08/27/2026
TBT: The Boston Store
Column by Keith Ruetten
Born in 1877, Mr. Louis Sapiro of Appleton came to Richland Center in April of 1901. He had leased a store building owned by I.C. McCollum. This building was in the 100 block of west Court Street one door east of I.A. Cleveland’s drug store and had recently been vacated by the firm of Clark & Elliott who had moved their store into the H.T. Bailey building. It was here that Sapiro opened the Boston Store in May. He was assisted in the store by Misses Rena Jones and Nola Miller.
This Boston Store was an independent local dry goods and mercantile shop. It had no corporate or ownership connection to the famous Boston Store chain founded by Julius Simon in Milwaukee. Rather the "Boston Store" was a popular naming trend that was a very common name for retail and dry goods shops across the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Store owners chose the name believing that it was a symbol of quality as Boston was widely viewed at the time as a major hub for American fashion, commerce, and high-end goods. During the early 1900s, local merchants frequently adopted prestigious or big-city names for their hometown stores without any multi-city ownership or corporate tie-in. The Milwaukee Boston Store did not begin expanding regional branch stores outside of Milwaukee until decades later under Federated Department Stores.
Shortly after the store opened in May, Mrs. Sarah Sapiro along with their children, daughter Mollie and son Adolph, arrived in Richland Center, to join her husband here. They would make their home at 337 N. Central Ave., and the Sapiro’s would grow their family with the addition of another daughter Genevieve in 1904, and another son Jerome in 1911.
Louis Sapiro remained for only a short time in the McCollum building before he purchased his own store building down the block between the F.O. Smith Drug Store and the Pease Store and moved the Boston Store into it.
During the early 1900’s, Richland Center’s three newspapers were rich sources of the price and type of the commodities for sale and the methods of business promotion. Louis Sapiro was very active in the advertising and promotion of the Boston Store, proclaiming the Boston Store to be the “Biggest and Busiest Store,” “The Store for Everybody”, “The Best Place on Earth to Trade,” with sales that were "Special,” “Sensational,” “Mammoth,” and goods that were “Superior” at the “Lowest Prices.” In 1906 he ran a promotion offering a free stereoscope with pictures of the San Francisco earthquake with every $15.00 purchase.
In December of 1910 Sapiro bought the McKee business block on the southeast corner of Court & Central, for the purpose of remodeling and creating a modern and up-to-date building for his business, and upon completion he moved the Boston Store into it. Mr. Sapiro continued to advertise the new Boston Store as the “Biggest and Busiest Department Store.” They carried Cloaks, Suits, Clothing, Dry Goods, Groceries, and Shoes.
In his memoir, Carl Burdick tells about seeing the large Boston Store sign - “When they were getting ready to open, they had a big electric sign shipped here, and this laid along the side of the building all crated up. This being about thirty feet long made quite an impression on us kids. An electric sign no less, so this must be a first-rate store coming here. When this was ready to open it gave several people jobs.”
Carl Burdick also described Mr. Sapiro - “Mr. Sapiro was a nice quiet man with grey hair. He spoke very little and at a very low tone when he did say something, his actions were almost automatic, never but one gait and manner.”
In June of 1919, Louis Sapiro took his son Adolph into partnership in the Boston Store. Adolph Sapiro graduated from Richland Center High School in 1915 where he was one of the leading athletes during his high school days and even went on to play on the All-Star basketball team that made history. After high school, he served in WWI where he was promoted to Corporal on December 4, 1918, and to Sergeant on December 18, 1918. Growing up helping in his father’s store, he had already gained considerable practical experience in mercantile lines and took to the work and management like a “duck to water.”
In March of 1924, the Boston Store made the announcement that after twenty-five years in business they were going out of business. This decision was made due to the senior member of the firm Louis Sapiro having fallen into ill health and incurring some financial problems. The Boston Store of Richland Center that began as a little one-room store, had developed into a two-story and basement department store with a reputation as a leading Department Store in the county, and known all over this section of the state.
After the sale of their entire stock of merchandise which went for $4,475.00, the Sapiro family moved to Milwaukee.
The First National Bank took possession of the Boston Store building in 1926, but in early December of 1928, the First National Bank was ordered to close by the federal bank examiners that listed the bank as having liabilities totaling $1,003,645.54. The First National Bank would not reopen, and after several years of litigation in the courts, liquidation of the bank’s assets, including the bank building and the Boston Store building, the bank’s depositors received their last payments in the summer of 1935.
Mr. Basil Kanable came into possession of the Boston Store building and in August of 1935 he opened a market named the Central Store.
Louis Sapiro never regained his health and passed away in Milwaukee, on August 3, 1928, at the age of 53 or 54.
Sarah Sapiro passed away in 1938, due to self-asphyxiation at her home in Milwaukee. She left a note to her family telling them of her ill health and unhappy state of mind as the reason. She was 62.
Adolph Sapiro spent forty years working as a salesman for the Peacock Shoe Company in Milwaukee. He passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1965. He was 68.
Photos-RC History Room
