This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

One evening in 1925, 4-year-old Ralph Tannenbaum put the pedal to the metal, tricycle-style, and rode from his home in the Avalon Apartments in downtown Salt Lake City to the corner of 300 South and State Street. Crossing the thoroughfare with the help of Officer Lessor, he picked up speed and wheeled into his father's National Army & Navy Store before hitting the brakes.

In time, Ralph would relinquish three-wheelers in favor of his dad's touring car with its sleek "Plexiglas-like side curtains" and, with his younger brother Ira, join their father Jack's business that became the city's mainstay for 64 years.

Jack Tannenbaum was born in Russian-occupied Poland in 1892. That year, President Harrison spoke in Congress, relaying his worries about Russia's inhumanity to Jews and a mass exodus driven by fears of personal safety and security.

Between 1889 and 1910, nearly a million Russian Jews immigrated to the United States. Jack, then 5, and his parents headed for Denver. At 17, Jack took to the road selling "The Gold Dust Twins" borax soap.

Reaching Utah, Jack decided to stay. And, as an immigrant, he became patriotic.

"Coming here with nothing, my father believed he had a tremendous debt to this country and pursued a military career throughout his life," Ralph said in an interview archived at the University of Utah Marriott Library.

Jack Tannenbaum enlisted in the Colorado National Guard, served in France during WWI, was active in the Army Reserve and retired as a major. In 1922, he and his brother Abe, a former dairyman from Denver, opened shop at 242 S. State and sold residual Army and Navy goods.

"The government had a lot of WWI surplus that they'd put out on sealed auctions," Ralph explained. "You'd write your bid and, if you knew what you were doing, you bought what you could sell."

Sometimes that meant large consignments of tents, blankets, cots, outdoor gear, clothing and equipment, chambray shirts that went for 49 cents and dress shoes for less than $2.

Earnings were meager, the benefits few, the hours long.

"Merchants would work every day and late into the night," Ralph remembered. "[Until 1935] there was no Social Security. You didn't have withholding. People were paid in cash right out of the till. One spindle held bills, one drawer held your files, a bookkeeper came in once a week, and from the age of 14 until we were sent to military school, we worked on weekends."

In the 1920s and '30s, Jewish-owned businesses lined the downtown streets.

"Many of these early merchants had been shneiders, tailors, in the old country," Ralph said. "They'd open a little hole-in-the-wall and from this grew a store."

State Street between 200 and 300 South was known as Jewish Row, and it was filled with shops such as Auerbach's (one of the first department stores in the West), and the Paris Co., Ben Ramo's Golden Rule Store, Shapiro and Sher's Eagle Co. and Axelrad Furniture.

"Sammy Movits sold suits over on Regent Street and Jack Shapiro ran a delicatessen in the United Grocery," Ralph said. "Sig Porizky's Eastern Hatters carried nothing but hats. In June, men would line up for hours outside his store to purchase a straw hat. Come September 1st, you wouldn't be caught dead wearing one."

Downtown businesses thrived and sales were up. But in the 1980s, straw hats went out of style, urban development redirected foot traffic to the newly built Crossroads and ZCMI malls and independent shops foundered.

A 1986 Salt Lake Tribune article, "Military Store Runs Up White Flag," underscored the struggle. The Tannenbaums liquidated and closed their doors.

Once the busiest area in town, Jewish Row is gone, as are the immigrant generations that made it prosper. Ralph Tannenbaum died in 2006.

Yet last Thursday, meeting for a cup of joe at Dee's, Ralph's kid brother Ira, now 82, drove up, pedal to the metal, beaming in his new car.

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* EILEEN HALLET STONE is author of A Homeland in the West: Utah Jews Remember. You may reach her at ehswriter@aol.com