Jacob Glasser | Max & Rosie Goldstein
In 1910, Jacob Glasser (1858–1935) had a dry goods store on the ground floor of this building; he lived upstairs with his wife, Etta Glasser (1856–1934), and their daughter, Miriam. Miss Glasser taught at the Shaw School, a school for African-American students, along with Rosa Simonhoff, a daughter of Jacob Simonhoff, the rabbi of Brith Sholom. As the lead teacher in the Orthodox synagogue’s Hebrew school, Jacob Glasser worked closely with the rabbi.
In 1915, Jacob and his son Maurice M. Glasser, an engineer who had recently returned to Charleston, moved on to a new business at 446 King Street. They incorporated the Standard Electric Co, with a capital stock of $10,000, to manufacture electrical appliances. Maurice served as president of the company while Jacob continued to teach Hebrew school. Between 1919 and 1925, M. M. Glasser received several patents for oscillators and ceiling fans. Some of the latter—according to oral history—were hung on the ceiling at Brith Sholom. Listed in the city directories as the Glasser Manufacturing Co. in the mid- to late-1920s, the business, headed by Maurice, occupied a number of different addresses on the peninsula.
By about 1915, Max Goldstein (1891–1967) and his wife, Rosie Goldman Goldstein (1888–1980), took over the store and the second floor residence at 538 King Street. The Goldstein family operated a menswear shop here until after World War II. The building was replaced in the late 1940s.
Max Goldstein in his store at 538 King Street, ca. 1920
