Parting Shot: Kollman's Supermarket

Twinsburg  |  1950s

Meats, produce and appliances — all were sold at Kollman’s Supermarket, one of the first grocery stores in Twinsburg Township.

B.W. Kollman, a captain of the volunteer fire department, bought it in 1953 and ran the store pictured above on the town square across from the library and old Ravenna Road fire station. Around 1957, Kollman tore down the first building, built a brick building in its spot and ran a location of the Akron-Youngstown grocery chain, Sparkle Market. Kollman sold the building to the Bissell family, and his sons later ran a larger Sparkle Market store elsewhere until about 1988. While the Kollman family left the supermarket business, B.W.’s son, Scott, graduated from Ohio State University with a horticulture degree and opened Kollman’s Greenhouse on Ravenna Road in 1972. Now, the property has expanded to an acre under glass and has several greenhouses including a historic 1928 greenhouse from the Rockefeller estate. Scott’s daughter, Betsy, runs it, marking a third generation of Kollman family businesses in Twinsburg.