Our immigrant ancestor – Max Azen
Our immigrant ancestor, Max Azen, was born in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils)Latvia
on December 30, 1868. He was a traveling fur-seller traveling between Riga,
Minsk, Dvinsk and Vilnius. Probably because of the repeated pogroms of the
Czar of Russia, and at the invitation of his brother-in-law, Solomon Jacobson in
Pittsburgh, Max decided to move to America. He sailed to America on the S.S.
Ivernia (Cunard Line) with his wife, Bessie and eight children as well as his
mother-in-law from Liverpool, England, arriving in Boston on August 30, 1906.
He immediately moved into Pittsburgh renting a house at 1840 Locust Street that
still stands today. By 1908, he operated a nearby men’s clothing business/fur
store at 1211 Fifth Avenue then a thriving part of town as it was convenient to the
teeming masses living in “the Hill”. In October of 1911, Max bought a house at
1013 Bluff Street from a Matilda Jacobs for the price of $5850.00. The house
overlooked a steel mill and was razed to become part of Duquesne University.
By 1918, Max’s store had moved down the street to 1013 Fifth Avenue and was
selling only women’s clothes and furs.
As the war years turned into the roaring ‘20’s, business became very good for
Max. He moved his residence to the East End, buying a very large house at 708
North Negley in East Liberty.and in May of 1924, he purchased a building for his
business away from “the Hill” at 705 Penn Avenue. Throughout the ‘20’s, he
bought and sold numerous properties mostly in the East End and put the
proceeds in the bank. Unfortunately, with the passage of “Black Monday” on
October 28, 1929, many banks failed and Max lost a lot of cash. Business
slowed down considerably and Max could no longer afford to pay the taxes on
some of the properties he owned. At least five were sold by the county Sheriff for
unpaid back taxes in 1932, including 705 Penn Ave, which he continued to
occupy as a renter.
By the 1940’s business was again good as WWII brought a lot of prosperity to
Pittsburgh, which made steel as fast as it could. Max bought the former Bank at
Sixth and Wood during the war in anticipation of relocating to a larger space. He
was not able to immediately occupy the space since the government was using
the space for distribution. Unfortunately, before he was able to move into the
building, Max became ill and died of heart failure on May 10, 1943.