Showell & Fryer: Blue Bloods in the Booze Business

Although most rose to wealth and prominence from humble beginnings, a certain set of American liquor purveyors were “blue bloods,” well-educated scions of established families whose occupation put them in close touch with the upper classes. Many were the “specialty” grocers whose trade put them in close touch with an elite clientele that could afford the best in food and strong drink.  In pre-Prohibition Philadelphia, E. B. Showell and F. Dewees Fryer fit that description.

Edward B. Showall was born in Philadelphia in 1863, the son of Edward and Gertrude Showall.  Athough his father died while he was still a juvenile, Edward appears to have had a relatively affluent background and achieved a good education.  Early on he moved to Riverton, an upriver suburb of Philadelphia.  In 1889, he married a local girl, Gertrude Batchelor.  Over the following years the couple would have four sons and a daughter.

Yacht Club

In maturity, Showall achieved a reputation in Philadelphia “sporting” circles.  A member of the Germantown Cricket Club and Riverton Gun Club, he established himself as a longterm commodore of the Riverton Yacht Club.  To that he added an interest in the performing arts, serving as president of the Riverton Lyceum Association, a group that erected the “first house for public amusement” in town.All these associations would have proved useful to Showell in creating a bond with people with money to spend for luxury goods. 

Frank DeWees Fryer also was born in 1863, but seemingly of somewhat less wealthy parents.  In the 1880 Federal Census, his father George Fryer lists his occupation as “bric-a-brac” merchant.  Young Frank was working for him as a traveling salesman, hawking goods often defined as “miscellaneous objects and ornaments of little value.” This experience would have been an excellent training in merchandising high priced commodities meant only to be eaten or imbibed.

Married to Katherine Keyser, a woman of about his same age, Fryer also established a reputation in the Philadelphia area for having a keen understanding of the revolution in transportation that the automobile was making in America, From store profits Fryer created the Fifth Wheel Company in the early 1900s.  A fifth wheel is a hitch that allows a driver to connect a wagon or trailer to the back of a powered vehicle.  As the gasoline engine replaced the horse, the coupling made by Fryer’s firm increasing was in demand.

How Stowell and Fryer met and decided about 1902 to partner in a high end grocery and liquor store is not recorded.  Suffice to say that their efforts were rewarded with rapid success by the Philadelphia area “carriage trade.”  They advertised their wines and liquors prominently both on their letterhead and on their four-story Market Street headquarters.   A photo of the interior of the store, shown above,  suggests the variety of the fancy goods the company carried.

Among them were two proprietary whiskey brands.  “Delaport” was a blended whiskey, sold in a flask type bottle, either clear or amber.  The label contained the owners entwined initials and claimed (falsely) that it was “Guaranteed under the Pure Food Law.”  “Bellerose" was the trade name given to their whiskey, gin, and coffee. It appears that Bellarose principally sold in quart containers.  The name was trademarked in 1906.

Showell & Fryer were not distillers, nor probably even mixing up their own whiskey in a basement room.  Rather, they likely were having one ot two of the many Pennsylvania distillers create their brands to a company recipe.  Although primarily a purveyor of retail goods, the company also appears to have conducted a wholesale trade in whiskey, selling to Philadelphia saloons, restaurants and hotels.  This assumption is drawn from the advertising bar trays the partners provided to such customers and confirmed by a “wholesale price list.”

With success came the need to expand their operations.  In the early 1900s, Showell & Fryer moved their grocery and liquor store to a larger building on 15th Street at Chestnut.  At the far left of the photo here it is possible to make out part of a large sign advertising “Showell & Fryer Co…Grocers…Wine and Cigar Merchants.”  Behind the ad is a six story building with a three story sign that identifies the company headquarters.  

After 1914 Showell & Fryer disappeared from Philadelphia city directories, for reasons that are not entirely clear.  World War One had erupted in Europe that year interrupting supplies of imported goods from England, France and Germany.  Would that have been enough to shut down this specialty store?  Or might it have been the declining health of Edward Showell who died in February 1916 at age 52?  Another reason could have been Fryer’s increasing involvement with his trailer hitch firm.  The disappearance of the company has left its whiskey collectibles as the principal reminder of this once thriving Philadelphia specialty grocery and liquor house.

Edward B. Showell is interred in Laurel Cemetery, where so many of Philadelphia’s gentry are buried, Section 9 Lot 20-25.  F. Dewees Fryer lived another 22 years, dying at age 75 in 1935.  He is buried in Westminster Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.  The grave monuments of both men are shown below.

Note: This post has been composed from a variety of online sources, including ancestry.com and pre-pro.com.