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Featured Article: Michael & Sadie Kahn

Michael & Sadie Kahn
#HistoryTuesday ENCORE ! - Tuesday October 06TH 2026
 
(This edition has been enhanced and updated with additional information since it was last presented exactly one year ago.)
 
Michael and Sadie Kahn were Sebring's first Jewish residents. They were immigrants from Lithuania, and they owned a business in the small town of Sale City in southwest Georgia.
 
But Michael wanted to do business in a more promising market, so he travelled south into Florida looking for a better location. He visited Avon Park in 1921, and then he ventured on to Sebring.
 
He met our founder George Eugene Sebring, and Mr. Sebring persuaded Mr. Kahn to establish his dry goods business here on his Circle. Mr. Sebring believed that Jewish merchants would be integral to the success of his new city, so he offered Mr. Kahn retail space on the ground floor of his sprawling Nan-Ces-O-Wee Hotel which was under construction at the time on North Ridgewood. Mr. Kahn accepted the offer.
 
Michael and Sadie moved to Sebring during the Winter of 1921-1922. The Nan-Ces-O-Wee Hotel opened in 1923, and Mr. Kahn's store was in business.
 
It was a thriving fixture downtown by the 1940s and 1950s - the place to buy clothing. Kahn's remained in business into the mid-1960s. Some of you have shared your stories with us about shopping at Kahn's during that time.
 
Sadie Kahn Memorial Park - named in 1980 after Sadie's passing - and rededicated in 2012 - sits along North Ridgewood adjacent to the longtime former footprint of the hotel and store. A mural featuring Mike and Sadie overlooks the small park.
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