Sidney Simons, The Name Behind The Boulevard

SOURCE: Sidney Simons: The Man Behind the Boulevard by Virginia Causey, Jean Simons Hyman, and Sydney Simons. Muscogiana Journal, Fall 2015, Volume 26, Number 2.

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In 2004, the Woodruff Company developed the shopping center, The Landings, in north Columbus. The street connecting Armour Road and Airport Throughway is Sidney Simons Boulevard. Many people in Columbus today use that street but probably don't know the man behind the name. This History Spotlight has been edited for length. The full article by Dr. Virginia Causey, Jean Simons Hyman, and Sydney Simons can be read by clicking here.

Sidney Goldberg Simons

Sidney Simons' story in the United States began with his grandfather Moses Simons. Moses was born October 21, 1840, in Hardenberg, Holland. Moses and his family in 1845 emigrated to the United States, arriving in Baltimore and settling in Williamsburg, New York. Moses married Sarah (last name unknown) who was born in Nassau, Germany, on January 8, 1830. Moses and Sarah had two children in New York: Max, born 1866, and Rachael, born 1868. The l870 census finds them living in Columbus in a household that included two domestic servants, a young male boarder, and Louis Lowenthal, a clerk in his family's grocery store where Moses worked. Moses' personal estate was listed at $1,000, indicating he was fairly well off at age 29.

Moses Simons (pictured above) became a prominent member of this community, respected by both Jews and Gentiles. He first worked as a grocer for L. Lowenthal & Co. on current 6th Avenue at 10th Street between a Jewish and an African American neighborhood. His family grew with Herman born in 1871 and Louis in 1873. By 1874 Moses was a partner with Lowenthal, and in 1886 owned his own general merchandise store at 522 8th Street in what is now the Liberty Heritage Historic District.

It was common, at this time, for Jewish merchants to act as "middlemen," serving African American customers not welcome at other White-owned stores. Jewish merchants were also often the only ones willing to extend credit to African Americans. In addition to following the strictures of the racial caste system, Jewish stores had to be open on Saturdays, though many closed for religious holidays. The Columbus newspaper observed that more than fifty Jewish stores closed for Yom Kippur in 1891.

Max Simons

Moses' eldest son Max graduated from high school and in 1880 began clerking for his father. In 1889, Max went on his own to open "M. Simons & Co. Grocers" on Broad Street while Moses formed a partnership with Max Julius to carry on his store on 8th Street until his death in 1903 of "dropsy," an old term for edema probably related to heart failure. His wife Sarah had died in 1899, eulogized by the Enquirer-Sun as "a Beloved Hebrew Lady" who "did much practical good" as a member of the B'nai Israel Ladies Aid Society.

By 1894, Max moved into larger quarters on Broad at the northwest corner of 11th Street and added a saloon in his grocery store. By then, the local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union lobbied persistently to outlaw liquor in Muscogee County. Though 125 of Georgia's 145 counties outlawed liquor by 1907, Muscogee never followed suit. Liquor interests were important in the local economy, generating $20,000 in tax revenue and more than half a million dollars in sales. Most businessmen, led by Mayor L.H. Chappell, strongly supported a local option so they could continue to block a liquor ban. The fight became uglier as the legislature moved toward state-wide prohibition.

After Atlanta newspapers blamed Jewish saloons for contributing to a terrible race riot there in 1906, a local prohibitionist belittled the city council's support for local option citing a conspiracy among Jewish liquor interests. Max Simons responded in a letter to editor, pointing out that Jews owned only five of Columbus' 40 saloons. He admitted Jews generally were not prohibitionists but were for temperance and moderation. Jews, he declared, followed the laws of the country and the laws of God. Despite local businessmen's opposition, Georgia passed prohibition in 1907. Max likely adapted by selling some liquor for its "medicinal" value and a lot of "temperance beverages," including Hires Root Beer and Coca-Cola.

The Harmony Club (416 Twelfth Street) was originally the William Beach House. This structure was located on the southwest corner of Twelfth Street and Fifth Avenue. By 1912, it became a girls’ school known officially as the Columbus Seminary, which lasted until 1920. In 1925, the school would become the Harmony Club. The structure served as the Harmony Club until 1954. The building was later demolished and is now the site of the 416 Office Building.

