Cathy2 wrote:Why not start a thread on useful resources you had no idea about. It will really be a benefit to many of us here.

I don't know if it merits a new thread (feel free to move it) but here are the sources I used to find information on Bromann Bros. I'm rarely impressed with the Chicago Public Library so it's nice to be able to say something positive.

The Find It @ CPL page simultaneously searches many databases. Some allow remote access and others can only be viewed at the library. I found relevant material in the Chicago Tribune Historical Archive, quite a useful resource. You need a valid library card number to use the search.

The other source I used was the Chicago (Cook County) Industrial Directory. CPL has annual volumes starting in 1953. This isn't electronically searchable; you actually have to take a book off the shelf and flip through the pages!

Bromann Brothers did in fact exit the cabinet making business by 1976. By that time they were producing very little in terms of commercial cabinetry, and were primarily involved in custom cabinets and repairs/refurbishments of existing cabinets.

As means of a little company history, my great-great-grandfather Heinrich Bromann came to the US from Germany (Bavaria to be exact) in 1869. He was a cabinet maker by trade. In 1871 his wife and sons Theodore, Edward, and Karl arrived in Chicago to join him. By 1886 father and sons were producing display cabinets for neighborhood grocery stores and other specialty stores (haberdasheries, women's clothiers, etc.). In 1887 Heinrich passed away and business was continued by my great-grandfather Theodore and his brothers. By the beginning of the 20th century their sons had joined the business and Bromann Brothers was employing about 20 people. Their specialty had become building and installing freezer cabinets and later walk-in freezers for neighborhood butchers and package goods stores throughout the west and north sides. It helped business that two of the daughters married into family businesses that relied on refrigeration: the Peter Fox family (Fox Deluxe beer) and the Elmer Kneip family (Kneip Corned Beef). The company's most profitable (if you can call it that) period was from about 1900 to about 1945.

As their offspring aged and had children of their own who pursued their own careers, the family business suffered and by the time the Henry and Edward closed the doors for good in 1976 there were 7 employees. The company may be gone but at least part of the legacy continues: one of the last remaining brothers - Charles Bromann - has a park named after him (Bromann Playlot Park) on the north side of Chicago (Broadway and Foster area).

I was 8 years old at the time they went out of business and by the time I was old enough to pay attention to my family history, most of the people involved in the business were long dead. But there were still enough of them around to provide the important details. Ever since my grandmother died in 2001 I've been on a mission to find whatever Bromann Brothers memorabilia I can find, so I'm EXTREMELY happy to have found this site. Tonight I Googled "Bromann Brothers" for the umpteenth time, but tonight was the first time I actually paged in more than a couple of pages. And I'm glad I did.

Since I started looking for some of my family's history I've found (and purchased) 4 absolutely beautiful brass freezer door hinges from an antique store in Belvidere, IL, which was a miracle since I've lived in Minneapolis for the past 13 years and only stopped there grudgingly because my wife wanted to look around. I've also found an old display cabinet from the old Salamander Shoes store that used to be on Lincoln Ave. I wasn't able to purchase it because the dealer seemed to bump the price up a few hundred percent once he heard my name was Bromann and I was related to the people who made it. While I was willing to spend up to $500, I wasn't able to pony up the $10,000 he was asking. It didn't even have the cut glass anymore...

Anyway, that's sort of the nutshell history of Bromann Brothers. If anyone has seen any of their display cabinets or freezers/freezer items anywhere -- being used on a day to day basis or even for sale -- I would appreciate it if you could let me know. Likewise, if anyone has any questions about the company or what they did, let me know and I'll answer to the best of my (or my dad's) abilities.

HI,

Thank you for taking time to fill in the gaps of our knowledge.

To find more family memorabilia, you can use e-Bay's 'favorite search,' which will send you an e-mail anytime anything with your family name pops up on their website. I have used this to obtain obscure items I desired.

Good luck and thank you for sharing your family's history.

Regards,

HAVE NOT SEEN MARUSZCZAK SMOKED POLISH FOR A WHILE AT STRACK AND VANTILL'S. I E-MAILED MR. STRACK AND HE REPLIED THEY WENT OUT OF BUISNESS. I CANT BELIEVE MY FAVORITE POLISH IS NO LONGER MADE, I HAVE BEEN EATING IT SINCE I WAS A KID. 3-27-07

HI,

ReneG and I passed Maruszak just recently quite by chance. The deli section was closed with a sense of abandon. We hoped they had simply closed the retail to concentrate on production.

