credit line Real estate broker Jack Hoffmann, of the Hoffmann Agency in Bloomfield, operates a decidedly low-tech office, including rotary phones, hand-written receipts, rubber stamps, typewriters, adding machines and, below, an old bank-style service window. Click photo for larger image.
	Click photo for larger image.

Entering the C. J. Hoffmann Agency in Bloomfield is like going into a time capsule, with rotary phones, green-tinted ledger books and no computer in sight.

The four rooms of the real estate agency's offices not only have tin ceilings, but tin walls. Even the radio -- a tube radio, naturally -- is tuned to an oldies station.

"We have things in this office that Carnegie Library would pay for," said real estate broker Jack Hoffmann, who, as his office illustrates, really means it when he says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.''

There is, for example, a large plat book -- a book of maps that he uses to locate properties, using lot and block numbers -- something most people would do on a computer. Placing it on the long wooden receptionist's counter, he opens it to pages that display parcels in the 13th Ward, pages dated at the bottom in an elegant script: 1924.

Mr. Hoffmann does have a computer, back in his office. He needs one to keep up with the for-sale listings offered by fellow brokers in the West Penn Multi-List, and to post his own listings to the database. But neither of the women in the front office has any interest in using such a machine.

This is how old-fashioned the atmosphere is at the agency that is marking its 115th year in business: He calls the women "girls" -- although they are both his senior and have both worked there longer than he has -- and they don't seem to mind.

Pam Geller, 66, has been there for 48 years. She keeps the books for all of the agency's accounts in the ledger books, entering column after column of numbers in a meticulous hand. No spreadsheets for her, thank you. Her biggest concession to modernity is an IBM Selectric typewriter, circa 1975.

Her office mate, Frances Suzio, prefers a Royal manual. But then, the diminutive, silver-haired Ms. Suzio is 86, and began working at Hoffmann four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As for the phones, well, Mr. Hoffmann blames paternal indoctrination. "My father felt, 'Why should I have to spend money [on new phones] when these work just as well?"

But "just as well" may be debatable when professional colleagues visit his office.

"I've had agents come in and say, 'Can I place a call?' and I say, 'Sure, go ahead,' and they look at the phone and say, 'How do you operate this?' " he says with a laugh.

At 53, Jack Hoffmann brings to mind James Garner of "The Rockford Files" -- he has the easy manner of a man who is comfortable with himself and has nothing to prove. He knows that in some respects his firm is overshadowed by giant firms with multiple offices in multiple cities. And he doesn't care.

"We're a small community real estate company," he said. "I know we're not gonna match those big firms."

Mr. Hoffmann's lack of interest in modernizing may reflect his view of the business itself.

While some business owners see themselves as the caretaker of a legacy that they expect to last for generations, Mr. Hoffmann views himself as the likely last generation in a business established by his grandfather when Benjamin Harrison was president, sandwiched between the terms of Grover Cleveland.

It was 1892 when Christian J. Hoffmann, a 20-year-old German immigrant, founded his real estate agency in the two-story building at 4716 Liberty Ave. Jack Hoffmann says somewhere in his office he still has the receipt book that records the first rent payment his grandfather collected as a property manager, for the sum of 5 cents.

Four of Christian Hoffmann's sons followed him into the business: Christian Jr., Urban, William and James. But in the third generation, only James' son, Jack, decided to enter real estate. Christian Jr. and Urban had both died, and William was leaving the business.

"Dad asked if I wanted to get in. I said, 'Yeah,' and I've been here ever since."

That was in 1981. Now his two daughters, 30 and 32, have established themselves in careers having nothing to do with real estate, so he does not expect to pass the baton to them. And as for selling the agency to a larger firm, "I almost feel like I'd be betraying the family name by doing that."

So when he leaves the business, he expects to close the business.

That may not happen anytime soon. Mr. Hoffmann has no thoughts of retiring.

"I like meeting new people. I like helping young couples" who are just starting out, he said. But the help he gives is unconventional.

"I ask them what they're qualified for. They say, 'We're qualified for $180,000,' and I'll show them something for $115,000."

His reasoning is simple: Just because you can pay $180,000 for a house doesn't mean that you should, especially if you expect the additional expenses of raising children.

"I don't make as much" by selling less than buyers can afford, he said. "But I sleep better."