At this time, Jews were not permitted membership in the Country Club, the Big Eddy Club, or the businessmen's Muscogee Club downtown. Therefore, they formed their own exclusive social clubs.

In the late 19th century, there was an influx of Ashkenazi Jews to Columbus that created a split within the local Jewish community. They would establish the orthodox Chevra Sharis Israel Synagogue and in 1907 chartered the Standard Club, "an organization for recreation, pleasure, social, and literary entertainment of its members." The more assimilated Germanic Jews like Max Simons attended Temple B'nai Israel and created the Harmony Club in 1909. It had originated in 1870 as Columbus Condordia, intended to ease the "monotonous evenings and Sundays in this city."

In 1874, Jewish women founded the Daughters of Israel as a charitable organization. The group changed its name to the Jewish Ladies Aid Society in the late 1880s. Its members worked to benefit education. It donated furniture and equipment to the City Hospital and raised money for healthier babies. In 1924, the Ladies Aid Society began the "Milk Fund" to provide milk to students who could not afford it.

The Century Club, a social and educational club founded in 1900 by Sophie Browne, mother-in-law of Max Simons' brother-in-law and the wife of the Temple Israel Rabbi E.B.M. Browne, accepted Christian and Germanic Jewish upper-class women and met often at the Harmony Club.

Temple B’nai Israel (314 Tenth Street) was located on the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue. The Temple remained at this location until 1958. The building was then demolished, and the congregation moved to a new location at 1617 Wildwood Avenue. The property was then used as the site of several restaurants.

Max married Jennie Goldberg of Macon in l892. She had been born in 1871 in Oswego, New York. Their family quickly grew, with Sidney born in 1893, Harry in 1895, Ruth in 1896, and Charles in 1898. Tragically, Max died at only 40 years old in 1907, an "esteemed citizen" of the city.

Sidney at age 14 left school and became the provider for the family. He worked as first a clerk, then a drummer (a traveling salesman), for his uncle Ben Gerson's dry goods business at 1219 5th Avenue. Sidney enlisted in the Navy in 1916 and was stationed at Norfolk until the end of World War I in 1918.

He made his first fortune organizing the Southland Pecan Company just before he enlisted, selling two barrels of shelled pecans the first year. By 1921, the company shipped pecans all over the U.S. and Canada. The newspaper called him The Nut King."

Sidney incorporated his business in 1926. He owned a trademark on the name "Gold Medal Pecans." Sold internationally to confectionaries, bakers, and grocers, pecan shipments that year topped 12 million pounds, making Southland the world's largest pecan factor. Sidney patented pecan shellers and processing equipment and housed them in his new factory at 701 10th Avenue constructed in 1926. Even in the depths of the Depression in 1933, Southland Pecan hired 500 workers. Its business was so brisk that it mailed more packages from Columbus than any other city institution. In 1937, Sidney bought land on Andrews Road adjacent to a railroad spur and built a larger plant.

Sidney married Sara Sommers on July 27, 1932. They lived with his mother Jennie and sister Ruth at 1326 Wynnton Road. They moved to 1237 Peacock Avenue in 1934 after the birth of daughter Jean, and soon after to 1315 Eberhart Avenue. Sidney built a house at 1510 Eberhart in 1937 designed by Atlanta architect Isaac Moscowitz (who was married to a cousin, Fannie Waxelbaum). Daughter Sydney was born there two years later. He called the wooded property "Ah, Wilderness" because in the 1930s it seemed to be in the country. The Simons family lived there for the next fifty years.

In 1941, when Sidney could not find storage space for his pecans, he built a refrigerated warehouse next to Southland Pecan and started a new company, U.S. Security Warehouse. He was motivated to preserve a larger supply after several years of bad pecan crops. His daughter Jean remembered Sidney at the dinner table reading aloud about the discovery of meat preserved in ice in Alaska. He experimented with different temperatures to find the ideal for keeping pecans. This business eventually became even bigger than Southland Pecan. U.S. Security Warehouse also stored peanuts for Jimmy Carter's family, frozen vegetables from McKenzie and Company in Moultrie, and food for Fort Benning.

