Strolling along 4th Street in Santa Ana it is easy to see some remnants of the past, if you know what to look for. One of my favorites are the store entrances, where the style from the 1920s to the 1950s was to create a mosaic embedded with the store name; these little treasures tell wonderful stories. Pictured here is one such mosaic in a beautiful yellow and blue; the name “Krieger’s” has a delightfully slanted “S” as part of the logo. This shoe store belonged to one Grover Gilbert Krieger, son of Russian Jewish immigrants Leon and Jennie (née Feingold). Born in 1894 shortly after his parents arrived in the U.S., he was named Grover in honor of President Grover Cleveland, and was the fourth of eight children. Grover’s father was a shoemaker who soon became a shoe store owner; Grover went into business with him and eventually took over. The family moved to Long Beach in 1929, opening one store there and a second in Santa Ana at 104 E. 4th street, which relocated to 208 E. 4th Street in 1941 (the site of the storefront mosaic). Grover and his wife Lillian were very involved in Long Beach Jewish life, which maintained a close connection with the OC Jewish community; the two were lifetime members of Temple Israel and belonged to B’nai B’rith as well as numerous other Jewish and non-Jewish organizations.
Dalia TaFT, archivist of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit https://www.jccoc.org/pages/oc-jewish-historical-society. You can also contact Dalia at daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.