The "New" Manhattan Market Opens – Sept. 21, 1963

Courtesy Lorain Historical Society

From an Avon Lake grocery store (yesterday's post) to one in Lorain…

Here's a nice article about the well-remembered Manhattan Market in Lorain. The piece appeared in the Lorain Journal on September 21, 1963 (at the time that the grocery had just opened in its new location) and provides a nice history of the business.

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Manhattan Market Opens
By BILL CONLEY

Manhattan Market has opened for business in its new location.

For the past 23 years the store that specializes in 50 shapes of bulk spaghetti and macaroni and cheeses from Italy and Greece, has moved seven blocks from downtown to Central Lorain.

"Although we are open for business, our grand opening has been postponed until Oct. 15," Pat Grego, manager, stated.

"We aren't completely settled and there are several things that have to be ironed out before the grand opening," he added.

The store has moved from 1152 Broadway to the old Fisher Store at 1820 Broadway.

"In 1940, I bought the Pat Monaco Grocery and Meats store at 11th and Broadway and changed the name to Manhattan Market," Grego said.

The name came from a store Grego worked at in Morgantown, W. Va., from 1933 to 1940. The new store has been incorporated with Grego secretary and treasurer, Charles Malik, president and Larry Ashebaugh, attorney, vice president.

In moving to the location, the self-serve market has expanded all departments and has added a self-serve meat department.

"Two years after we opened the store in the old location, we went to self-serve, with the exception of our bulk spaghetti and macaroni," Grego explained.

The spaghetti and macaroni is weighed and packaged for customers. Also available are spices and oils from here and other countries.

The store has about tripled in size from 24 feet in width by 80 feet in length at the old location to 50 feet by 138 feet in the new store. There are new modern fixtures and lighting.

Imported cheeses include Provolone and Romano from Italy and Feta from Greece. The Italian cheeses are basic for lasagna and pizza pies.

Besides Grego as store manager, the organization includes his brother, John, as meat department manager and August D'Orazio as produce and grocery departments manager.

The manager pointed out that although the store has added a self-service meat department, it still handles the customers' special custom cutting of meats.

A free lot for the store has been provided at the corner of 18th and Broadway.

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I had first mentioned the Manhattan Market on this blog back here. Reading that post, I can see that a lot of my dates connected with the store are approximate, since I was using only city directories as a guide. That's why it's nice to have the article above on this post to set the record straight.

Here's the former Manhattan Market building location today.