Isaac Stern (1842-1910)
Isaac Stern, of Stern Bros. Department Store, New York
He was the son of German-Jewish immigrants and was born and brought up at Albany, New York. In 1867, he and his brothers (Louis and Benjamin) went into the dry goods business and started off with a modest store in Buffalo. By 1879, they had opened Stern Brother's Department Store on 23rd Street off Madison Square, by which time they were among the best-known dry good merchants in the United States. He was Vice-President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and a well-known member of the New York Yacht Club. He built the Stern-Ryan House at 858 Fifth Avenue and kept a summer estate, Cedar Lawn at Irvington-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York. He died at his apartment in the Hotel St. Regis. In 1880, he married Virginia Michels and they had a son and two daughters. Their son founded the investment bank Bear Stearns.
