Our History

JEWELERS SINCE 1893!

Founder Thomas Zimmer was the son of a cigar maker and proprietor of the Zimmer House Hotel on Main Street in Poughkeepsie, NY. Thomas started his career in the jewelry business at a young age when he apprenticed as a bench jeweler at age 14 for Hallowell & Co. Jewelers in Poughkeepsie.

Moving to New York City, he became shop foreman for the George O. Street & Co. manufacturer of wedding rings and men’s rings for Tiffany & Co. Returning to Poughkeepsie in 1893 Thomas opened his own small jewelry store on Garden Street in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. where he continued to work at the bench and was joined by his brother Fred, a watchmaker in 1896.

Thomas’s son Leonard Sr. entered the business in 1914 and guided it through the difficulties of the Depression and WWII.

In 1948, the post war years welcomed Leonard Jr. who greatly expanded the business by adding many of the products and services we offer today.

Leonard Jr.’s son-in-law Michael Gordon came on board in 1971 with his daughter Jocelyn Gordon Klastow joining full time in 2001. Today, Michael and Jocelyn represent the fourth and fifth generations of the founding family.