Hyman Endel’s Main Street menswear business grew along with Greenville in the early 20th century
[Contributed by the South Carolina Room at the Greenville County Public Library]
After the Civil War, Greenville entered a period of phenomenal growth. The railroad, a relatively new technological innovation, had arrived in the 1850s just prior to the war. Installation of gas streetlamps began in the 1870s, and by the 1890s Greenville had electricity, running water, and even an electric trolley system.
It was during this period that textile mills began to eclipse all other forms of manufacturing in the county, leading to Greenville’s designation as “The Textile Capital of the World” in the early part of the 20th century.
Like today, Main Street was central to the business life of the city. Prior to the Civil War, most clothing was generally tailor-made or homemade. Ready-to-wear clothing was relatively rare, but was becoming increasingly popular. One of Main Street’s most prominent clothing merchants during the Gilded Age and early 20th century was Hyman Endel.
Hyman Endel came to Greenville in the 1870s. The son of Russian immigrants, he was born in Richmond, Va., in 1852. When the war began, his father, Moses, enlisted in the Confederate Army and was later arrested by Union troops for blockade running. When Endel came to Greenville, he moved in with his uncle, Harry Mark, who owned a house on North Street.
Mark and Endel went into business together in August 1877. They opened two stores, one near the intersection of Washington and Main streets, and another at the intersection of River and Pendleton streets. They specialized in men’s ready-to-wear clothing furnished by the Schloss Brothers firm, one of Baltimore’s most successful clothing manufacturers.
Mark and Endel were extremely successful. After his uncle retired from the firm in the 1890s, Endel continued the business. He opened the Globe clothing house at 120 S. Main St. between Washington and McBee. He later built a mansion on North Main Street.
Endel was not only a successful businessman, but also a respected member of the community. He was a substantial contributor to the City Hospital fund and a supporter of Furman University and the Greenville Woman’s College.
Hyman’s sister, Fannie, attended the woman’s college. In the 1890s, Endel made provision at both institutions for an award known as the Endel Memorial Medal. One of these was an award for the best history student at Furman University, an all-male institution at the time. The other was presented to the best student of expression at the Greenville Woman’s College. These two institutions eventually merged and both medals are still awarded at Furman, now known as The Furman University Endel Memorial History Medal and the Endel Medal of Excellence in Mass Communication.
After moving to Greenville, Endel participated in the formation of a local Jewish congregation. He was a founding member of Greenville’s first Reform synagogue, the Temple of Israel, serving as its first vice president.
The congregation’s original six families had begun gathering on Whitsett Street at the home of Endel’s daughter, Mrs. George Riesenfeld, around 1911. The Temple itself was built on Buist Avenue in the late 1920s on land that had been donated by another member of Greenville’s Jewish community, Manos Meyers, the founder of Meyers Arnold department stores.
When he died in 1925, the Greenville News paid tribute to him by stating that “there never has been and never will be a better citizen than Mr. Endel.”
