Gulfport owes it all to catalog mogul Roebuck
From fixing watches to infusing life in a city, the mail-order giant was always tinkering to make things better.
By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL
Published February 18, 2004
GULFPORT - After pairing with Richard W. Sears to fashion what would become a mail-order empire, Alvah Curtis Roebuck came here in 1925 to develop a community of homes.
"A new standard of home construction is being established," the Evening Independent wrote of the retailer's subdivision, Roebuck Park. "The businessman is literally painting masterpieces."
As a boy, Roebuck mastered watch repair. He would become a retail giant when that skill united him with Sears. After establishing a successful typewriter concern and then a film projection company, Roebuck relocated to Gulfport, entered politics and invested in land.
"His houses brought in a new class of people, doctors and such," Gulfport historian Lynne Brown said. "People of means who hadn't before lived in Gulfport."
The Independent called Roebuck "one of the leading boosters of the municipality."
On Jan. 9, 1864, Roebuck was born in Lafayette, Ind. His father died when Roebuck was 13 years old, leaving him with family responsibility and a broken silver watch. Roebuck repaired the timepiece and began fixing his classmates' watches for 25 cents each.
"A.C. Roebuck, Repair of Watches, Clocks and Jewelry," read his first business card.
After a move to Hammond, Ind., where he earned $3.50 weekly at age 23, Roebuck answered a Chicago Daily News ad in 1887 for a watchmaker. He brought with him a sample of his work.
"I don't know anything about watchmaking," said Sears, an aggressive businessman. "I presume this is good, otherwise you wouldn't have submitted it to me. You may have the position." On Sept. 16, 1893, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was established. After leaving Sears in the 1890s, Roebuck designed a two-shift typewriter and established the Woodstock Typewriter Co. He later would return to Sears and remain until 1914, when Sears died. By 1925, Roebuck had amassed wealth designing and selling film projectors to nearly half the nation's theaters.
"He passed up several opportunities to make enormous fortunes," the New York Times wrote about Roebuck, who loved discovering what made objects tick.
In January 1925, Roebuck arrived here and bought an existing subdivision between 52nd and 53rd streets and 29th and 31st avenues S. After renaming the area Roebuck Park, he built the subdivision "lot by lot," Roebuck said to the Tourist News in his first interview about his career.
"He was an isolationist," said Gulfport native Nathan White, 78. "He didn't circulate the community."
After studying a Florida home's needs, Roebuck selected state-of-the-art designs for his stucco structures. Ventilation was emphasized. Fireplaces, garages, laundry facilities, barrel-tile roofs and "electric plants" for soft water attracted buyers. Trees and shrubbery landscaped each lot.
"They're built so that we don't have to make any apologies for them," said Roebuck, who resided at the house at 5233 Delett Ave. S with his wife, Blanche, and two children.
"In the homes being built by Mr. Roebuck, nothing of the "mail-order house' creeps in," the Independent wrote. According to writings by Gulfport historian Claudette Dean, however, Roebuck also built a few Sears "catalog houses" here.
Roebuck ran for Town Council in 1927 and received the most votes (108), Brown said. He served as council president from 1927 to 1928. In 1929, Roebuck lost a mayoral election to Sam Webb, 145-73.
By 1930, the Depression had left Roebuck reeling. He completed nearly 20 homes in Roebuck Park and then returned to Sears. "He must have sunk his last penny into those lots," Brown said.
When people would compare his poverty to Sears' riches, Roebuck would say: "(Sears) is dead. Me, I've never felt better."
Roebuck spent his later years in Tujunga, Calif., tinkering with gadgets. He died in Chicago in 1948 while visiting his daughter. He was 84.
In March 1969, journalist Paul Davis reported that Roebuck's gable-roofed workshop was still standing. Chests, workbenches and furniture filled the structure at 2925 53rd St. S.
Nathan White said recently that, like Roebuck, "the workshop is now gone."
- You can reach Scott Taylor Hartzell at hartzel@msn.com