'A good family thing': Family-run Suder's Art Store celebrates its 100th year

Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood has seen dramatic changes over the past century, but one institution, Suder's Art Store, has remained mostly the same. The family-run business celebrates its centennial this year and is under the third generation ownership of Sharon and David Suder.

John Suder Sr., David's grandfather, first opened Suder's Art Store in 1924 on the corner of 14th and Vine streets. Its exact opening date was lost somewhere along its 100-year-old history, Sharon said.

The store, now filled with colorful art supplies ranging from origami to oil paint, started as a frame shop and art gallery. John Sr., who had worked at the downtown frame shop, Traxel & Maas, bought the frame shop Bittelmeyer's at 1331 Vine St. and changed its name to Suder's.

In 1931, he moved the business to 1309 Vine St., where it still operates today. Seven years later, John Sr. purchased the building behind the shop, expanding its backroom.

After his father died, John Jr. and his wife, Ruth, took over the business. The couple bought the building next door, now the extended side room, in 1962. The side room came with a coveted parking lot, making Suder's one of few Vine Street businesses to have its own parking area for shoppers and employees.

David, 77, remembers helping his parents, John Jr. and Ruth, at the store starting when he was 8 or 9 years old. It's where he "grew up," his wife Sharon said.

David remodeled the side room in 2003 and currently handles the building's maintenance needs, while Sharon runs the business.

The Cincinnati native recalls helping his dad build shelves and running Suder's delivery route. He said the family would attend picnics and dinners for Vine Street merchants, and that other relatives also helped out over the years.

"It's just been a good family thing," he said.

Through Suder's windows, David also got a front-row seat to decades of Cincinnati history and changes to Over-the-Rhine.

"There aren't many stores like that in town," he added.

Sharon, 76, began running the store after David's father died. She was introduced to Suder's Art Store in high school, when she and David started dating, and had interest in art and experience running a business.

"We decided it was too neat to let it go," she said.

Now that Sharon has run the store for 40 years, she says: "This is where I belong."

A few things have changed at Suder's over its 100 years in business. The store has moved once and expanded twice. Art supplies now crowd out the gallery and once-popular products have come and gone.

But much of the store has stayed the same.

The crowded shelves built by David and John Jr. have featured the same products for decades. A few antique art supplies, offered when the store first opened, decorate top shelves. A sign for Crown Tailoring Co., a prior tenant, is painted over the arch in the store's main room.

Will Suder's Art Store remain family-run for its next 100 years? Sharon says there's not much interest in running the store from the younger Suders, so they're taking things "one day at a time."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Suder's Art Store in Cincinnati celebrates 100th year