Bessai: a Two-Generation Pipe Shop in the Cleveland Arcade

Bessai is the name of a pipe shop that worked at the same address across two generations in Cleveland, Ohio. The name comes from John Bessai, who ran the shop largely on his own for many years: the same person shaped pipes at the bench, repaired incoming pipes, and tended the shop's tobacco counter.

After him, his son Herb Bessai carried the business on. The Bessai name in American pipe history is associated not with a wide production network but with craftsmanship preserved within a narrow circle over many years.

The Shop in the Arcade

The shop's opening is recorded as around 1898. The address was the Arcade, the glass-vaulted passage running between Euclid and Superior Avenues in Cleveland, opened in 1890; being the city center's busiest enclosed shopping structure, this passage meant a steady flow of customers for a craftsman's shop.

The space had two rooms and was small. The front section was devoted to sales and repair, the back section to the bench. Bessai's pipes were shaped from start to finish in this back room, by a single hand; the hours at the bench were set to the shop's quieter moments. The natural result of such an arrangement was a low production volume. The small number of pipes that emerged mostly stayed within the shop's own customer circle, with very few examples reaching beyond it.