Zac Smith Stationery Company
The Zac Smith Stationery Company (originally Sorsby & Smith, later Smith & Montgomery) was a stationer; bookseller; office, architects' and artists' supplier; and sporting goods store founded in 1883 in a two-story, 25x140-foot brick building at 2022 1st Avenue North.
The original firm was founded by Edward Sorsby and Zachary Smith primarily as a stationery supplier. Smith bought out his partner, but later brought in William and J. A. Montgomery as partners in the newly-named Smith & Montgomery Stationery Company which traded under that name at least a few years before being formally incorporated in 1890. In 1902 the Montgomerys left the firm, which became the Zac Smith Stationery Company. Smith's sons, Zac, Jr and Carlton became involved before 1920.
Around 1921 the company opened a branch store near the Birmingham Post Office at 5th Avenue North and 19th Street. It also moved its printing department to 15 20th Street North.
On October 1, 1922, with Zac, Jr as president, the stationery store moved just down the street from its original location to the ground floor of the Brown-Marx Building at 2014 1st Avenue North. Meanwhile the office supply and printing department, headed by Carlton, moved from 20th Street to a four-story building at 2025 1st Avenue. Both locations were outfitted with new steel furnishings and fixtures. The printing department installed a new Carver die press and Miller automatic press. The company also began offering engraving services, with a "cozy corner" provided for the convenience of female customers.
The company continued to sell office equipment, furniture and printed matter into the 1970s.
References
- Dubose, John Witherspoon (1885) The Mineral Wealth of Alabama and Birmingham Illustrated. Birmingham: N. T. Green & Co.
- North Alabama (Illustrated) (1888) Birmingham: Southern Commercial Publishing Co.
- "Zac Smith Notes" (November 9, 1922) Geyer's Stationer. Vol. 74, No. 1879, p. 20
- (September 1922) Walden's Stationer and Printer. Vol. 46, No. 5, p. 66