Henry J. Stern Collection
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of subject files that Henry J. Stern kept as Opelika's unofficial historian, gathered over decades of civic work and local research. Materials are mixed media and include clippings, photographs, correspondence, printed ephemera, and Stern's own writings and notes.
The files fall into several broad areas. The largest concerns Pepperell Manufacturing Company and the mill village that grew around it, covering the company itself, village housing, officials' houses, sports teams, World War I service, and a labor dispute. A second group documents Opelika institutions and civic life, including the Chamber of Commerce, public schools, service clubs, manufacturing, local homes, and the World War II prisoner of war camp. A third group covers churches and social organizations, among them Salem Baptist Church, White Street Missionary Baptist Church, and the Saugahatchee Country Club. Remaining files address Lee County and neighboring jurisdictions, Auburn and Auburn University, the Creek Confederacy, regional historical and genealogical organizations, the Stern family, and two individual newspaper issues.
Description is at the folder level. Folder titles preserve Stern's original vertical file headings. Item counts recorded on the original folder tabs appear in the physical description note for each folder where Stern supplied them.
Dates
- Creation: 1920 - 2016
Creator
- Stern, Henry J. (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Henry Julius Stern was born on September 4, 1931, in Westheim, Germany, to Arnold and Hedwig Stern. In 1935 his great-uncle Julius Hagedorn and aunt Amelia Hagedorn, who ran a department store in Opelika, Alabama, visited the family and urged them to leave Germany. Arnold Stern spent two years converting the family's property into cash to finance the passage. On June 16, 1937, Henry, his sister Lora, his parents, his grandmother, and an uncle sailed from Hamburg aboard the SS Washington, the last ship sanctioned to carry Jews out of Germany before the war.
The family settled in Opelika, where the mayor presented them with a proclamation of welcome. A local teacher, Louise Tollison, learned German so she could teach the two children English, and they enrolled in Opelika public schools in 1938. Stern graduated from Henry G. Clift High School in 1950, served in the United States Navy from 1951 to 1954, and studied business administration at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University.
Stern returned to Opelika and spent the rest of his life there. He was part-owner of the men's clothing store Hollingsworth, Norman and Stern, worked in real estate development, and then served as executive director of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce until his retirement. He also sat on the Opelika Industrial Commission and was active in the Food Bank of East Alabama and the Opelika Kiwanis Club. He received the Spirit of Opelika Award and a Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award in 2002, and twice served as grand marshal of the city's Christmas parade. Over these years he became Opelika's unofficial historian, assembling a large collection of memorabilia, photographs, and writings that documented roughly 75 years of the city's past.
Stern searched for surviving relatives for more than six decades. In November 2004, hours after the Yad Vashem Shoah Victims' Names Database went online, he located his cousin Fred Hertz, then living in Durham, North Carolina. The two had last seen each other in 1937. Stern served on the Alabama Holocaust Commission from 2003 to 2009, spoke frequently in Opelika and Auburn schools, and was featured in the traveling exhibit "Darkness into Life: Alabama Holocaust Survivors Through Photography and Art." He was the last living Holocaust survivor in East Alabama.
He married Roslyn Brock, who taught art in the Opelika schools for 27 years and founded the Opelika Arts Association. She died in 2007. Stern died in Opelika on July 17, 2014, at age 82, survived by his daughter Virginia and his son Henry J. Stern Jr.
Sources
This note was compiled from published sources available online. Accessed July 23, 2026.
"Obituary for Henry J. Stern." Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home and Crematory, Opelika, Alabama, July 2014. https://www.jeffcoattrant.com/obituary/Henry-Stern
"Stern, Henry." Opelika-Auburn News, July 20, 2014. https://oanow.com/obituaries/stern-henry/article_fee39d91-fdb6-5387-89b9-9210234f7933.html
"Saying Goodbye: Opelika Devotee, 'Mr. Opelika' Henry Stern, Passes Away." Opelika Observer, July 25, 2014. https://opelikaobserver.com/2014/07/25/saying-goodbye-opelika-devotee-mr-opelika-henry-stern-passes-away/
"Hagedorn's Piece of Opelika History." Opelika Observer, August 22, 2017. https://opelikaobserver.com/2017/08/22/hagedorns-piece-of-opelika-history/
"Stern, Henry." Alabama Holocaust Education Center. https://ahecinfo.org/survivors/stern-henry/
Laxer, Steven. "How Henry Stern Found Fred Hertz after 67 Years." Avotaynu Online, December 2007. https://avotaynuonline.com/2007/12/how-henry-stern-found-fred-hertz-after-67-years-by-teven-laxer/
"Opelika, Alabama." Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. https://www.isjl.org/alabama-opelika-encyclopedia.html
"Want to Know How a 5-Year-Old Fled the Nazis and Became Known as Mr. Opelika? There's a Play about That!" Opelika-Auburn News, 2022. https://oanow.com/news/local/want-to-know-how-a-5-year-old-fled-the-nazis-and-became-known-as/article_a70dadcc-1ff4-11ed-9470-6fc355b3c7ef.html
Henry Julius Stern memorial, Find a Grave, memorial no. 135192538. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/135192538/henry-julius-stern
Full Extent
2 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Henry J. Stern Collection documents the history of Opelika and Lee County, Alabama, through subject files assembled by Henry Julius Stern (1931 to 2014), a Holocaust survivor, longtime executive of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce, and the man many residents called "Mr. Opelika." The collection consists of 29 subject folders of mixed media in three boxes, with particular depth on Pepperell Manufacturing Company and the Pepperell mill village.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Opelika Public Library Archives Repository