On March 27 we published an article about a clock that was made in Drogheda over 125 years ago that had been bought by Louth County Council for the new Drogheda Borough Council chamber in Fair Street.
In that article it was stated that the clock was made by a company called R. Albert & Company, Drogheda whose name appears on the dial.
Very few people knew anything about R. Albert & Company so we asked historian Sean Collins to do some digging – this is what he came up with…
In 1875 Reinhart Albert set up a Watch and Jewellery Shop at 106 West Street where he employed two brothers, Paul and Joseph Rombach, all three were natives of the Black Forest region in Germany.
In 1907, the Rombach’s produced a cheap pocket edition, “Guide to Drogheda” (see below), priced three pence, which included coloured postcards of local scenes and monuments were also available.
When he died in 1893, Albert was the first person to be buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery, or “the new cemetery” as it was known at the time.
His headstone reads; “Reinhart Albert, West Street, Drogheda, 13th September 1893 aged 43 years and the first interred in this cemetery. Paul Rombach, 6th May 1904 aged 62 years. And John K. Rombach, 12th March 1920.
In 1910 the premises was inherited by Joseph Schwer who travelled from Germany to take over the shops. With his wife Sheila, Schwer expanded and also acquired No.117 West Street which was leased by Thomas Kavanagh as a Bakery and Confectionary Shop.
Sheila Schwer managed the shop until her death in 1959. Her daughter Stefanie Phillips and her family continued to run the business until it was sold in 1981 to the Irish Permanent Building Society.
The old Schwers newsagents at 117 West Street which used to be B. Albert & Company’s Watch and Jewellery Shop. More recently it was the Irish Permanent Office and today it is vacant.
The following piece from Stratten’s Commercial Directory of Drogheda 1892 describes it well:
Albert & Co., Watchmakers and Jewellers, Stationers and Booksellers, Tobacconists,106 and116, West St. Drogheda.
For upwards of half a century past the business now conducted under the style of Messrs, Albert and Company., Watchmakers, Jewellers, Stationers and Booksellers , etc., has justly being considered one of the leading houses in this department of commercial activity in the city of Drogheda.
Originally founded by Mr. Thomas North, and afterwards carried on by Messrs Hamilton and Co., the undertaking was transferred to the present proprietors, Messrs R. Albert and Paul and Joseph Rombach [trading as Messrs Albert and Company] in 1875.
The premises occupied by the firm are centrally situated at 106, West St, and consist of a large double shop, one side of which forms an elegantly appointed Jeweller’s and Watchmaker’s establishment and the other the Bookselling and stationery departments.
A pocketwatch movement made by R. Albert & Co. Photo Courtesy of worthpoint.com
Each branch of the trade is well represented in a large and comprehensive display of high class watches and clocks, new and fashionable jewellery, spectacles, eyeglasses, field glasses, telescopes and a great variety of useful and ornamental articles, suitable for presents, etc; and books, stationery and fancy goods.
Their tobacconist business is carried on at 116 West St, the shop being compact, well fitted, and fully stocked with cigars, and tobaccos of all the leading brands. Briar and meerschaum pipes, cigar and cigarette case and holders with all the other requisites for smokers are shown in variety.
A first class trade is done by the firm, whose establishment, from its comprehensive character is widely patronised by all classes of the general public in the city and the suburban districts.
