Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Final Wallet Card post of the year

It's been a lot of fun showing one of my other interests: obscure bits of NY history and anachronisms - leftovers of defunct businesses, sometimes decades old that remain to this day. Some of the signs wallet card visited have already been covered up - was fortunate to get them when I did. I will still post wallet card content from time to time - in fact there are still a few already photographed that I haven't posted yet - but it will not be regular like it was in 2015, the Year of the Wallet Card. Thanks DefGav for the great idea!

For this post, I have a few odds and ends that I photographed that were not really strong enough for an individual post but that I still found interesting. But first, here is the first photo of Wallet Card back in January, when it was in a whole lot better condition than it is now.
Now for the current battered version with a few more random points of interest throughout Manhattan.

An Asics store opened on 42nd street earlier this year, than abruptly closed due to a dispute with an investor. The store used for some display space a real subway car that started running in 1961, and was covered in graffiti in the 1970s. The car still sits in the abandoned store.
 Here is a side view. Note that one of the graffiti images is a man in a Yankees hat.
Gimbels closed it's flagship department store on 34th street in 1986. However the site of their former warehouse still has "Gimbels" painted down the side of the building.
 This liquor store on East 34th street not only has an ad for MLB Wine (who knew that existed?) but an old-school neon sign with an "LE" telephone exchange. LE in this case stood for Lexington.
 Near an exit ramp for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel is an old black and white enamel street sign. It is very rare to see one still in use - most have been gone for decades.
 The current subway system is made up of the old IRT, IND and BMT systems. Although the terms have not been officially used since the 1950s, an old IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) sign remains on 28th Street.
The classic Pepsi-Cola neon sign in Long Island City, across the East River from the UN building. Built in 1936, it is threatened by real estate developers but others in the city are fighting to get landmark status for the sign.
 The Hell's Kitchen Restaurant at 9th Avenue and 47th Street occupies the location of the former Captain Best Fish Market. A bit of the old sign remains on the top of the restaurant - you can make out the word "Captain" if you zoom in on the top.
 When the Mayfair Building in Times Square was torn down recently, it exposed an ad for the long-defunct Hotel Longacre, with rooms for $1.00, or $1.50 for a room with a bath. The sign had been hidden for nearly a hundred years (and will be again when the new building is erected).



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