Solomon Lazard

Solomon Lazard, also known as S. Lazard, (1827–1916) was an entrepreneur in 19th century Los Angeles, California, a member of the city council there in 1854, and founder of S. Lazard & Co (later the City of Paris department store).

Solomon Lazard
Born1827
Lorraine, France
Died1916 (age 89)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Lazard Frères and Company
SpouseCarolyn Newmark
Children6
FamilyJoseph Newmark (father-in-law)
Simon Lazard (cousin)
Maurice Kremer (cousin)

Biography

Lazard was born in Fromberg, France[1][2] on April 5, 1827. He married Carrie or Carolyn Newmark, the daughter of Joseph Newmark, on July 5, 1865. They had three boys and three girls, including sons E.M. Lazard and Sylvan A. Lazard and daughters who married Louis Levin and Abraham Jacoby,[3][4][5][6] co-founder of the Jacoby Brothers department store in San Francisco.[7]

In Los Angeles, as a mark of respect he was known as Don Solomon, "and being popular, he frequently acted as floor manager at balls and fandangos."[3]

Lazard arrived in the United States in 1844[5] or 1850[8] and became a U.S. citizen about 1853,[9] but In 1861 he visited France and was arrested on the charge that he still owed military duty to that country, where he had been born. He served six days in prison and then hired a substitute to take his place.[5]

Lazard died on January 13, 1916, leaving his wife, two sons and a daughter.[8] A funeral service was held in the family home at 657 Westlake Avenue in the Echo Park district,[10] with interment following at Home of Peace Cemetery (East Los Angeles).[11]

Career

Dry goods
See also: City of Paris (Los Angeles)
S. Lazard & Co.'s store on Main St. between 1866 and 1872

Lazard sailed from Europe to New York City in 1844, and then to San Francisco in 1851. He remained there about a year until he went to San Diego, where he intended to engage in the dry goods business. but, finding the town too small for his success, he set up shop in Los Angeles instead,[12] on Aliso Street, a main road to and from such places as San Gabriel, El Monte and San Bernardino. He and a cousin, Maurice Kremer, partnered and formed Lazard & Kremer Co, a dry goods store located in a row of shops called Mellus Row, later called the Bell Block, or Bell's Row, on the southeast corner of Los Angeles Street, until Kremer sold his share to Timoteo Wolfskill to form Lazard & Wolfskill Co. on June 16, 1857.[13] After Wolfskill withdrew from the partnership on August 13, 1858[14] the company became S. Lazard & Co. In 1867 Lazard moved the business to 53 Main Street, where he named the store as The City of Paris. This was where elegant Los Angeles women sought the latest thing in French fashion. Lazard sold the company in 1874 to Marc Eugene Meyer and it was thenceforth known as Eugene Meyer & Co.[15][3][5][16][17]

Water

In 1868, the City Council relinquished its rights to the water in the Los Angeles River in favor of businessmen Lazard, John S. Griffen and Prudent Beaudry, and the three created the Los Angeles City Water Company. The contract lapsed in 1898.[15][18]

Banking

Although the international banking firm of Lazard Frères and Company has stated it was founded in 1848 by his cousins, brothers Alexandre, Lazare, and Simon Lazard, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after joined by brothers Maurice and Elie Lazard moved to San Francisco in 1851,[19][20] other sources give the following story:

As there was no bank in Los Angeles in the mid-19th century, the residents either kept their money at home or confided it to the Catholic nuns in a convent at Alameda Street and Macy Street. When Eugène Isaac Meyer joined him in Los Angeles in 1859, Solomon followed the example of his brothers who were directing financial houses in Paris and Strasbourg: He opened a deposit window in his store under the name of Lazard et Frères, "a private banking firm that still exists, with branches around the world."[15][21][22]

Public service

Lazard was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council in 1854 and again in 1861–62, and in 1873 he was the first president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.[23][24][25]

References and notes
  1. His funeral notice in the Los Angeles Times said he was born in "Fromberg, France."
  2. "Solomon Lazard: Jewish Pioneer of Early Los Angeles' Infrastructure". Jewish Museum of the American West. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
  3. "The Early Jewish Presence in Los Angeles," Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles
  4. "Lazard and Lewin" genealogical chart
  5. An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company (1889), page 534, transcribed by Kathy Sedler at ancestry.com
  6. "Death Ends Old Family," Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1920, page II-6
  7. "The Five Jacoby Brothers: Pioneer Jewish Merchants of Los Angeles". Jewish Museum of the American West. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  8. "Sixty-Five Years Here," Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1916, page II-1
  9. Donald H. Harrison, "Western States Jewish History," April 29, 2006
  10. Location of the Lazard home on Mapping L.A.
  11. "Pioneer Laid to Rest," Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1916, page I-8
  12. "In 1853 there were three large dry goods houses in Los Angeles and about a dozen smaller general stores. . . . Solomon Lazard and his cousin, Maurice Kremer, both from Lorraine, appeared among the shopkeepers that year." Loyer and Beadreau, page 33.
  13. "Notice". Vol. 7, no. 6. Los Angeles Star. June 20, 1857. Retrieved July 21, 2020. Co-partnership Notice. Los Angeles, June 16, 1857. The undersigned have formed a co-partnership for the transaction of a general merchandizing business under the name and firm of Lazard & Wolfskill. Solomon Lazard. Timothy Wolfskill.
  14. "Announcement". Vol. 8, no. 15. Los Angeles Star. August 21, 1858. p. 1. Notice. The cop-partnership heretofore existing under the name of Lazard & wolfskill, is this day dissolved by mutual consent. Mr. Lazard is authorized to collect all debts due the late firm, and settle all the liabilities. S. Lazard. T. Wolfskill. Los Angeles, August 13th, 1858.
  15. Consulate general of France, French text based on Guide français de Los Angeles et du Sud de la Californie, F. Loyer and C. Beaudreau (1932), and 1872 Los Angeles City and County Directory Archived 2012-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
  16. Francis Dinkelspiel, "A Hard Rain," Jewish Journal, March 31, 2005
  17. Loyer and Beaudreau, page 53
  18. Kahrl 1982, p. 12.
  19. Lazard website Archived 2012-08-18 at the Wayback Machine
  20. William D. Cohan, in The Last Tycoons, Doubleday (2007), states that "The story of the firm's humble origins in a dry goods store in New Orleans in 1848 has been buffed to such a high gloss it is no longer possible to determine if the tale is true" (pages 17–18).
  21. Jacqueline Cardinal and Laurent LaPierre, "Katharine Graham et le Washington Post," Revue internationale de la gestion, February 2012
  22. Fernand Loyer and Charles Beaudreau, Le Guide français de Los Angeles et du Sud de la Californie (English edition) (1932), page 37
  23. Harris Newmark, "Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853–1913, Knickerbocker Press (1926), page 449
  24. Los Angeles Almanac
  25. Reva Clar, Los Angeles Jewry — A Chronology," 2002

Book cited
  • Kahrl, William L. (1982). Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles' Water Supply in the Owens Valley. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04431-2.
  • Los Angeles v. Los Angeles City Water Co. 177 U.S. 558 (1900)
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