Ries & Goetz, Trimmings, 446 Broome St. / 491 Broadway, New York, 2007  

Ries & Goetz were Nathan Ries and Ludwig E. Goetz, and their partnership was extremely short-lived. Ries & Goetz were listed in Trow's New York City Copartnership Directory for 1904 and in the 1905 New York City Directory. Their address was 510 Broadway - i.e., on the other side of Broadway from 491 Broadway / 446 Broome St. Then on 16 July 1905 the following notice of dissolution of the partnership appeared in the New York Times, "The firm of RIES & GOETZ, composed of the undersigned, has dissolved this day by mutual consent. Mr. LUDWIG E. GOETZ will continue the business formerly conducted by said firm, and has acquired all the assets and assumed all the liabilities and outstanding contracts of the said firm, and all moneys and other property heretofore due to the said firm will be paid to him. NATHAN RIES. LUDWIG E. GOETZ."

Nathan Ries (1867-1940) was in business in New York, dealing in embroideries from 1906 to 1930. He filed a passport application in 1921 when he said that he was born 20 April 1867 in Michelbach, Lucke, Germany, that he emigrated from Bremen, Germany, August 1884, and that he became a naturalized citizen in Sacramento, California, 27 June 1892. Attached to this application was a letter with the letterhead Nathan Ries Embroideries, 97 Fifth Ave. This classified ad for Nathan Ries ran in the New York Times 8 May 1921. Nathan Ries Embroideries also went by the name, Standard Embroidery Co.

Ludwig Edward Goetz (1876-1964), a dealer in imported laces, had been in business on his own account at 510 Broadway from 1904, moved to 491 Broadway in 1906 and stayed there until 1911. He was in business in New York through 1949. One of his later businesses was the partnership, Goetz, Krumscheid & Kliban, who manufactured dresses and blouses at 1410 Broadway and later at 525 7th Ave. from 1933 to 1940. This business became Goetz & Kliban in 1940 and, a year later, just Ludwig E. Goetz. He filed for a passport in 1898, when he declared that he was born in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany, 9 May 1876, that he emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, on the S. S. Patria, 25 March 1893, and that he became a naturalized citizen in New York 6 April 1898. He registered for the World War I draft in 1918 when he was 42 years old, in business for himself as a manufacturer at 1 E. 35th St. In 1942 he registered for the World War II draft when he lived at 935 Park Ave. In this registration he gave his birthdate as 9 May 1877 and place of birth as Nürnburg, Germany.

Closely associated with Ludwig Goetz was his brother-in-law, Simon Ottinger (1884-1974). (Goetz married Ottinger's sister, Fanny Ottinger.) Simon Ottinger was the son of an immigrant from Germany, Marx Ottinger (1846-?), and appeared in the 1900 U. S. Census, age 16, living with his family at 20 E. 70th St., Manhattan. He was a member of Ludwig E. Goetz & Co. at 491 Broadway in 1906. Later there was Goetz & Ottinger, embroidery, at 1 E. 33rd St. In 1917 this business was described as "dresses," and Ottinger in the 1920 U. S. Census gave his occupation as "Dress Jobber." Simon Ottinger lived to the age of 89, and his obituary in the New York Times, 4 June 1974, included the following, "Simon Ottinger, who with his late cousin, Lawrence Ottinger, began the United States Plywood Corporporation in 1937, died Sunday at his home, 912 Fifth Avenue. He was 89 years old. . . . He was also a writer, and his books of wit and humor were privately published. On his 85th birthday a one-man show of his collages was held at the Harmonie Club, of which he was a founder. . . . Mr. Ottinger, whose wife, the former Ruth Silberman, died in 1969, leaves a daughter, Mrs. K. Evan Friedman of New York, and two grandchildren." This account does not mention Ottinger's earlier career in embroidery and dresses.

Another Goetz / Ottinger enterprise was the Federal Parquetry Mfg. Co., with offices at 949 Broadway in the mid-1910s. Parquetry was defined in Webster (1913) as "a species of joinery or cabinet-work consisting of an inlay of geometric or other patterns, generally of different colors, -- used especially for floors." Lawrence Ottinger, Simon Ottinger and Ludwig Goetz were officers at Federal Parquetry Mfg. Co. This seems to have been an early foray by Goetz and the Ottingers in business opportunies outside the garment trades. Manufacturing was done in Lexington, Kentucky. This ad appeared in the New York Lumber Trade Journal, 15 Nov. 1914. This ad appeared in the National Builder, August 1915. Lawrence Ottinger had an article on parquetry flooring published in American Carpentry and Builder, May, 1915. Lawrence and Simon Ottinger are included in a photograph dated 1908 of the Durland's Riding Academy Polo Team at Shorpy.com.

Copyright © 2013 Walter Grutchfield