There's Some Meat To This Story

Herrmann’s Delicatessen was a mainstay of Middletown’s Main Street for much of the 20th century. Located in the Mansion Block, in the area that is now occupied by Metro Square, Herrmann’s opened in 1932 and remained open until 1977 when the block was torn down.

The family had a presence, however, on Main Street selling deli foods as early as 1912.

Carl Herrmann, who ran the Main Street store beginning in 1934, was born in Badis, Germany, in 1899 to Carl W. and Lydia Herrmann, who married in 1895 before coming to the United States in 1901.

The first reference to the Herrmanns in Middletown is in a 1910 city directory that indicates that the elder Carl was living with his family at 66 Loveland Street. By 1914, the family, which included children Carl, Alain, and Howard, were naturalized citizens of the United States.

Times were tough for German immigrants in the years during World War I, and the Herrmanns faced the worst of it.

At around midnight on Aug. 3, 1918, a crowd of almost 100 Middletown men was celebrating an American victory over the Germans. Many had been there to hear a fiery speaker who whipped the crowd up into an anti-German lather. The group went out into the night on a mission to punish local “pro-German sympathizers.”

The crowd made its way to Fountain Street and to the home of the elder Carl Herrmann. The younger Carl tried to reason with the men, explaining that he was a loyal American and that he was even born in the United States (which wasn’t really true). However, the mob demanded that the father and son come outside onto the porch, and then they were forced to kiss an American flag three times.  The crowd then moved on to break into the Lutheran church on High Street and harass another German family downtown.

Although the Herrmanns were not physically hurt, a window was broken, the lock on the front door was busted, and a rock was thrown through a screen door. And, I am certain, the family’s sense of security within the community was sorely shaken.

Four men in the crowd were recognized and arrested and fined about $40 each. The townspeople came to the convicted men’s rescue and raised enough money to pay their fines. This probably did not help the Herrmann family feel any more confident in their fellow residents.

The elder Carl Herrmann started a small store selling meats and deli items at 438 Main Street (on the west side near Washington Street) in 1912 that was sold to the Heil brothers in 1920. The following year, Mr. Herrmann opened another store at 124 Main (where the former Shoe Hospital was for the old-timers in the reading audience). It moved to its most familiar site at the Mansion Block,  138 Main Street, in 1934, just north of New York Bakery, two years after the younger Carl Herrmann took over management from his father.

Carl Herrmann added a liquor store in 1937, a few years after Prohibition ended, which increased business significantly -- so much so, in fact, that he leased the space adjacent to his to expand the square footage.

Herrmann’s Delicatessen was considered one of the “most completely stocked [stores] of its type in the state.” It was the sole distributor of S.S. Pierce foods in Middletown.

By 1939, the year that the elder Carl Herrmann died, the store had seven full-time clerks, several of whom had been there for many years.

After the column last week about Carl Herrmann’s Her-Del Stables, several people wrote in to comment on their memories of the delicatessen. It is clear from their comments that the store had the best potato salad in the world! Another person recalled the distinct aroma from coffee being ground, cheese and spices, and fresh sawdust on the floor.

Carl Herrmann was clearly an interesting man with varied interests. In 1930 he tried to make a go of an indoor golf venue in the former plant of the W & B Douglas pump factory at Broad and William Streets. He ran for state representative in 1948. And he loved the racehorses at the track. One reader remembered riding over to the stables in the 1950s from Clover Street to feed apples to the horses. The men at the stables were tolerant and friendly, never shooing the kids away.

Carl Herrmann lived to almost 100 years old, his lifetime spanning the entire twentieth century. He lived through hard times and toughed them out, staying in our community even though it wasn’t always kind to him. He was a creative businessman who grew his business as the market changed during its 60-plus years. His contributions to Middletown were generous and long-lasting.