Aiken Jewish Merchant Family Homes

Some of the early Jewish merchants lived above their stores when they first came to Aiken but by the 1920s many Jewish merchant families were living on Pendleton St. This area was walking distance to their stores (on Laurens St) and walking distance to the Synagogue (on the corner of Greenville St & Barnwell Ave). The children of these merchants could not go anywhere in this neighborhood without being observed by members of the Jewish community (many of whom were relatives) — so word of any bad behavior would quickly get back to their parents.

The homes of several prominent Aiken Jewish Merchants are shown on the map above. Click on the names of these merchants to learn more about these family residences:

1. HC Surasky & Nathan Persky

2. Jacob S Poliakoff

3. BM Surasky & Mandle Surasky

4. Morris Rudnick

5. Isadore Efron

6. Jacob Wolf