Zeitman's Grocery Store

336 Fore Street

This row of well-preserved buildings on a cobblestone street is one of the prettiest areas in the Old Port—a remnant of the early 20th century “City Beautiful Movement” that was intended to beautify urban areas and address social issues that arose from overcrowding. Now home to Dock Fore Tavern, a local sports bar and pub, the building at 336 Fore Street dates from the first half of the 19th century. Though its first floor is thoroughly modern, in the basement there’s still a four feet high sea wall running the breadth of the structure to protect it from high tides in Portland harbor. That sea wall dates back to a time when Fore Street was at the fore of the Portland waterfront, before the waterfront was filled-in in 1852 to make way for Commercial Street and a railroad.

For much of the 20th century, from approximately 1918 to 1978, this building was owned by Bessie (Epstein) Zeitman, who ran Zeitman’s Grocery Store (you can still see the faded sign painted in gold on black across the front of the building). The grocery store was on the ground floor, the Zeitmans lived in an apartment above it, and there were ten rooms in the hotel above. In the 1920s, the hotel was called the Seaman’s Lodging House, since beds were rented to sailors coming onshore and woodsmen coming into town after the harvest season. Lodgers paid a quarter for a bed for one night, or $75 per month for a room. Bessie’s son, Jack Zeitman, recalled that in the 1930s, times were hard and the docklands neighborhood was rough; sailors and woodsmen would come into town flush with cash, spend their money at the several lodging houses nearby that had rooms for prostitution, including Annie Freeman’s (aka Big Annie’s) at 57 Commercial Street, and then come to Zeitman’s for “a coffee and a room on credit.”

Bessie Epstein was born in Odessa in 1882, and migrated with her family to Portland. She married Otto Zeitman, whose family had also migrated to Portland from Odessa. Bessie was a tough woman. Standing at less than five feet tall, she had four sons, two of whom predeceased her. She ran Zeitman’s until she was 95 years old: 32 of those years were with Otto (until his death in 1950), and another 28 years were as a widow (helped, in the last few years, by her then-retired son Julius). Over the decades, the businesses rebranded several times in response to changing local needs: from variety store to lunch counter, lodging house, cigar shop and grocery store. She even sold Spitz puppies as a side hustle. There were lean times, when they had to burn the piano for firewood, and when the town made things difficult for Jewish businesses.

In the 1920s, and especially after 1923 with strong prevailing anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish sentiment at City Hall, Jewish shopkeepers faced harassment from city law enforcement. For example, on February 19, 1924, The Portland Press Herald published a list of 198 license applications granted to shops (victualers, confectioners, newsagents, and others) to stay open on Sundays; thirteen were denied. Of the denied applications, at least six were from Jewish women, including Bessie. Also in that year, Bessie and Otto were arraigned in court for selling liquor without a license. Otto was granted a victualer’s license on May 20.

Nevertheless, Zeitman’s Grocery Store prevailed—through the Depression, through World War II, and even through the emptying out of downtown in the 1970s and 1980s. Always mindful of her local customers, Bessie kept the store open late for the convenience of island residents catching the last ferry home.

A member of the Old Port Exchange, she was also active in the Jewish community. She was a life member of the Jewish Home for Aged Auxiliary (Stop E09) and a member of American Mizrachi women. Bessie died in 1978, at age 97. After Julius died in 1980, Jack closed the store and sold the building. But, the legacy of Zeitman’s Grocery Store lives on. Blake Zeitman, a fourth generation descendant of the Portland Zeitmans, owns Zeitman’s Grocery Store in Bryan, Texas. His store is proudly named for its Portland predecessor and his ancestors Otto and Bessie.