The History of Berland's

Many of you have wondered how Berland's came to be, who started it and when. The Berland's background is actually a three-part story: the Sherman family tool connection and how Berland's was acquired, the original Berland's started by Joe Berland, and the evolution of Berland's to the present.

The Sherman Family

A big factor which ties into the Berland's store history is the Sherman family roots in the tool industry. Mason H. Sherman was the president of Birmingham Steel and was also the owner and president of a small railroad in Alabama. He retired at the age of 46. He then met Roger Klove (in a bar, of all places) and they teamed up to form the Sherman-Klove Company in the early 1900's to supply munitions in WWI. The company made mortar housings in a screw machine plant on Harrison Street in Chicago.

Business thrived through the war and when the war ended, they made specialty screw machine products that did well until the depression. William S. Sherman (W.S.), Mason's son, came to S-K after graduating college in 1927 and was eventually a major owner of the company. One of the products the company made was socket wrenches for Hinsdale Socket and Wrench Company. The Hinsdale Company went out of business. Since Sherman-Klove had a large inventory of this product, they redesigned the product and changed the company name to S-K Tools.

S-K Tools turned out to be one of 26 wrench companies to survive the depression. At the beginning of WWII, S-K controlled 25% of the socket wrench business. Sears Roebuck was the first big store to carry the line of wrenches.

In 1949 Dave Sherman, W.S.'s son, started at S-K as a shipping clerk. In 1950, he became a salesman and sold Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. In 1957, he was promoted to West Coast Sales manager. His sales territory included his four previous states along with all states west of the Mississippi. While still with S-K, Dave recognized a need for dealers to buy smaller quantities, so along with his Uncle Don Wolgemuth, he started Clark-Hall, Inc., a wholesale tool distributor. The name was a combination of Don and Dave's middle names respectively. Clark-Hall started in the trunk of Dave's car and quickly became established in a storefront on Oak Park Avenue and 26th Street while still working for S-K. Dave left S-K in 1960 and moved Clark-Hall to Madison Street in Forest Park. Don left the company to go back to a previous line of work. At the time, a new warehouse was being built on 25th Street in Broadview.
In the middle 1960's, the acting president and owner of S-K Tools died. Because of high taxes and older principals, the company was sold to Simington Wayne. William S. Sherman worked along with Dave at Clark-Hall until his death in 1983.

The Original Berland's

Two Brothers, Joe and Phil Berland, started Berland's in the early 30's and furnished paint and cleaning materials for the commercial trades. The original store was located at Crawford and North Avenues. Joe and Phil were cab drivers while their wives ran the store. After about two years, the store was moved to North and Austin and the store grew and began to carry more consumer items, including wallpaper. Joe and Phil decided to go their separate ways. Joe stayed at the same location and continued to sell building maintenance tools and supplies. Phil branched out on his own to sell paint, wallpaper, and supplies, opening P.G. Berland's.

In the 1940's, Joe expanded his business, adding tools for all of the trowel trades, brick and cement masons, tuck pointers, and plasterers. The business grew in popularity and reputation through the years. It remained a one-store operation under Joe's watchful eye with the help of his brother, Ben, and his wife, Mae. Upon Joe's death in 1967, his son Stewart took over the business but was not successful. Berland's was on the verge of bankruptcy and its reputation was declining when Dave Sherman bought it from Mae Berland in 1969. Clark-Hall had been a supplier for Berland's and Dave thought he could rebuild the business to the great reputation it once had. In his mind, it was a win-win situation for Dave and the aging Mrs. Berland.

P.G. Berland went on to open 18 paint and wallpaper stores until selling out to Sherwin-Williams in the late 1980's.

The Evolution of Berland's

Shortly after the acquisition of Berland's, Dave moved the store to Broadview where it was easier to keep an eye on the store while running Clark-Hall. Upon graduating from college in 1974, Dwight asked his dad if he could work at Clark Hall until he could find a job or go to graduate school. He worked at Clark Hall picking and packing orders and became interested in the Berland's retail operation. He began working evenings there and after a while, Dave went back to Clark-Hall full time and Dwight continued to learn what it took to run Berland's. He was the salesman, he checked in orders which he placed, stocked the shelves and was accounts payable, accounts receivable and cashier. Business began to grow; old customers were once again finding the familiar store they used to frequent. The first employee was hired and on a good day, the store did about $500.00 in sales.

Both businesses outgrew the Broadview facility and in 1976, Dave built a new building on Centre Circle Drive in Downers Grove. There was a big building boom going on in the western suburbs on what is now known as the east-west corridor. Berland's business dropped off for a little while after the move, but soon word spread and customers followed Berland's out west. In 1978, Dwight decided to expand to include power tools and ladders and make Berland's more of a tool specialty house (against Dave's advice). Business thrived and in 1982, Berland's went on Clark-Hall's computer system.

In 1983, the store was renovated to add a small woodworking department, expand the show room, and renovate the office and the repair shop. Business continued to grow and in 1987, second floor offices and the repair and service center were built. The old repair shop became the accessory room. In 1988, Berland's broke away from Clark-Hall by going on its own computer system. In 1990, a second store was opened in Palatine. Dave sold Clark-Hall to Palmer Potter, of The Palmer House fame, as the call for small warehousing was starting to dwindle. At this point, the Downers store had no more room for expansion and in February of 1992 was moved to our present location on Oak Creek Drive in Lombard. In 1993, Clark-Hall moved out of the Centre Circle building and eventually went out of business. Dave Sherman passed away in 1996. In June of 2001, the corporate offices and warehouse were moved from Oak Creek back to the Centre Circle building on the side where Clark-Hall once resided.

Today, the building for a third store on Briggs off of Interstate 80 in Joliet is in the process of being built.

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