The Schwarz brothers, Henry, Gustavus, Frederick and Richard, immigrants from Germany, sons of a Lutheran goldsmith, opened toy stores eventually in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston after the fire in Chicago. The most famous and long lasting of these toy stores was F.A.O. Schwarz in New York.
Gustavus Adolphus opened his store in Philly in 1859 and continued until 1917, when embargoes on imported toys from Germany were most effective and something like seventy-five percent of the business. That and freight costs from Japan, a toy supplier, jumped 700% in the middle of a global war situation.
The brothers for many years had held a monopoly of sorts on buying the entire stocks of toys made in certain towns and villages in Germany, products of the highest European quality, that were imported into the American market via the Schwarzs' stores.
G.A. Schwarz Toy Store - 1006 Chestnut Street - 1859/1917
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