Reidy Scanlan Update

The view on Sunday

Last week, the demolition of the former Reidy Scanlan furniture store finally took place (click here for the Morning Journal article in case you missed it) so it’s a good time to update my earlier post about the building.

I looked through the city directories a bit and found Reichlin, Reidy & Scanlan in the 1905 edition. The furniture and undertaking business was located in the 1700 block of Penfield Avenue (later known as Broadway). Casimir Reichlin, E . P. Reidy and M. J. Scanlan were the names behind the business.

So when did the business move to the Broadway and 21st Street location?

Here’s where the old saying, “Great Minds Think Alike” comes into play. Rick Kurish and Dennis Thompson – regular contributors to this blog with research help and topic suggestions – both sent me the vintage newspaper article (below). The article announces that the firm had purchased the southwest corner of Broadway and 21st Street with the plan to erect the (now-demolished) building there. It dates from January 16, 1913.

Rick also reminisced, “I remember my wife and I buying some of our first home furnishings at the store in the early 1970s. By then it was just named Reidy Scanland, and the funeral portion of their business had moved to a separate building just to the south."

You might also remember in my original post that I had wondered about the prominent sign protruding out from the corner of the Reichlin, Reidy & Scanland building that read, “The Outfit Store” that was visible in that 1936 phone book ad (below).

Well, Dennis did some research and confirmed that “The Outfit Store” was an ad slogan. He wrote, “If you can find a copy of the Lorain High Scimitar, Class of 1924, Reidy Scanlan used the term “The Outfit Store” in an ad on page 85.” He noted that the e-yearbook.com website revealed it was still in use in an ad in the 1927 Scimitar, as well as in the Brookside Leader, Class of 1931 book.

Dennis also sent me a copy of a Slovenian language newspaper from December 20, 1923 with a Reichlin - Reidy - Scanlan ad that used the slogan. The paper was called GLAS NARODA and was the largest Slovenian Daily in the United States.

Here is the ad (below).

My thanks to Dennis and Rick for helping me with this research. (By the way, GLAS NARODA translates to “The Voice of the Nation.”)