When David Silverstein talks about The Pizitz, the pride in his voice is unmistakable. It’s there in the way he recalls the building’s long and winding narrative arc–from retail anchor, to vacant shell, to a living, breathing center of downtown Birmingham once again. That pride, evident in every detail of Bayer Properties’ restoration, echoes something much older. It points directly back to the man whose name still crowns the façade: Louis Pizitz.
For nearly 87 years, Pizitz department stores were woven into daily life in Alabama, especially in Birmingham. Their character, historians note, owed much to the personality of their founder, a man whose own life story was shaped by resilience, faith, and an unwavering belief in community.
How Pizitz took a chance on a new life
(Bayer Properties/Contributed)
Louis Pizitz was born in Poland in 1867. Orphaned by the age of seven, he was educated in Hebrew school and, for a time, studied to become a rabbi. In 1889, he arrived in the United States with nothing. “When I reached New York, I did not have a dollar and walked around the streets for three days,” he later recalled in his autobiography. A chance meeting with a woman from his hometown led him to Georgia, where he worked as a jewelry peddler, studying English late into the night by the glow of a coal lamp. “It was rather a hard job,” he said, “but then if your living depends upon knowledge of how to speak the language, you will soon learn.”…