Cooper family

The Cooper and Levy families were Seattle merchants, civic leaders, and philanthropists.

Isaac Cooper and brother-in-law Louis Levy formed Cooper & Levy in 1892, a retail and mail order grocery, hardware, and woodenware business. Supplying most of the prospectors during the Alaska-Klondike gold rush, they acquired a considerable fortune by the time they sold out ten years later to the Bon Marché department store.

Aaron Levy organized Ohaveth Shalom, Seattle's first reform congregation, in 1889. Esther Levy and daughter Lizzie Levy Cooper organized the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society (LHBS) in 1892 to provide aid to needy Jewish families. Esther served as president of the LHBS until 1900, and Lizzie from 1900 to1915. Lizzie also served as president of the Seattle Council of Jewish Women and vice president of the State Council from 1903-1906, and was president of the Temple De Hirsch Ladies Auxiliary from 1913-1914.

Louis Levy's two brothers, Aubrey Levy, a lawyer, and Eugene Levy, a motion picture theater promoter, together with Isaac Cooper, formed the Republic Operating Company and built the Republic Building at Third Avenue and Pike Street in 1927. All of the income from the building was willed in 1945 and again in 1959 to three service organizations: the Jewish Welfare Society, the Caroline Kline Galland Home for the Aged, and the Seattle Children's Orthopedic Hospital of Seattle.

From the guide to the Cooper and Levy families photograph collection, circa 1860s-1950s, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)