Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Wallet Card with some more Childs Restaurant remnants

Childs was a local NYC restaurant chain, one of the first quick-service chains in the area. Their buildings were known for having lots of decoration, often with a nautical theme. Back in 2015 I photographed a McDonald's which had some great remaining seahorse decorations. Unfortunately McDonald's "modernized" that restaurant shortly after, eliminating the old decorations.

Forgotten NY has an extensive list of former Childs restaurants and I took photos of a few more remains of that old chain, which went out of business in the late 1960s.

604 Fifth Avenue was built in 1924. Its curved corners were an unusual innovation at the time - it was the first structure ever built with no corner columns. You can see a bit of the old Childs ornamentation sneaking out under all the signage.
Six months after the Empire State Building was opened in 1931, with few lunch options for the swarm of new workers, Childs moved into this location on 36 West 34th Street, right down the block. The only remains of Childs here are the copper urns on the top windows.
Similar urns can be found at another ex-Childs location a block away, at 377 Fifth Avenue.
Here some more decoration lower down on the building still survives as well.
I couldn't get a great picture of this one, but some seahorses and other nautical elements still exist at 245-01 Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose, Queens (just past the Nassau County border). I took this one from my car when I picked up those cards and sleeves with the Cheap Johns sticker in Floral Park a few weeks ago. You can see more if you click on the photo to expand it.




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