90 Years in 90 Days: The Fisher Bros. Company
90 photos that define Cleveland Heights
Photos
Cleveland Heights officially became a city in 1921. Cleveland Heights Patch is observing that 90th anniversary by compiling 90 photos to create an album of the city's past and present. We'll run the feature for 90 days, one photo at a time.
Today's photo recalls the prominence of Fisher Foods, a major grocery chain that lasted more than 50 years.
The company, originally called Fisher Bros., was started in 1907 by three New Yorkers: brothers Manning F. and Charles Fisher and Joseph Salmon. The trio opened the first store on 47th and Lorain. The company was incorporated in 1908. By 1928, it was a chain of more than 300 stores across northern Ohio and pulled in $18 million.
The company, which adopted the name Fisher Foods, Inc., was Cleveland's largest retail food distributor until the 1960s. But the company lost its market share and was sold in 1965.
Mike Rotman
2:04 pm on Sunday, October 23, 2011
Cool photo Afi, I never noticed this sign before!
You can see a part of the same sign in this photo from the 1930s, but at the time it was partially covered with an ad for Golden Roll bread:
http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/u?/clevehts,1052
It looks like there were Fisher's markets all over Cleveland Heights around this time.
This one (next to Mawby's hamburgers) was at Cedar-Lee, in the building that is now Lemon Grass Restaurant:
http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/u?/clevehts,1002
On Coventry, there was a Fisher's where Sunshine is now. Heights Hardware, shown in this image from the 1920s, is still in business next door today.
http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/u?/clevehts,1365
Lastly, there's this Fisher's in the Stadium Square building on Taylor Road
http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/u?/clevehts,1045
Afi-Odelia Scruggs
8:36 pm on Sunday, October 23, 2011
Thanks Mike. I just happened to see it by accident. That's what I love about history: so often, it's hidden in plain view.
Eric Mack
6:33 am on Monday, October 24, 2011
Was there a Fisher Foods on Lee near Euclid Heights in the 50s or 60s? If so, is it the site of the current 44-unit apartment building at 1823 Lee Road?
Richard Hollis
7:07 am on Monday, October 24, 2011
There was a Fishers on Cedar nest to the Sunoco station across from the old CeFair Bar - now Starbucks. In the last days of CeFair, if you ordered a hamburger, either Chuck or Gus (the owners) would run across the street to Fishers to buy the meat and buns.
Michelle Simakis
11:52 am on Monday, October 24, 2011
Thanks for sharing, Richard, and for contributing information and your memories to this project.