Opall Family Papers and Photographs, 1943-2009
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Opall Family Papers and Photographs
- Creator
- Opall Family
- Collection Number
- MSS 1081
- Extent
- .5 linear feet (1 box)
- Date
- 1943-2009
- Abstract
- The Opall Family ran a furniture store in Uniontown, Pa. for 67 years. The family was also active in many Jewish organizations in Fayette County. The Opall Family Papers and Photographs documents the personal, professional, and communal activities of the Opall family in Fayette County through photographs, event programs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, and membership certificates.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
-
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
Louis Opallinsky (c.1902- 1972) immigrated to present-day Israel from his native Russia in 1906 as part of the Second Aliyah movement, responding to the growing threat of pogroms in Eastern Europe. He was an aide to a British officer during World War I and learned English by spending time with British troops. He moved to the United States around 1920, landing first in New York and then living with an uncle in Baltimore who later helped him settle in Western Pennsylvania. After running a business in Masontown, Pa. for many years, Opallinsky moved to Uniontown in 1939 and later shortened his name to Opall.
Louis and his wife Mary Opall opened Keystone Wallpaper & Paint Co. in 1939 in the back of the Keystone Supermarket at 10 Main St. in Uniontown. They moved to 49 W. Main St. in 1940 and began selling furniture. They moved again in 1943 to 66 W. Main St. and became Keystone Furniture. Louis and Mary Opall had one child, Morton Opall (b.1937). Morton Opall worked in the family store as a child. After graduating from Uniontown High School in 1955, he attended Penn State University for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Marines Corps in 1957, serving in Okinawa, Japan. When he returned to Uniontown in 1959 following his tour of duty, Morton Opall joined the family business, eventually taking over the store. He incorporated the business as Opall's Furniture in 1967 and later moved to the former Montgomery Ward building at 31 Morgantown St., a 40,000 square foot building with three floors, a balcony, and free validated parking. His wife Rosalie Opall joined the business in 1971. They rebranded the business in 1988, changing the name to Opall's Just Bed and relocating Gabriel Brothers Plaza. They sold the business to Best Mattress Co. Inc. in 2006, overseeing the liquidation of inventory themselves.
Morton Opall met Rosalie Gland of McKeesport, Pa. while attending a B'nai B'rith Youth Organization event in Pittsburgh. They married in 1960, after she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in education. Rosalie (Gland) Opall's maternal grandparents, Morris and Rose Weintraub, ran a confectionary store in McKeesport. They had a daughter, Ethel. While visiting friends in New York in 1938, Ethel Weintraub met Max Gland, a furrier who had emigrated from Poland in the early 1900s. They lived in New York for the first years of their marriage but as the high-end clothing market declined toward the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II, Max and Ethel Gland returned to McKeesport to live with family in a large house on Sixth Street. They had three children, Claire, Arlene and Rosalie. They attended Congregation Sfard Anshe Galicia in McKeesport.
The Opalls were members of Tree of Life Congregation in Uniontown and the Uniontown Jewish Community Center. They also had an affiliation with Temple Ohave Israel in Brownsville. Morton Opall was president of B'nai B'rith Fayette Lodge No. 471. Rosalie Opall was a president of the local Hadassah chapter. They participated in a communal effort to establish a Holocaust memorial in Uniontown in 1982.
Scope and Content Notes
The Opall Family Papers and Photographs documents the personal, professional, and communal activities of the Opall family in Fayette County in the mid-to-late 20th century. The bulk of the collection documents the Opall family's involvement in Jewish organizations in Fayette County, including Tree of Life Congregation and Tre of Life Sisterhood (Uniontown), Temple Israel (Uniontown), Temple Ohave Israel (Brownsville), B'nai B'rith Fayette Lodge No. 471, and the Uniontown Chapter of Hadassah. These organizations are documented through photographs, event programs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, and membership certificates. A folder of material documents Opall's Furniture Inc. and Opall's Just Beds through clippings, correspondence, and photographs.
Conditions Governing Access
None.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Morton and Rosalie Morton in Accession #2015.0100.
Preferred Citation
Opall Family Papers, 1943-2009, MSS #1081, Rauh Jewish Archives, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Kara Flynn in October 28, 2016.
Related Materials
Mort Opall oral history [2015.0103]
Subjects
- Temple Ohave Israel (Brownsville, Fayette County, Pa.)
- Temple Israel (Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa.)
- Tree of Life Congregation (Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa.)
- B'nai B'rith Fayette Lodge No. 471
- Tree of Life Sisterhood (Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa.)
- Hadassah, Women's Zionist Organization of America, Uniontown Chapter.
- Opall Family
- Opall, Louis, 1902-1972
- Opall, Mary
- Opall, Morton, 1937-2020
- Opall, Rosalie Gland
- Brownsville (Fayette County, Pa.)
- Uniontown (Fayette County, Pa.)
- Jews -- Pennsylvania
- Jewish organizations -- Pennsylvania
- Jews -- Charities -- Pennsylvania
- Synagogues -- Pennsylvania
- Jews -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Social life and customs
- Jewish businesspeople -- Pennsylvania
- Jewish community centers -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Jewish religious education -- Pennsylvania