Date: Mon 30-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

business-Sturdevant

Full Text:

After Seven Decades, Sturdevants Step Out Of The Photo Business

BY KAAREN VALENTA

In early 1929 Elijah Sturdevant, first selectman of the town of Danbury,

decided he was tired of politics. He looked around for a business to buy

before the next election and settled on a small stationery shop and camera

business on Main Street in Danbury.

"It was owned by an elderly couple -- the man was in the hospital, ill, and

the wife was running the store. It was a Kodak dealership," Mr Sturdevant's

son, Harry V. Sturdevant, 86, recalled. "My father bought the business in May

1929 and had my brother and I run it. My brother was 18, and I was 16. He had

been working in a plumbing business, and I was working for a hat maker."

Elijah Sturdevant planned to retire from politics and run the store after the

election.

"But before the election, the [stock market] crash came so my father decided

he better run for office again," Mr Sturdevant said. "So my brother, George,

and I ran the store. He learned how to do the film processing and had a little

darkroom upstairs."

Thus began the nearly 70-year history of Sturdevant Photo Video Store. A new

chapter in the business began last week when it was sold by Harry Sturdevant's

son, Richard, to Ritz Camera of Beltsville, Md.

"This will be a different kind of Ritz store," Dick Sturdevant said. "It will

be a depot store and will carry almost everything like we did. They retained

all the staff. It's nice to know Ritz is going to keep it going much the same

as we did."

The store officially changed ownership on October 26, but Dick Sturdevant and

his father were cordially welcomed back to be photographed and interviewed for

this article. The sign outside still read "Sturdevant's."

"I started thinking about selling a year ago," Dick Sturdevant said. "I talked

it over with my father and he supported my decision completely."

"It was time -- all good things have to come to an end," the senior Sturdevant

said. "The business today isn't anything like what I was when I started out."

Although he originally worked with his brother, Harry V. Sturdevant left to

pursue a career with the Sears Roebuck Company. After 17 years, he came back

to Danbury and, in 1954, bought back into a partnership agreement with his

brother, who died 11 years later.

"My brother had moved the store. It was in five different locations on Main

Street over the years," Mr Sturdevant said.

Like his father, Dick Sturdevant also left the Danbury area to pursue another

career. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, he spent ten years in the

insurance industry before moving back to Connecticut and settling in Newtown

with his wife, Marie, and their children, Leslie and Michael, in 1970.

"It was a lifestyle choice," Dick Sturdevant explained. "We had moved six

times in ten years. I always wanted to live here -- the more I traveled, the

more I liked Connecticut."

With his son now actively involved in the business, Harry V. Sturdevant

retired in 1975. Dick expanded the business, opening a Newtown store in

Ricky's Shopping Center on South Main Street. After operating it for eight

years, he sold it to The Camera Shop chain in 1989.

"The Camera Shops sold out to Ritz and I sold this [Danbury] store to Ritz,"

Mr Sturdevant said. "Ritz is a family-owned business like Sturdevants but it

is big -- more than 800 stores. Ritz just [bought] 80 Fuji-owned stores last

week."

Ritz Camera is 75 years old, and is operated by David Ritz, son of Edward

Ritz, who joined his brother Ben in the business. Ben Ritz founded the company

in 1923.

Ritz is one of two photo retail speciality businesses which are seeking to

acquire already established stores, Mr Sturdevant said. The other company,

Wolfe of Atlanta, just bought 450 One-Hour Photo labs.

"The timing was right for me to sell," Mr Sturdevant said. "Technology is

changing. Processing equipment and the type of services are moving rapidly

into the digital age with digital cameras, digital copyprinters, and

interfaces between digital and conventional equipment. All this is very

expensive and the technology is very difficult to keep up with. It's a whole

different ballgame now."

"The processing equipment I bought four years ago, when it was state of the

art, is still good but there is an entirely new generation of equipment out

now," he said.

A Long History

The Sturdevant family has long roots in the Danbury area. They came to

Brookfield about 1850 from Newberry, England. Dick's grandmother's side of the

family, the Taylors, fought in the Revolutionary War. Taylor Road in Danbury

is named for her family.

Dick Sturdevant is on the Board of Trustees of the Union Savings Bank,

following in the footsteps of his father, who retired from the board when he

turned 70. Dick's great-grandfather, another Elijah Sturdevant, was one of the

founders of the bank.

In Newtown, Dick Sturdevant served on the Police Commission from 1989 to 1997

and was its chairman for four years. He served a term on the Planning & Zoning

Commission, was vice chairman of the Republican Town Committee. For years he

also was active in Danbury, serving on the Greater Danbury Chamber of

Commerce, the Downtown Danbury Council and the Board of Directors of Ridgewood

Country Club.

Dick and Marie were co-chairpersons of the Newtown Summer Festival in the

1970s. As their children grew, it became apparent that there wouldn't be a

fourth generation of Sturdevants in the store. Michael wanted a career in law

enforcement and became a police officer in Danbury; Leslie works for Xerox

Corporation in New York.

Several years ago Mr Sturdevant moved the store from Main Street to the

Plumtrees Shopping Center on Newtown Road, a move forced, he said, by the

parking problems in downtown Danbury. "It was the right decision, just like

selling now is the right decision," he said.

What will Dick Sturdevant do now?

"I don't have a clue as to what I want to do but I'd like to continue to

work," he said. "I like the idea of getting up in the morning and getting out

-- having something to do. I'd like something with some responsibility -- it

keeps you on your toes."

Mr Sturdevant said he might consider buying another business, but not another

photography business. "If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have sold it," he

said.