Solomon Boscov
Near Reading, Pennsylvania
The Boscov's department store chain, one of the largest family-owned chains in the United States, started a few blocks from here. Its founder, Solomon Boscov, arrived in America as an immigrant from Russia in nineteen eleven and came to Reading as a peddler. He later opened his first small store on this street.
The business grew steadily, and beginning in nineteen sixty-two, new locations expanded the chain across the mid-Atlantic region. When Solomon Boscov died in nineteen sixty-nine, the company had grown considerably. Thirty years later, Boscov's had thirty-four stores in five states, remaining family-owned and independent in an era when most regional department stores were absorbed by national chains.
