Rosberg’s served both Welland and Niagara Falls
Stores that anchored two downtowns founded by Polish immigrants
Once a part of a local department store chain that won the hearts of many people while operating in Welland and Niagara Falls, Rosberg’s was part of a larger legacy that came to an unceremonious end.
Jacob Wolf Wroncberg, born in about 1874 in Opatow, Poland, founded the store.
After marrying Mary (Mindel) Lefkowitz in 1899, Jacob, his parents, his wife and four children emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1913, settling in Toronto.
After initially attempting to make his living through farming, Jacob decided to instead sell his cow at Kensington Market and use the money to open a store in the city. A few years later in roughly 1916, Jacob and his family moved from Toronto to Niagara Falls after hearing of developing opportunities there.
Jacob started his business by peddling work clothes to workers building the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Station.
In 1918, after becoming naturalized citizens and changing their last name to Rosberg, Jacob and Mary set up their first Rosberg’s menswear store in Niagara Falls, at the northeast corner of Queen Street and Erie Avenue, working as a team to build up the business.
As a member of a second wave of Jewish immigrants to Niagara, Jacob soon became one of the local Jewish community’s major leaders, and Rosberg’s itself turned into an anchoring mainstay on Queen Street.
As the store’s success grew, so did demand. In the fall of 1930, a second location was opened in Welland at 80-86 East Main St., occupying the block known as the “White Building” next to the Capitol Theatre. The store replaced the Williams Electric store, Willie Wong’s laundry and A.W. Van Alstine’s barbershop.
This new Rosberg’s was managed by the couple’s daughter, Gertrude, and her husband, Harry Carrel. After Jacob’s death in 1954, the Niagara Falls location was run by his sons, Joseph and Harold, who expanded Rosberg’s offerings to include furniture, appliances and other items.
Over the years, both stores underwent a number of changes. The Niagara Falls location was renovated in 1922 and 1938, and an addition opened in 1951, eventually culminating in a total of 14 departments across 5,575 square metres (60,000 square feet) of the store.
The Rosberg’s in Welland underwent four expansions, bringing up the total floor space 3,250 square metres (35,000 square feet) after completion of the last one in 1957.
In 1962, the Welland store was leased to the S.S. Kresge Co., another well-known department store chain, with ownership of the building remaining with the Rosberg and Carrel families.
The Kresge store closed in 1977 following the opening of Seaway Mall on Niagara Street in 1975, which drew many shoppers away from the traditional downtown stores. The Niagara Falls store continued to operate until 1988, when its closure was announced to much public dismay.
The building remained abandoned until a fire in 2009 would put an end to renovation plans.
Welland’s former Rosberg’s store was demolished along with a good portion of East Main’s other northside buildings for redevelopment that never materialized, before the property became part of the site of Welland Civic Square, constructed in 2005.