Density and amenities
I like urban density. The southwest corner of the intersection of East Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue was full of it. And look at all the amenities: a mailbox, telephone booths, and public transportation.
Flatiron
The Flatiron Building has always been ready for its close-up.
“It’s toasted”
O & K Toasted Sandwich Shop, 103 Graham Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941.
Buono’s Groc.
A privilege sign, a Bell Telephone sign, an awning, a horse, an unattended child, neighborhood loafers (blocking the entrance to the upstairs apartments), a bicycle with an old-fashioned kickstand, trolley tracks, cobblestones, tattered movie posters (Don Ameche, Alice Faye, and Carmen Miranda starred in the 1941 film That Night in Rio), laundry hanging on a line, and a mysterious figure at a second-story window.
“Machinery”
A recent Zippy strip featured a Mrs. Gowanus, which made me think of the Gowanus Canal, and I ended up wandering around the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. Thus I found myself at the corner of Van Brunt and Beard Streets.
Culver × 8
Last Sunday the Ghost of Brooklyn Past visited the Culver Paper Co. in Boro Park. This Sunday the Ghost walks the environs of the Culver Line in Boro Park.
Got twine?
Here, under the El tracks, is the Culver Paper Co.
SHELL
A Brooklyn gas station, c. 1939–1941.
Bocce
Under the El tracks in Brooklyn.
Why a duck?
A house, a candy store, a duck selling gasoline.
Two or more grocery stores
One unknown, one a Roulston’s, side by siide in Brooklyn, c. 1939–1940.
Changeable Signs
A store for signs had better have a beautiful one.
“Wilson, That’s All”
A Times Square billboard.
Recently updated
Jack Delaney’s: Now with a 1960 advertisement and a Tack Room.
Recently updated
Jack Delaney’s: Now with a menu.
Jack Delaney’s
A Greenwich Village restaurant with a horse (not a real one) and cart on the roof.
Urban density
I went browsing in the Village and found this lovely moment of urban density. I tried counting the words: close to ninety, I think. This stretch of East 14th Street is now — what else? — a Duane Reade. Three words. Duane. Reade. Pharmacy.
Church Ave. Poultry Co.
My mom once told me in passing that as a girl she would walk with her grandmother to Thirteenth Avenue (“the Avenue,” the shopping street) to buy a chicken. In other words, to pick out a chicken while it was still in possession of its life. I think I’ve found the spot.
35 Perry Street
Was Merton living in this apartment when the WPA fellows took this photograph? I’d like to think that he was inside typing.
NYPL
An NYC tax photo, with the library looking like an urban Emerald City.
Blatt’s 4 - 8 & 19¢ Store
In Boro Park, on 13th Avenue, c. 1939–1941.
Recently updated
Along came Mary, and a bookstore: Now with more about the Liveright Bookshop and the Liveright sisters.
Along came Mary, and a bookstore
Hamburger Mary and the Liveright Bookshop.
Reconditioned Can Co.
A Brooklyn tax photograph.
Nightspots
I took a look at 52nd Street and found the Onyx Club and the Famous Door, fabled names in jazz.
Sol. Lou. 25¢ a Lesson
3920 13th Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941.
Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market
The Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market (WIndsor 8-8788) was one of seven New York City markets built in the interest of sanitation, removing pushcarts from the streets and placing them indoors, with the benefits of air conditioning, screening, and hot and cold running water. With dim memories and several photographs.
Kubrick Self Service Stores
The Internets will now have one result for “kubrick self service stores.”
G. & S.
A store from the Brooklyn of my childhood.
Apollo
The Apollo Theater, with the February 23, 1940 bill on the marquee.