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Oliver-Finnie Grocery Co.
...a Historic Memphis Institution
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In
1860, James P. Finnie arrived in Memphis on the "Silver Moon"
Steamboat and opened a small retail grocery at 284 Main and Court.
In 1868 he began a partnership with Joseph N. Oliver, forming
the Oliver-Finnie Company, and they soon moved the company to a new
location at
357
Front Street.
In
1903, the company began its own manufacturing department, naming their
product line "Silver Moon" after the steamer that brought J. P.
Finnie to Memphis. The company moved to their final Memphis
location at
7
Vance Avenue
after a major fire destroyed their Front Street building in 1904. The
Oliver-Finnie Company operated continuously until 1961, when it was liquidated to
settle the estate of Maynard Holt, the company's last president and
major stockholder.
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Oliver-Finnie 1888
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Click on small
photos to see an enlargement |
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James P.
Finnie
was born in Caseyville, Ky in 1834. He left school
at 17 and took a position as a clerk in a general store, where he
worked until forming a partnership when he was 21. In 1860,
he dissolved the partnership and moved to Memphis and entered the
retail business again. Within 3 years he formed a partnership
with Joseph Oliver. |
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Joseph N. Oliver
was born in Newark, N.J. in 1828. After studying the
making of hats in New York, he worked in that field until 1860 when a branch
opened in Memphis. He headed south, although this was
right at the beginning of the Civil War and the hat business closed
shortly after he arrived. Instead, Oliver went into the retail
grocery line, and thrived.
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Silver Moon |
Silver Moon |
1885 Memphis Map |
1900 Directory |
1916 Ad |
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1888 O-F Envelope |
1895 Invoice |
1893 Invoice |
Coffee Tasting Room |
1905 Article |
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284 Main Street:
A very rare receipt from 1870, showing the Main Street address
and the partnership name shortly before they moved to their new
building at 357 Front Street. |
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357 Front Street: The
land at 357 Front Street had been used as a Confederate encampment
for the defense of Memphis during the Civil War. After the
war, Joseph N. Oliver purchased this property in 1886 for $2,316.66,
from Anne B. Stewart, a widow. He and his
partner James P. Finnie opened and operated their wholesale grocery
business here until a major fire completely destroyed the building in 1904. |
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<
After the Front Street property burned, Joseph P. Oliver
replaced it with a cold storage facility, the first of
its kind in the South. The walls were insulated with
thick panels of cork and cooled by river water pumped through
a maze of pipes pressurized by a coal-burning plant in the
basement. For many years the false windows were
decorated with paintings of fish, chickens, eggs, and other
foods stored here. |
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Articles
about the huge 1904 Fire at 357 Front St: |
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Because the building resembled a theatre, it fooled many visiting theatrical companies who assumed such a
grand structure would be the house for their performance.
Ironically this building also burned in 1907 but Oliver rebuilt
it.
In recent years up to 2012 the building housed "The Butcher
Shop" Restaurant. It moved out because the property owners
plan to redevelop the building as residential and commercial.
When
Memphis changed their numbering system in 1905, the new address
for this building became 99-103 S. Front St. The
Oliver building was listed on the National Register in 1979.
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99-100 Front St: The building today |
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7 Vance Avenue:
The
Oliver-Finnie manufacturing building at 7 Vance Avenue
(below) was called a "city within a city" and
was in use for 57 years. It was the home of the "Silver Moon"
brand, and one of the show places of Memphis. The entire seven
story building, covering almost a block, was used for the
manufacture of high grade candies, extracts, grape juice, baking
powders and roasting coffees, and milling of spices. Built in
1919, it was the largest pure food emporium in the South.
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The
Oliver-Finnie Company manufacturing building at 7 Vance Avenue
in 1916 and the way the building is today. |
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Candy manufacturing was one of the largest departments,
where 25,000 pounds or a carload of candy a day was
produced. They also did an immense trade in roasting
and packing of coffee, and the manufacture of grocers'
sundries and fountain supplies. The company had a
large force of traveling salesmen and their products were
marketed in the Southern States, Cuba, and South America.
Today, the Vance building has lost some of its upper floors,
but there's enough left to make out the old manufacturing
"city" |
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7 Vance
Avenue -1937 |
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Finnie Obit 1912 |
Oliver Graves |
Oliver
Grave-Elmwood |
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The
Butcher Shop Restaurant |
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Oliver-Finnie Company Memorabilia |
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The
company's brands/products included: Silver Moon Coffee, Court
Square Coffee, Ketch-Me Coffee, Bonnie Blend Coffee, Royal Coffee,
Dad's Coffee and Chicory, Silver Moon Baking Powder, Silver Moon
Pancake Flour, Silver Moon Buckwheat Flour and 515 varieties of
candies - from hand-dipped chocolates to hard candy sold in 20 quart
pails. |
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Silver Moon Coffee |
100 Lb. Coffee |
Coffee |
Jar Lid |
Silver Moon Mustard |
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Fruit Jar Rings |
Fruit Jar |
Vintage Ad |
Vintage Ad |
O-F Product |
Snuff |
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Obit Notice 1912 |
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1907 Fire Notice |
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Maynard Holt |
1922 Ad |
Newspaper
items |
1907
Fire |
1880s |
Bottle |
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Coffee Can |
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Cherries |
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The
Victorian trading cards
(below)
were an early form of advertising. Typically, they
had a nice picture on the front, and advertising or the name
of a company printed or stamped on the back. Merchants
and street walkers would hand them out . With the advent
of lithography, it became possible to mass-produce them in
color. This led to the golden age from 1876 to the early
1900s. Because they were so colorful, folks began saving
them and today, they are highly collectible.
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<<<< Victorian Trading
Cards for the Oliver-Finnie Company. Collection
Dave French
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Credits |
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The
Historic-Memphis website does not intentionally post copyrighted
photos and material without permission or credit.
On
occasion a "non-credited" photo might possibly be posted because we
were unable to find a name to give credit. Because of the nature of
our non-commercial, non-profit, educational website, we strongly
believe that these photos would be considered "Fair Use. We have
certainly made no monetary gain, although those using this website
for historic or Genealogy research have certainly profited. If by
chance,
we have posted your copyrighted photo, please contact us, and we'll
remove it immediately, or we'll add your credit if that's your
choice. In the past, we have found that many photographers
volunteer to have their works included on these pages and we'll
also do that if you contact us with a photo that fits a particular
page. |
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The "Historic-Memphis" website would like to acknowledge and thank the
following for their contributions which helped make this website
possible:
Memphis
Public Library, Memphis University Library, Memphis Law Library,
Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Press Scimitar, Shelby County
Register of Deeds, Memphis City Schools, Memphis Business Men's
Club, Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis City Park Commission,
Memphis Film Commission, Carnival Memphis, Memphis Historical
Railroad Page, Memphis Heritage Inc, Beale Street Historic District,
Cobblestone Historic District, Memphis Historic Districts, Vance
Lauderdale Family Archives, Tennessee State Archives, Library of
Congress, Kemmons Wilson Family, Richard S. Brashier, Lee Askew,
George Whitworth, Woody Savage and many individuals whose assistance is
acknowledged on the pages of their contributions. Special
thanks to Memphis Realtor, Joe Spake, for giving us carte blanche
access to his outstanding collection of contemporary Memphis photos.
We do not have high definition copies of the photos on these
pages. If anyone wishes to secure high definition photos,
you'll have to contact the photographer or the collector.
(To avoid any possibility of contributing to SPAM, we do not
maintain a file of email addresses for anyone who contacts us). |
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