A Pinole Landmark Comes to Light
By George R. Vincent, Courtesy of the Pinole Historical Society
Greenfield’s, Pinole’s first large-scale department store.
Abraham Greenfield was one of the city’s great businessmen.
One of the joys of researching the past is discovering history
that has been lost or misplaced in time. Such is the case of
Pinole’s first and only large-scale department store, built by
Abraham Greenfield in 1905 on the southwest corner of
Tennent Avenue and Pear Street.
No early pictures of the building by itself were ever found.
It only appeared in group photos of nearby buildings, showing
vague portions of the structure in later years and after different
remodeling phases. Thanks to a discovery in the Contra Costa
County Historical Society’s archives by Pinole Historical
Society member Stephen Lawton, we now have an original
photo of the pride of Abraham Greenfield’s business enterprise
in Pinole.
Abraham Greenfield came to Pinole in the late 19th century.
In July 1897, he had a smaller store called the “Pinole Bazaar”
along Tennent Avenue, between the old Pinole Food Center
of the 1960s and today’s Pump House convenience store.
Here, Greenfield carried almost everything, from furniture and
clothing to foodstuffs, paint, liquor, and farming gear.
In 1905, he built the massive three-story structure with its
large staircase just one block from his first store. Greenfield was
a respected merchant and member of the Pinole community
heavily involved in town politics and social life. He was also
a money-lender to those needing a loan. His decorated float
led Fourth of July parades. The cover of the Pinole Historical
Society’s 2009 book, “Images of America, Pinole,” shows
Greenfield and his patriotic float.
Mr. and Mrs. Greenfield and daughter, Rosalie, carried on
the business until moving to San Francisco in the late 1930s.
His customers looked forward to getting calendars and fancy
china plates at year’s end.
Abraham Greenfield’s stellar reputation played a part in
freeing the only woman ever put into Pinole’s first wooden jail
on Pear Street.
In 1900, Constable Michael Scanlan arrested the manager
of a boarding house on grand larceny charges. There had been
a theft of guns and money from one of her boarders. Scanlan
physically arrested her on Main Street in front of her daughter
and many astonished citizens. He shut her in the old jail for
hours, as night fell and crowds gathered. Greenfield was one of
the cool-headed onlookers who convinced Scanlan to free the
hysterical woman into her husband’s custody for the night.
26 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM NOVEMBER 2017