Sydney's first husband Maury Klumok went to work for U.S. Security Warehouse in the 1960s, learned the business from Sidney, and eventually took control when Sidney became ill. A major step in its growth was buying out the local competition, the Atlantic Company, in 1966. After Sidney's death in 1968, Klumok bought additional warehouses in Georgia and Alabama. At that point, Sara, Jean, and Sydney were no longer involved in the ownership of the company, since Maury had different partners with the various new warehouses. On December 31, 1981, U.S. Security Warehouse merged with two other companies to form MRW with headquarters in Atlanta. It is now Americold, based in New York and the largest refrigerated warehouse company in the world.

Sidney and Sara were deeply involved in their community. Both were active members of Temple Israel, Sidney serving on the Board of Trustees for many years and Sara in the Ladies Aid Society. Sidney and Sara also established a trust fund for Temple Israel.

Sara was a member of the Century Club. She also volunteered at the Medical Center as a pink lady for thirty years and was in the Medical Center Auxiliary. During World War II she volunteered with the USO and Red Cross and raised funds for Bundles for Britain.

Sidney was a director of the Rotary Club, a director of the Chamber of Commerce serving as chairman of the Highway Committee and served on the YMCA and Medical Center boards. As a member of various county and municipal planning boards and commissions, Sidney also worked to develop south and east Columbus, particularly the Andrews Road/Buena Vista Road/Martin Luther King Boulevard area and the Bull Creek watershed.

He was also a devoted family man, putting his beloved Sara "on a pedestal way up there." In an old Rotary Club directory where other men listed golf or tennis as hobbies, Sidney's was "listening to the radio." He was a homebody. His friends called him "lawyer" because he liked to argue. Sidney died on December 13, 1968. In a eulogy for his old friend, Enquirer columnist W.C. Woodall explained, "Some called him controversial. But you always knew where you stood." After Sidney's death, Sara commissioned sculptor Leon Gordon Miller to create a large bronze, The Tree of Life, which was installed on the exterior of Temple Israel in February 1974. Sara died August 1, 1991, at age 80. She and Sidney are buried together at Riverdale Cemetery.

Sidney's most lasting legacy grew from his real estate interests. He bought property along Andrews Road where his pecan plant was, also along Buena Vista Road, Martin Luther King Boulevard, Brown Avenue, and west of Armour Road. He built houses in south and east Columbus that originally rented to army families.

In 1940, Sidney founded Simons Realty to manage family properties. Sidney employed a contractor and a crew of carpenters, painters, electricians, bricklayers, and plumbers to build the one- and two-family dwellings he furnished and rented to soldiers and their families. His employee Douglas Powell was the first African American licensed plumber in Georgia. Most of the crew worked for him their entire working lives.

On the more rural north Columbus land, Sidney in the 1940s built a picnic area in the woods and dug a lake fed by three springs where K-Mart and the southern portion of The Landings shopping center now stand. He called it "Lake Sommerset" after Sara's maiden name. There, through the 1960s, he entertained his and Sara's friends and hosted swimming parties for friends of Jean and Sydney.

In 1952, the Harmony Club had moved to north Columbus adjacent to Sidney's property. As Columbus expanded northward, the Simons' property and that of the Harmony Club were perfect for commercial development. After 1-185 was completed, the Harmony Club property became Harmony Place in 1988. IBH Properties of Atlanta in 1978 first leased, then in the 1980s purchased the Simons tract for a shopping center they named "Simons Plaza" to honor Sidney's long service to the community. The Ledger lauded the name, noting that Sidney "served on the Metro Planning Commission, the Medical Center board, the zoning board, the City Democratic Executive Committee, the Chattahoochee Valley Fair Association board, was a Mason and a Shriner, a member and trustee of Temple Israel." It was his son-in-law Maury Klumok's suggestion in the 1980s that led the city to name the access road Sidney Simons Boulevard.

Our history is all around us in the place names that roll off our tongues. Maybe the next time you drive on Sidney Simons Boulevard, you'll remember this remarkable man and his family who enriched Columbus in so many ways.