Guest Columnist:
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Postcard from the collection of Max D. Movsovitz; postmarked 1908 Click here to see photo of interior. |
There was the old City Market. I can remember like yesterday; anything you wanted in the food line was there. There were butcher's stalls which sold all kinds of meat. Some were Kosher; some were not. There were stalls that sold live chickens. The Jewish people had a schochet (Rabbi) on hand who would kill the chickens, and he charged a nickle for this! Everyone else, merely took the live chickens home and wrung their necks. There were stalls for every kind of produce grown in the area. I remember watermelons, peanuts (raw, boiled or parched), yams, onions and you name it, it was there.
Was it clean, you may ask. I don't think so, but for the times, what a joy for the grown-ups to go to one location to purchase all of their food. The only things my parents didn't buy from the market was milk and bread. That was delivered by truck each morning. We used to leave out yesterday's milk bottles and put the coupons that were purchased inside of the bottles for the next day's milk. Did anyone ever steal the coupons or the milk? NEVER. At least I had never heard of such a thing. And the Gottlieb's Bakery truck came each day with fresh loaves of pumpernickle, rye and white bread. All kinds of rolls were available too, if you could afford it. After all, the bread was 10 cents a loaf. If you didn't have the money, you still got your bread.
Back to the City Market. Down in the basement was an area unknown to most people. We use to sneak down there just to watch. Max Movsovitz's wholesale produce was down there. Horse-drawn wagons and gas-driven trucks pulled in and out of there constantly. So much vegetables and fruit! If a case fell and busted open, there was always some kids who would run over to pick up a couple of pieces of loose fruit. No one seemed to mind. Max Movsovitz's son Isadore (Musky) still has this beautiful painting of the old city market in his office. What memories it brings back.
They want to re-build the old City Market as a tourist attraction. I'm afraid that it would have to depend entirely on tourists. Today everyone has a car, and there certainly isn't much parking where the City Market would be. It was truly a thing of long years ago.
With all of the talk about rebuilding the old city market, and with so many pros and cons, I decided to go to a gentleman who was brought up in the old market and check his memories and opinions regarding this old Savannah Landmark.
I went to see Mr. Isadore Movsovitz (grandfather of the young man who built up this web site). Mr. Movsovitz, more commonly known as Musky, is a gentleman in his 80's, with a very clear mind and terrific sense of humor. I spent a wonderful hour or so listening to his stories of the people and places in the old market. Some of which I will not write about. Mr. Berendt would be more qualified to do that. Wow, the old market, was a world unto itself with the same type characters that were in Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.
Musky started out by telling me just who was in the old market, and all of this was in the late 20s and early 30s. There were butcher shops (stalls) owned by Louis Kantiziper's father Samuel (great-grandfather of the young man who built up this web site), but he moved to Liberty Street. Morris Levine ran a Kosher butcher shop, Sam Cooley (Adele Sutker's father) also had a Kosher butcher shop as did a Mr. Ratner. Mr. Jake Fine (Dolly Karsman's father) had a wholesale butcher place. Another meat place was run by J. W. Hester.
There was one place that sold live chickens. This was run by Musky's wife Helene's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Karsman (great -grandparents to the keeper of this site) Yes, even I can remember my mother buying a live chicken and then having to take it downstairs to Rabbi Kaplan who was a schochet (ritual slaughterer). How dark and dirty it was down there. Blood and cobwebs all over the place. Yes, that was the good old days.
Fish could be bought from Frank Matthews. Please remember, no refrigeration for anything. Ice, as long as it lasted, was put on the counter and the fish laid on top of the ice.
Then there were the vegetable stalls owned by Ike Sheminsky, Smith Brothers who later opened a very nice grocery store. Of course there were many others, but these two Musky remembered well. There was also a wholesale produce company owned by Harry Goldberg.
Two very well-know places in the market were the two restaurants that were on the main floor. There was a Kirkland's Restaurant and there was Kessler's Restaurant on the other side of the market. Ah yes, Kessler's Restaurant I remember well. The best thing they made were the huge biscuits! They were out of this world and melted in your mouth. The Kessler's restaurant still exists in the Farmer's Market on the outskirts of town.
The market manager was Snippy Garity, and his assistant was Mr. Horowitz (Billy and Elliot's father). Mr. Horowitz was also the judge at Tybee. A friend of Mr. Horowitz once got a ticket for speeding and he called Mr. Horowitz up to see if he could fix the ticket. Mr. Horowitz said it would be no problem and promptly forgot. So his friend spent the night in jail. (Musky asked me not to tell this story, but it is so hard to picture Musky in jail.)
All the above listed stalls were on the main floor of the Old City Market. Below the main floor, a little lower than street level, was the wholesale firms. There were several wholesale produce companies. Robert H. Anderson, W. L. Muse, and still in existence today, Movsovitz and Co. (web site keeper's grandfather and great-grandfather). There was also a wholesale meat company, Meddin Brothers. Last but not least, was Rabbi Kaplan who was mentioned previously.
Musky told me how the entire market ran with no refrigeration. When they wanted to ripen bananas, they would fill a trough with ice, lay the bananas on top and then have a bunch of fans to circulate the "cold" air. Because of the lack of refrigeration, none of the stall owners could carry a large stock of any perishable item. So in a way, everything was always "fresh".
One last thing about the Old City Market that very few romantics ever mention. The Market was only a couple of blocks from the Savannah River. From the boats that came up the river to the city, always had LARGE river rats. Over the years, Savannah grew to have their own population of these rodents. The Old Market was literally infested with them. To those of you who don't have any idea of what a river rat is, just picture a rat almost the size of a cat. That's a river rat.
Strangely enough, all memories of the Old City Market were pleasant ones for all who used to go there or worked there. Maybe time covered up the rough spots.
I asked Musky if they should rebuild the City Market. He definitely feels that it would be a big mistake. In the old days, most of the people lived within walking distance of the market and those who could afford a car had no trouble parking near the market. There weren't that many cars.
Today, almost everyone has a car and downtown parking is horrible. We have a Farmer's Market as mentioned before, and it doesn't do that great.
Musky also told me many stories of the Old City Market, which he remembers so vividly. In his office at the present Movsovitz and Company, he has a large oil painting of the market and in one part of the picture you can see the Movsovitz wagons coming and going to and from the market.
"Yes, the produce business has changed quite a bit since then and I guess it's all for the better." That's Uncle Musky for you.
(also see Savannah Morning News 7/17/97, 7/30/97, 3/17/98, Market History, and Market tradition reborn)
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