FERNAND LEVY

 

             Mr. Fernand Levy, well known in San Mateo business and social circles not only as the president and founder of Levy Brothers but as a man who takes a sincere interest in all matters of public importance.

             The firm of Levy Brothers exemplifies the saying that “Rome was not built in a day.”  It grew to its present magnitude and prosperity from a small beginning.  In 1872 Levy Brothers was established—not in San Mateo, strange as it may seem—but in Half Moon Bay.  In 1892 it was incorporated.  Similar stores at this time also belonging to Levy Brothers, sprang up—one at Pescadero and one in San Gregorio.  In 1898 it was decided to move the business to San Mateo, where it has been steadily growing ever since, having assumed more and more the functions of a department store.  At the present date, it is a fact that this store, the largest of its kind in the county, maintains a standard of service and high quality of merchandise not surpassed by the larger department stores of our next door neighbor—San Francisco.

             Mr. Fernand Levy was born in Lorraine, France in the year 1848.  When not quite twenty he left France for America, accompanied by his brother Jo, a lad of sixteen years.  Since that time, over forty-seven years ago, the brothers have been almost constantly associated together in their business enterprises; and it is due in no small part to this harmonious co-operation, that the firm has prospered.

 

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

 

Source: History of San Mateo County by Philip W. Alexander & Charles P. Hamm page 137. Press of Burlingame Publishing Co., Burlingame, CA. 1916.