DeRoy & Sons
The small gated park at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Smithfield Street marks the spot where a family of jewelry merchants once had a thriving business in diamonds and other precious stones.
Joseph DeRoy & Sons closed more than 60 years ago, and the building it occupied is long gone. But for more than a century, generations of Pittsburghers shopped here for engagement rings, anniversary bracelets, necklaces, watches, and other precious family heirlooms.
The first store was a pawn shop run by the DeRoy brothers. Over the years, their business expanded to include a sizeable jewelry financing operation that boasted 15 teller windows. A drugstore leased the ground level retail space at the corner, while Joseph DeRoy & Sons kept offices in the floors above and another building next door, also long gone.
Joseph DeRoy
Born in Amsterdam, Joseph DeRoy was the sixth of seven children whose parents, Abraham and Sarah, immigrated to Pittsburgh before the Civil War. Joseph became a prosperous merchant at the corner of the former “Wall Street of Pittsburgh.”
In 1919, the year after Joseph died, his children funded an annex for a Jewish orphanage on Observatory Hill that they dedicated to their mother and father. The jewelry business stayed in the family as DeRoy’s son, Al, ran it for decades. Al’s sons Edwin and Ralph also took turns at the helm until the store closed in 1964. Other DeRoys also had their own stores in the city, creating competing family jewelry dynasties.
Israel DeRoy
Israel DeRoy, Joseph’s older brother, split off to open his own business with his son, Samuel in the 1890s. Their jewelry store was just a block away on the other side of Smithfield Street. Its ads reminded shoppers to “be sure you are in the right store” and “don’t be confused by stores of similar name.” It eventually shifted to suburban locations and was absorbed by Kay Jewelers.
Israel’s grandson, Mayer DeRoy, became Pittsburgh police chief in 1990, and his granddaughter, Aaronel deRoy Gruber, was a noted artist whose sculpture “Steelcityscape” stands in Mellon Park.
