May 18, 2025
Local News

An Extraordinary Life: Owner of The Boston Store in Joliet was a man of great love

By DENISE M
Albert Felman, owner/operator of The Boston Store in Joliet, is seen in his office. Behind, him is a photo of his father, Maurice Felman, founder of the store. Albert grew up on Western Avenue with his mother Bertha and his father and then raised his family in that home.

Albert Felman, owner/operator of The Boston Store in Joliet, is seen in his office. Behind, him is a photo of his father, Maurice Felman, founder of the store. Albert grew up on Western Avenue with his mother Bertha and his father and then raised his family in that home. (Photo provided)

Fifty years ago, Joliet lost the owner/operator of a major downtown business and one of the original board members of the Joliet Housing Authority.

That man was Albert Felman.

Albert didn’t start The Boston Store. That was his father, whom Barbara Hamilton of Florida, Albert’s youngest daughter, never met. Family lore says Albert’s father, Maurice, came to Boston from Russia and said after he landed, “Someday, I’ll have a store and name it The Boston Store.”

But Albert had his own lofty goals. An inscription in one of his high school books said, “Sure can fly as high as heaven.”

“I thought it was a wonderful description of his ambition,” Barbara said, “and where he wanted to go in life.”

A philanthropist, Albert’s heaviest contributions were to the organizations he knew as Trinity School, the Joliet YMCA, the Universalist church and St. Joseph Hospital.

Albert also started the Felman Fund, a scholarship for students from the former Catholic High and St. Francis Academy schools and Joliet Township High School who wished to pursue medical research.

“Everything comes to an end at the end of this year,” Barbara said. “He gave it 50 years.”

When Albert ran The Boston Store, he sponsored a baseball team for the youth. He also had a Boston Store bowling team for employees, a choir for employees (which his daughter, Nancy Vincent of Chicago, directed), an annual Christmas party for the store’s employees (complete with Santa Claus), a family picnic in the summer for the employees and breakfast with Santa for the community during the holidays.

“He loved the youth,” Barbara said. “He really loved the youth. He was also very concerned with his employees. They were also his family.”

Barbara and her sisters, including Pat Corwin of Colorado, grew up at 719 Western Ave., where Albert had grown up. During their childhood, the store kept Albert busy, but he also made time for his family when he could.

For instance, Barbara recalled how he dropped off her and her sister at the Universalist church in downtown Joliet, headed to the store, and then came back for the girls and took them to the store.

“They had a lunch counter on the first floor at the time,” Barbara said. “I can remember fixing myself a cherry Coke out of the fountain. And we’d roam the store and see what was new.”

She recalled the various departments on each of the five floors, but the item that fascinated her the most when she was young was the elevator.

“I remember going up and down on it and wanting to be an elevator operator,” Barbara said. “I used to think it was neat to get in there and push the buttons. I remember when Dad installed the escalator. It went from the first floor to the second floor. That was a very big deal.”

All three girls helped out at the store, too, over school breaks, she said. Barbara recalled one of her earliest jobs: dusting shoeboxes with a duster. Later, she stuffed envelopes and worked as a saleswoman in womenswear.

“When we were old enough to have summer or seasonal jobs, Dad made a deal,” Barbara said. “He would give half our paycheck to charity and put the other half in the bank. At Christmastime, Dad would double our savings to buy gifts. This was to teach us to give back.”

The family went ahead of Albert on family vacations, but he always spent the end of it with them, she said. And he always spent holidays with his family.

“He was home for lunch much of the time, and then went back to work,” Barbara said. “We always had dinner as a family; that was a given.”

However, no one was allowed to discuss religion, politics or food, she said.

“At dessert, Dad would supervise a dictionary game,” Barbara said. “Dad would choose a random word in the dictionary. It was then up for spelling and discussion.”

But Albert wasn’t all work and no play. He took occasional fishing trips with his sons-in-law and friends. Before leaving, they fortified themselves with Stefanich’s chicken, Barbara said.

Albert and his wife, Marie, would “accidentally” wait up when their daughters were out on dates because of a Scrabble game that continued for hours. Albert also enjoyed both pingpong and gin rummy and was very competitive with both.

“He wore a fresh flower in his lapel in the summertime from the garden,” Barbara said. “And he would give it to the first smiling lady customer he saw on his way to the office.”

She said he took Marie to Europe and New York on buying trips for the store. Albert also contracted with a New York business to buy quite a bit of his womenswear, Barbara said.

In later years, Barbara occasionally drove him to the store.

“He wasn’t in great health, but he wasn’t in terribly poor health, either,” Barbara said.

That’s why his sudden death from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 74 took them by surprise, Barbara said. Yet even today when she recalls him, she recalls love.

“He loved his store. It was just in his blood,” Barbara said. “He loved his employees, and he loved the women in his family, his three daughters. And his wife he just loved dearly.”

• To feature someone in “An Extraordinary Life,” contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.