Louis Pizitz
Louis Pizitz (born April 3, 1868 in Bialystok, Russia - died 1959 in Birmingham) was the founder of the Pizitz department store chain and a noted philanthropist.
Pizitz was the son of Samuel and Bertha Jacobs Pizitz. He attended the Hebrew College in Poland before emigrating to the United States in 1889. After he arrived he worked as a peddler in Augusta and Valdosta, Georgia until he had amassed enough capital to build a store in Swainsboro. He moved to Birmingham in the 1890s and opened the Louis Pizitz Dry Good Company in 1899, which grew to become the largest store in Alabama by the mid 1930s. The chain eventually encompassed 13 stores across Northern Alabama before it was sold to McRae's in 1986. Pizitz stepped down from actively managing the stores when he was able to pass the business to his son Isadore.
Pizitz twice served as president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association from 1912-15 and president of his congregation at Temple Beth-El (1925-27) and 1931-33). In the 1930s he built an estate, Happy Dale, off Montgomery Highway in what is now Vestavia Hills.
As a philanthropist, Pizitz' interests were broad and compassionate. He raised funds for numerous diverse groups, including the Knights of Columbus and the YMCA as well as Hillel House. During the 1908 and 1933 coal miners' strikes he sent trucks of food to idled workers and bought mines to give them work. In 1914 when cotton prices bottomed out at 11¢ he bought the crop for 15¢ to store and sell after prices rose, promising to share the profits with the farmers. During World War I he headed the Liberty Bond drive. He was one of the founders of the Holy Name Hospital in Ensley, served on the building committee for Tuggle Institute, and helped establish the first YMCA and public swimming pool for African Americans.
In 1929 Pizitz began an annual tradition of providing Thanksgiving dinners to thousands of hungry families at his stores. Then, accompanied by Brother Bryan, he brought trucks of food to the prisons at Christmas. In years when the school board could only give scrip to the teachers, he treated the paper as cash at his stores. During the Ohio Flood of 1937 many families camped out at Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company's Fairfield Works. Pizitz sent trucks of food and clothing to them as soon as they arrived. In World War II Pizitz offered $1000 to the first US pilot to drop a bomb on Tokyo. Col. Jimmy Doolittle refused the award, which passed to his unit fund instead.
Pizitz died at his last home in the Sheraton Apartments on Highland Avenue after a long illness. Services were held at Temple Beth-El, led by Rabbi Abraham Mesch and Cantor A. Ostrensky. He was buried at Knesseth Israel and Beth-El Cemetery. Pizitz' stores in Birmingham and Bessemer closed for two days following his death.
Pizitz was inducted into the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame in 2000. Isadore donated sections from his fathers estate to the City of Vestavia Hills. The land was later used for construction of Vestavia Hills High School and Pizitz Middle School, which was named in his Louis Pizitz' honor.
References
- "Louis Pizitz passes after long illness" (June 1959) Birmingham News