.m.

For more information, call the store, 414-374-5100.