BY ED WENDELL | news@queensledger.com
This Sunday, September 27, at 12 noon, the corner of 94th Street and Jamaica Avenue will become a little sweeter! A special street sign celebrating 100 years of Schmidt’s homemade candy will be unveiled, forever marking this beloved corner as “Schmidt’s Candy Corner.” The store will be open before the ceremony, starting at 11 a.m., for those who would like to stock up on some delicious homemade chocolate and candies.
For a century, Schmidt’s has been a cherished part of Jamaica Avenue and the Woodhaven community. Now, this treasured piece of Woodhaven history will have a permanent place on the same street where so many sweet memories were made.
The story begins a century ago, when a German immigrant named Frank H. Schmidt, known affectionately as “Grandpa Schmidt,” opened a confectionery in Woodhaven, bringing the traditions and flavors of old-world German chocolate-making to the community.
Schmidt’s Candy opened at 94-15 Jamaica Avenue, beneath the elevated train, with treasured family recipes and a commitment to making candy by hand. On that very first day, serving that very first customer, Grandpa Schmidt began what would become one of Woodhaven’s most beloved and long-lasting traditions.
But those early years were not without difficulty. A short time after opening, America faced the Great Depression, and Grandpa Schmidt was hit hard, losing a second business and a home. But he recovered and managed to save Schmidt’s Candy by using what assets he had left to purchase the building and moving the family – wife Marie and six children, Frank Jr., John, Paul, Marie, Rita, and Virginia – into the apartment above the store.
The little shop downstairs became not just a place of business, but the heart and soul of an entire family; the place where the Schmidt family lived, worked and raised generations of children. All of the children were put to work in the shop, each of them learning bits and pieces of the trade. And that is how those old-world German chocolate-making traditions were passed down from one generation to the next.
When Grandpa Schmidt passed away in 1962, leaving behind 25 grandchildren, his son Frank Jr. took over the business, carrying the family business into its second generation. Frank Jr. would carry Schmidt’s Candy forward for another quarter-century, into the 1980s.
Frank Jr. carefully preserved all of Grandpa Schmidt’s original tools and molds, including the copper kettle and marble tables where the chocolate was made by hand. Just as importantly, he preserved the original recipes, ensuring that generations of Woodhaven families could continue to enjoy the same fine-tasting chocolates they had come to love since the 1920s.
During that time, young Margie Schmidt began working in the shop alongside her family. Under the tutelage of her father, she learned the old-fashioned trade one chocolate treat at a time. As Frank Jr.’s health declined in the 1980s, Margie took on a more active role in running the business. In 1986, she took over Schmidt’s Candy, becoming the third generation of the Schmidt family to carry on Grandpa’s tradition.
Margie continued making the candy the old-fashioned way, by hand, using the same recipes and tools that Grandpa Schmidt had used in the 1920s. And she carried Schmidt’s Candy forward for the next 40 years, into the 21st Century.
This Sunday, when we celebrate the unveiling of the Schmidt’s Candy Corner sign, we are celebrating more than just a business that has survived for a century. We are celebrating more than a business that has been a special part of growing up and living in Woodhaven our entire lives.
We will also be celebrating a remarkable family legacy that passed on from grandfather to son, and from father to daughter, from one generation of Woodhaven to the next. Together – Grandpa Schmidt for 35 years, Frank Jr. for 25 years and Margie for 40 years – the Schmidt family has been synonymous with tasty homemade treats and delicious candies made the old-fashioned way.
But most of all, we celebrate the Queen of Jamaica Avenue, Margie Schmidt, for persevering and keeping Schmidt’s Candy going for the benefit and enjoyment of all of us. There were probably many mornings over the years when she woke up with aching hands after spending a late night in the basement making thousands of candy canes, nonpareils, and other homemade treats, mornings when retirement must have seemed very tempting.
But she kept going. And going. And going.
And because she did, the traditions begun by Grandpa Schmidt a century ago are still alive today to our delight.
And so, this Sunday, September 27, at 12 noon, the corner of 94th Street and Jamaica Avenue will become forever known as Schmidt’s Candy Corner, a fitting dedication to the old-fashioned, high-quality homemade chocolate and candies that Woodhaven has been blessed with for one hundred years.