It is really too bad.

Regards,

I really want to thank you for the information on the Broman brothers and the perfection cooling room. I searched for information on them several times in the past without success. Then I stumbled upon this posting.

In the mid 1980's I was doing remodeling work in Chicago’s far south suburbs. One of the jobs took me into the city and involved converting an old shop and the building next door into a auto glass/auto alarm installation business. It was located on Cicero Ave (south of Wriggle Field). Anyway, we started knocking down a wall when we realized there was something inside the wall; we could see mirrors, marble and oak. At that point we exercised a bit more care in taking down the outter wall (became as careful as you can with a sledge hammer). With the outter wall down we were looking at a floor to ceiling perfection cooling room facade. It was quite the sight. Oak panels, mantels and trim accented with mirrors and marble. Right in the middle of it was a sign; Perfection Cooling Room MFRD by Broman Bros. Chicgo ILL." It was in excellent condition. While we were all impressed with the craftsmanship of the facade, progress waits for nothing and down it had to come. Before finally taking it down I spent my lunch hour salvaging huge pieces of oak, some of the mirrors and the Broman Bros sign (which stills hangs in my study today). We figured someone remodeled what must have been an old butcher shop but could not bring themselves to destroy the facade so they encased it within the wall where it was forgotten about over the years. The workmanship was very impressive and the materials top of the line. On the back side there were still sections of the cork insulation that lined the walls of the cooler. I had never seen anything like them, they were about 4" thick. The perfection cooling room facade was the most impressive thing I ever came across in 6 years of doing remodeling work.

This caught my eye upthread:

Interesting about the Russians on Gary's west side

I was worried G Wiv had been looking over his shoulder for the KGB until I parsed the sentence carefully twice in context.

I bought a storefront with apartment above on Wrightwood in Logan Square last year. The store used to contain a catering business and before that a butcher shop and was closed down, I think, in the early 80's. The zoning for this street is now residential. Midway back on the first floor was a pine walk-in cooler and in the back an old Faulds Oven. I recently started the rehab process to turn the whole building into a single family home. Behind a painted pressboard wall in front of the cooler I came across a wall of carved, dark oak paneling along with an inserted reverse painted and silver foil glass sign "Perfection Cooling Mfrd by Bromann Bros. Chicago, Ill.". Unfortunately, some of the panels were missing, some had deep sawcuts and much of the surface area was covered with adhesive. I've saved it all anyway with the idea of cleaning it up and somehow incorporating it into the new digs. It's the least I can do to preserve some memory of what went before my time in this building. Of course the first thing I did was to Google Bromann Bros and came across this forum and the comments by a descentant of the Bromann family.

Having always admired the cooler doors at Barbara Ann's, I wonder if they are a partially painted-over late Bromann set:

viewtopic.php?p=200089#p200089

In annieb's absence and the high value of this thread, might we be able to get [or Bromann Bros cabinetry] in the thread title?

This thread is pretty old, but I see that a current moderator contributed to it (so it likely to be responded to by at least one of the original posters), so I'll add my two cents. I live in EC, am of Polish ancestry, and my wife is from Gdansk, Poland, and had never heard of Bolshevik prior to yesterday (actually I now realize they sell it at the Stracks in EC). Yesterday, a friend of mine who's 81, asked me if I ever see Bolshevik lunchmeat when I visit Kurowski Sauage Shop in Chicago. I never heard of it, so I called my wife. She hadn't heard of it, but the phone connection wasn't clear (it turns it she knows about it, but does not care for it). I called my uncle, and he said it it was a staple of the old Polish meatmarkets that were common in EC into the early 1970's. Taverns also made their own. My friend also said this. It was available at Buda's, ZaWadaza's, Tele's, Klien's, Krupa's Tavern, etc. into the early 1970's. Each butcher had their own secret recipe of course. I went to Kurowski's this morning, and didn't see it, but then I didn't know it's a headcheese, and didn't make my way down to that end of the counter. I now know where to get it. My guess is that bolshevik was term for regular head cheese. My wife for example, likes orzorki, which is beef tongue head cheese. It doesn't show up on this list, and this list is very extensive.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausages-b ... h-sausages

EC had two synagouges. Beth Sholom Congregation of Isreal was located on Barring Avenue, just north of the tracks. The second, B'nia Congregation of Isreal was on Hemlock, in the Harbor. I believe both were closed by 1990. EC did have a Russian population, and their church, St. Nicolas was located on Olcott avenue. I'm not sure when it closed, probably around 1985 or so.