Grocery and Meat Markets
Brown's Market - Brown's was located on NE 10th and Beech.
Browning's Grocery - This shop was located on NE 10th and Mason (northwest corner).
Colonial Grocery and Market - Colonial was located at 2726-28 NE Union Avenue and operated for several years by Charles William Weigant in the 1920's. Charles Weigant was trained as a butcher by the Repp family.
Henry Danewolf standing near his store on NE 13th and Failing
Danewolfs Grocery and Meat Market - The market was located on NE 13th Avenue and Failing. Henry Danewolf immigrated to Portland in 1913 from Saratov, Russia with his wife Marie (nee Gorte) Danewolf and daughter Lydia Danewolf. Lydia worked in and later ran the grocery and meat market. Lydia later worked at Helen Bernhard Bakery for almost thirty years.
Ebel Grocery and Meat Market - Ebel's was located on NE Union Avenue (same site as Brauer Shoe Store) and NE 15th and Prescott.
Gaylord's Market on Union (now MLK Blvd.) was owned by the Schleining and Derr families.
Greenfell's Grocery
Hergert's Grocery and Meat Market
Hildermann's Grocery - This shop was located at 808 NE Union and Failing on the southeast corner.
Read more about the Hildermann Stores in Portland
Krombein's Grocery - Krombein's was located at the northeast corner of Union and Failing
"I used to work at Krombein's market. I was paid $5.00 per week when I worked after school and Saturdays and $10.00 per week during summer when I could work for 6 full days. Old man Krombein only came in to make ring sausages in the smoke house behind the store, that was in the Forties during the war. The sons ran the store by then." Howard Bauer - Portland, Oregon
Lehl & Popp Grocery - The store was located at NE 10th and Failing. This building burned down in the 1960's.
Lincoln Park Groceries and Meats - Owned and operated by Adam and Donald Bihn. The store was also known simply as "Bihn's" and made some of the best German sausage in town. The store was located on NE Union Avenue.
Peterson's Grocery - This business was located at NE 11th and Mason on the southwest corner.
Nagel's - Nagel's was located at NE Union and Shaver on the northeast corner.
Repp Bros. Grocery and Meats
Repp Brothers Meat and Grocery - On February 1, 1899, just nine years after his arrival in Portland, Mr. Conrad Repp had saved enough money to buy a store with grocery stock on NE Union Avenue and Beech Street. His brother, Adam Repp was co-owner of this business. The store was later relocated to NE Union and Failing (northeast corner?) and remained in business until 1970 (the building remains in use today as a liquor store). Groceries could be bought on credit in the winter and the bill paid during the summer after workers were paid for berry, hop, and bean picking.
Repp and Sinner Grocery - The store was located at 760 Union Avenue North, the phone number was: Woodlawn 1551.
"Repp Bros was our family store on Union and Failing expanded into a wholesale meat dealership by my father Earl Repp. He was born in 1914 and they lived in the family home on Grand Avenue just off of Fremont. Its the first house on the left as you proceed north on Grand off of Fremont. Repp Bros. started in 1890 in what is now a liquor store on Union and Beech St.
My Great Uncle, George Repp, was the man selected to head up the Volga Relief. His brother was my grandfather Adam Repp.
The Repp family was from Norka. My grandfather Adam was born in the United States (Portland) in the early 1890s. My uncle George Repp was born in Russia (Norka?) just before they came over here. I believe my great grandfather worked for Union Pacific in Hastings, Nebraska before they traveled to Portland. My grandfather Adam married Marie Spady who came to Portland from Norka in 1913."
Contribued by Robert Repp
Closure notice provided courtesy of Vickie Willman Burns
Bruno Richter and Eleanor Glanz posing in front of Richter's Market (Contributed by Nancy Cooper, Kathy Hoffee, and John Killian)
Richter's Market - Owned by Bruno Richter this store was co-located with Danewolf's Grocery on NE 13th and Failing.
