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Albert Monroe Greenfield (August 4, 1887 – January 5, 1967) was a real estate broker and developer who built his company into a vast East Coast network of department stores, banks, finance companies, hotels, newspapers, transportation companies and the Loft Candy Corporation. His high-rise office buildings and hotels were instrumental in changing the face of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, his base of operations. Uniquely for his time, he formed business relationships across religious, ethnic and social lines and played a major role in reforming politics in Philadelphia as well as at the national level.〔Dan Rottenberg, The Outsider, p. xi-xiii.〕 ==Early life and business activities== Greenfield was born Avrum Moishe Grunfeld 〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', p. 13〕 in 1887 to trader Jacob Gruenfeld and wife Esther (née Serody) in Lozovata, a village in what is now south-central Ukraine. After emigrating to New York City in 1892, he and his family (with names anglicized) moved in 1896 to Philadelphia, settling in South Philadelphia where Jacob Greenfield ironed shirts in a factory and operated a grocery in the family's home.〔Rottenberg, The Outsider, p. 17-21.〕 Albert left high school at age 14 to become a clerk for a prominent local real estate lawyer.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', 21-24.〕 In this position, Greenfield found his calling as a real estate broker.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://thealbertmgreenfieldfoundation.org/albertmgreenfield/37-bio/59-philadelphialegend )〕 In May 1905, Greenfield opened his own real estate firm at 218 South 4th Street, with $500 that his mother borrowed for him from her brother.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', p. 27.〕 Within seven years Greenfield was earning $60,000 a year; by 1917, his personal wealth had increased to $15 million.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider,'' p.28.〕 During the 1920s he largely rebuilt the face of downtown Philadelphia, creating numerous landmark office buildings and hotels, including what was then the world's largest hotel, the Benjamin Franklin, in 1925.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', p. 53.〕 The alliances created through his growing real estate business led to investments in motion picture theaters, building and loan associations, and mortgage financing. By the early 1920s he controlled 27 building and loan associations. In 1924, Greenfield and his father-in-law Sol C. Kraus formed Bankers Bond & Mortgage Company to handle first mortgages on real estate in Philadelphia. After expanding to the New York City market, the firm was renamed Bankers Bond & Mortgage Company of America. By 1930 his real estate concern, known as Albert M. Greenfield & Co. since 1911, was the largest real estate company in the U.S.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider,'' p.28, 35.〕 and Greenfield sought to become a commercial banker. In late 1926 he bought a controlling interest in a small West Philadelphia bank and, through a series of acquisitions, built it over the next four years into Bankers Trust Company, Philadelphia's tenth largest bank, with $50 million in deposits.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', p. 4〕 In May 1928, Greenfield formed the Bankers Securities Corporation (BSC) for general investment banking and trading in securities, which eventually became the parent company for virtually all of Greenfield's financial interests, including. But a run on his bank forced the closing of Bankers Trust on December 22, 1930 and ended Greenfield's career as a banker, leaving him millions in debt. But in the depth of the Great Depression, he refused to seek bankruptcy protection and instead reinvented himself as a retailing magnate, gaining control of the insolvent City Stores Company, a chain that operated seven department stores in six states. The company expanded throughout the East Coast over the next 20 years.〔Rottenberg, ''The Outsider'', p. 155-163.〕 When asked much later about his negative experiences during the Depression, Greenfield replied, "It wasn't too bad. I've always treated both success and failure as imposters. I like making money, but I can get along without it. I never worried about having it because I knew I could always make more."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Albert M. Greenfield」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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