George Street

Cover of George Street Stories: A Walk on Peterborough’s Main Street, ca. 2007
Arnold, Ed. George Street Storeies: A Walk on Peterborough's Main Street, Peterborough: Sketches to Remember, 2007

The businesses of George Street, Jewish and non-Jewish, are brought to life in a colourful manner in the book George Street Stories: A Walk on Peterborough’s Main Street, by Ed Arnold, Editor of the Peterborough Examiner. The book was published in 2007. As Arnold’s book relates, some of the Jewish community’s businesses were present for many decades in the George Street area. When Harry Florence retired at age 72 in 1966, he had been in business for 59 years. Florence had started in the junk business with a rented horse and buggy.

Several of Peterborough’s downtown stores were operated by two or three generations of the same family. One example is that of Minnie and Robert Grafstein, who moved to Peterborough in 1930 to set up a tailoring business on George Street. They subsequently developed a textile and ladies’ wear store, and after that a fabric and decorating business called the “Uptown Silk Shoppe.” In the 1950s, their sons Murray and Harold began helping out in the store. The young men followed in their parents’ footsteps, offering personalized service to their customers. When the brothers retired in 2000, they sold the store that had been in the family for 70 years, since there was no one in the next generation to take over.

Other longstanding businesses included Rogow’s Clothing Store, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1968. The store was taken over by one of Ben Rogow’s children, his son Joe, and then by Joe’s niece, Carole Pulver. Sadly, Carole died of cancer in 1998.

Ben Rogow’s daughter, Adeline, operated a ladies’ wear store. She was married to Meyer Levine, a well-known figure around town who became known as “the Duke of George Street.” Meyer sold appliances and other items and then became involved with real estate.

While many families were happy if their children wanted to become involved with the businesses they created, such was not the case for Irving Moldaver and his three sons. His son Joel wanted very much to follow his father into the scrap metal business, but Moldaver senior had other things in mind for his children. Both Joel and his brother ultimately became successful lawyers, Joel in Peterborough and Michael as a Justice for the Ontario Court of Appeal. The third son, Peschah, is a rabbi who lives in Toronto.

The Cherneys

40th Anniversary of the Cherney’s Furniture Store, ca. 1975
From left to right: Meyer, Harry and Lou Cherney
Ontario Jewish Archives, accession 2008-3/2

The Cherney brothers were born in Peterborough and grew up there in the 1920s. Their father was an immigrant junk dealer. Harry and Meyer began by fixing furniture and appliances. In 1935, they started their own small used furniture business on Hunter Street, where they were later joined by Lou. The boys worked hard and expanded the business, moving into buying new furniture. After this, they built their own furniture store on King and George Streets. They offered something new in Peterborough, a three-story department store selling furniture and appliances. The business was highly successful, expanding further to become the largest retail home furniture business between Toronto and Montreal with branches in Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Kingston, Cobourg and Belleville. The Cherney brothers made national retailing history in 1972 when they opened Canada’s first home furniture warehouse in Whitby. The store covered almost two football fields in area. The warehouse concept did not become widespread until two decades later.

The Cherney story took on a new dimension in later years, when Harry and Erica Cherney married, a second marriage for both. Erica was living in Ottawa, where she had joined her brothers in the family’s furniture business. She met Harry on a furniture-buying trip. After her marriage in 1971, Erica Cherney moved to Peterborough. She has become one of the city’s outstanding citizens. Just a few of her many accomplishments include: being the first female Chair of Trent University’s Board of Governors and receiving an honorary doctorate there; being named Peterborough’s Citizen of the Year, and serving as President of the Board of the United Way and Vice Chair of the Board of TV Ontario. She currently runs Cherney Realty, which owns properties on George Street. In the first decade of the second millennium, Erica Cherney remains enthusiastic about the future development potential of a downtown area whose deep roots she knows well.