Sam Weiss Grocery and Feed - The Weiss grocery was located at 249 Front Street. This business was established around 1920 by Samuel Weiss who immigrated to Portland from Alt Posttal, Bessarabia in 1885.
Schnell's Meat Market - The market was co-located at NE 10th and Failing with the Lehl & Popp Grocery. This market was owned and operated by Peter Schnell.
Sinner's Meat Market - Located on Williams Avenue, the market was owned and operated by John Sinner.
Yost Brothers Meat Market and Grocery Store - Located on NE 15th and Killingsworth, in the Vernon neighborhood.
Hildermann Portland Stores by Ed Hoak
Hildermann Brothers
Alexander Hildermann first arrived in Portland May 8, 1919 and was soon joined by his brother, David. Alexander and David had previously operated stores under the Hildermann Brothers banner in Tangier, Oklahoma and Calgary, Canada. Alexander learned the trade in Kamyshin, Russia, on the Volga, after leaving the family home in Holstein once he completed his schooling. He came to America in 1900 at twenty years of age.
Alex and David bought the John Sinner store on Union Avenue near Fremont Street, December 1, 1919. They had a horse and wagon to deliver their own groceries and had a man go around from house to house to take orders. Many of Alexander and David’s children worked in the store once they were old enough. They worked hard and in a few years built up a good business.
It was more than a store, more like a community-meeting place. Alex helped many of the Germans from Russia immigrants get settled in their new community and would often help write letters and translate documents for his customers. He helped others get their American citizenship. Even though Alexander and David were brothers, they didn’t look alike. They were called “Hildermann, Weiss” and “Hildermann, Schwarz”, which means white and black in German, as Alexander had light hair, and David, dark.
Alexander sold his interest to David in May of 1928 and retired for the first time.
David operated the store until his death in 1941. His children continued to own it; and sons, Dave and Lee, ran it and moved to Union and Failing until 1946 when David’s daughter, Tillie and her husband, Nate Zusman, bought out Dave and Lee’s interest. Nate operated the store for another nine years.
H and W Food Market
Alexander Hildermann decided to come out of retirement and on April 1, 1933 bought the John Shaller store at Alberta Street and Fifteenth Avenue. He opened it on April third with his brother-in-law, John Wensrich, as a partner. Alexander and John soon also bought out the next-door butcher and incorporated that operation into their store.
This building soon proved to be too small and Alexander and John bought the store at Ninth and Mason Streets from a Mr. Annas. Alexander ran the grocery side and John the butcher side. John made his own sausage and soon developed a good reputation. Alexander already had a reputation for his outstanding pickles and sauerkraut.
Alexander Hildermann’s
Alexander Hildermann bought out John Wensrich’s interest in the H and W Food Market in 1935 and renamed the store, Alexander Hildermann’s. He continued to operate the store with his son, Roy, until 1944. Roy was a recognizance tank driver in Patten’s Army during the war and Alexander was left to run the store without help during that time. Alexander sold the store in January 1944 to Mr. Flaig who operated it for ten years until it was once again sold.
Ebel’s Market and Grocery
Alexander Ebel, from the Volga village of Stephan, worked at Hildermann Brothers until he bought his own store, which he operated as Ebel’s Market and Grocery at Northeast Fifteenth and Prescott Street until his retirement in 1956. Ebel’s was noted for their sausage, which they made in their own smokehouse in the back of the store. He would come in at 3:00 in the morning to make red beef sausage and would often be stopped by the police with flashlights and guns drawn who wanted to know why he was there that time of night.
Fred Ebel, Dentist
Fred Ebel, who was married to Alex Hildermann’s daughter, Stella, started his own practice immediately after his graduation from dental school, June 7, 1932. His first practice was on Union and Failing where he remained for seventeen years. He then built his own clinic on the corner of Killingsworth and Commercial.
Doctor Fred, as friends and family as well as patients knew him, quickly developed a good reputation. He continued to practice for sixty-two years. Even in his nineties he worked a two-days-a-week schedule.