#8Saul Alexander's Clothing Store
100 S Main St Ste A
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​Saul Alexander’s Clothing Store
Saul Alexander arrived alone in Summerville in 1905 as a Jewish teenager fleeing persecution in his native Ukraine. Over time, he established himself as a tailor and a money lender. His name can still be seen above the entrance to what was his store on Town Square, currently occupied by Cuppa Manna. Upon his death, many were surprised to find that he had become a millionaire. The town still benefits from the Saul Alexander Foundation.
Saul Alexander’s clothing store
• On the northwestern corner of Hutchinson Square, the contemporary Cuppa Manna occupies the store once owned by Saul Alexander, the Ukranian immigrant whose “ship came in” at Summerville.
• Saul Alexander left Ukraine at the turn-of-the-century under the pressure of anti-Jewish pogroms. He arrived as a teenager in NY; within a few years, he had found his way to Summerville, seeking a new life.
• Saul was a skilled tailor, working on the Square and saving his money until he could afford to purchase his own store. In the decades of his professional life, he became a popular financier for local home mortgages as he also made and sold apparel.
• After he died in the 1950s, his will became public and the people of Summerville were stunned that they would be the primary beneficiaries of a sizable estate.
• In the years that have followed, the Saul Alexander Foundation has funded local schools and public playgrounds, along with projects promoting health, religion and the environment.
Saul Alexander (1884-1952)
• In the 1800s, the Jewish population of Eastern Europe dramatically increased in numbers; prejudice against them grew as well. In imperial Russia, Jews were confined to isolated areas outside the boundaries of larger cities in Ukraine. Here they were periodically harassed and attacked by mobs. Hundreds of thousands had emigrated from Ukraine to America by 1900.
• Saul Alexander was a Jewish teenager in Ukraine when he began an epic journey of escape which ended at Summerville. He probably walked the 1,000 miles from southern Ukraine to Bremen, Germany, then sailed thousands of more miles to New York City.
• After finding work in a delicatessen, he bought a train ticket to Summerville where he found work in a dry goods store on Hutchinson Square. He became a skilled tailor and soon owned the shop next door.
• Saul Alexander was a modest and popular man in public. In private, he enjoyed his little dog, a Russian spitz called “Snowball” and card games with friends in the garden house behind this residence on Central Avenue. The reconstructed garden house can now be seen in the Summerville musem courtyard.
• The people of Summerville, who admired him as a competent and honorable clothier, learned in 1952 that he died a millionaire. They also learned that he left most of his money in a charitable foundation. The money has been used in Summerville and around the Lowcountry since that time, promoting religious, educational and cultural purposes.
• A friend and fellow Jew mentioned a verse from the Tanahk (Jewish Bible) that Saul Alexander frequently quoted: “What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:3-4).
