Collection is open for research.
Gift of Stephen Ungar, August 1989 (Lib. Acc. 19522), and gift of the estate of Stephen Ungar, August 2006 (Lib. Acc. 26034).
Nicholas M. Ungar was born in Hungary in 1884. In 1902, he immigrated to the United States, where he worked at the furrier Liebes Company in San Francisco, California. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he was transferred to the Liebes store in Portland, Oregon. In the 1910s, Ungar founded his own furrier company, which he operated until 1920. In 1923, he built a commercial building on Alder Street in Portland that he managed, called the Ungar Building. In 1934, Ungar returned to the fur fashion profession when he opened a women's fur specialty store at 625 S.W. Broadway. His store focused on designer fashions and accessories. He sold his store to Nordstrom's, Inc. in 1966.
Ungar married Eva Davies in 1910; the couple divorced in 1920. Nicholas Ungar died in 1975.
Sources: Articles in the Oregon Journal and Oregonian, 1920-1975; Portland city directories, 1910-1935; vital records on Ancestry.com
Nicholas Ungar papers, Coll 932, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Other materials relating to Nicholas Ungar at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library include the Nicholas Ungar photographic collection, Org. Lot 157, and the Ungar's on Broadway windows photographs collection, Org. Lot 874.
The collection consists of the papers of Nicholas Ungar, owner of a fur clothing store in Portland, Oregon. The collection includes two scrapbooks that contain newspaper clippings, advertisements, and photographs of his store, as well as ephemera, birthday cards, and thank-you cards. A substantial amount of the rest of the collection consists of correspondence and records relating to a commercial building that Ungar managed in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly correspondence concerning rent issues with the building's tenants. The collection also contains some personal correspondence, including one letter, likely from a relative, written in Hungarian. Other materials in the collection include Ungar's financial papers and receipts, a calendar and advertisement for a fur clothing business Ungar operated in the 1910s, and newspaper clippings.
Brass wall plaque for Ungar's store was separated to Museum Collections, Oregon Historical Society.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.