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- Address:
- 1501 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
- Phone:
- 412-261-3474
- Website:
- http://www.wholey.com/
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- Company Information:
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Today, Wholey's is an international company with over 200 employees, but it all began in 1912 with just one man.
In the early 1900's, young Robert Leo Wholey traveled Carson Street with a horse and wagon selling fruit for a local company. In 1912 he decided to go into business for himself, so he opened the McKees Rocks Butter and Egg Store.
His business grew, and so did his family: his wife, Frances, had a son, Robert Clement Wholey, just a few years later in 1919.
The business survived many hardships, including the Great Depression and the McKees Rocks flood of 1936.
In 1946, home from serving in WWII, Robert C. "Bob" Wholey took over the business. In 1948, he met Lois, a home economics major at Mount Mercy College (eventually Carlow College), and they married in 1949.
That same year, Bob opened a store behind Diamond Market in Market Square. Called "Farm to You," the store sold chicken and eggs. He closed the McKees Rocks store in 1951 and moved into a stand inside the Market House at Forbes and Market.
The new store sold dried meat, coffee, and live chickens, turkeys, and ducks. "He would bring them in by the crate from farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania," Sam Wholey explains. The customer would choose his or her live poultry, and the store would dress it.
When the Market House was torn down in 1961, Bob moved the store to its current Penn Avenue location. The store still focused on pou
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