Leon Loeb (1845–1911) was a French-born American businessman who owned and operated the first department store in Los Angeles. He was a member of the Newmark family through marriage.
Stern, Cahn & Loeb's City of Paris department store at 105-7 N. Spring St. (post-1890 numbering: 205-7 Spring), sometime between 1883-1890
Leon (Leopold) Loeb, was born to a Jewish family in Strasbourg, Alsace, France,[1] the son of Rosalie (née Levi) and Jacob Loeb.[2] He worked as a bookkeeper in Switzerland before immigrating to Los Angeles in September 1864.[3] He was able to secure a job at S. Lazard & Company (founded by Solomon Lazard and Maurice Kremer) where his cousin Marc Eugene Meyer worked.[2] On 3 March 1874, Solomon Lazard retired and Marc Eugene Mayer, his brother Constant Meyer, and Nathan Kahn (Cahn) purchased S. Lazard & Co. renaming it Eugene Meyer & Company.[4] At Loeb's urging, they promoted the firm as "The City of Paris"[5] (not to be confused with the similarly named store in San Francisco), the city's first department store.[6] The store would grow to be the largest and most elaborate department store in the Southwest.[7][8] On 31 January 1879, Loeb purchased the interest held by Constant Meyer[9] and the firm was renamed Meyer, Kahn and Loeb.[10] In October 1883, Eugene Meyer sold his interest and moved to San Francisco to work for Lazard Frères. After the admission of to Emmanuel L. Stern as a partner, the company was renamed Stern, Cahn & Loeb.[11] After the departure of Nathan Cahn, it was renamed Stern, Loeb & Company until its liquidation in the early 1890s.[10]
Meyer had also been the French Consular Agent in Los Angeles, and he recommended Leopold Loeb to take as consul, which he did in 1883.[12][2] Leopold Loeb served as the French Consular Agent for over fifteen years.[2] The French government awarded him the Officer of the Academy (Officier d'académie).[2]
Personal life
In 1879, he married Estelle Newmark, the daughter of Harris Newmark[1] and granddaughter of Joseph Newmark. They had three children who survived to adulthood: Rose Newmark Levi (b. 1881) married to Herman Levi, Joseph P. Loeb (b. 1883), and Edwin J. Loeb (1886).[1] A fourth child, George, died after several months. Loeb died in 1911.[10]
