Is Everybody Happy?

They are if they get their prescriptions filled at Block Drugs on 101 Second Avenue in the East Village. Block Drugs is one of Manhattan’s last neighborhood drug stores, a rarity in a city overrun with faceless chains. They carry the usual stuff, as well as the sort of cool items that can only be found at a place that caters to a local clientele. Just check out these women, they are obviously happy shoppers. “Look at my purse,” says the female pointing at her bag, “I just refilled my husband's Viagra prescription and I still have money left for a Frappacino! Thank you Block Drugs!”

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York: At the corner of 2nd and 6th, there’s Block Drug Stores, a.k.a. Second Avenue Chemists. Established in 1885, it has been run by the Palermo family since 1962. It’s a tiny shop with a big, gorgeous neon sign, a pressed-tin ceiling, and personalized, knowledgeable service. They also have an antique coin-operated scale by the door that comes complete with a metal hook designated, “Hang Parcel Here,” so the weight of your parcel (a vanished word, by the way) doesn’t skew your results. (Interior pic courtesy Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York)

Chelsea Peanut Butter Killer

Babs and Lucy were selling killer homemade cupcakes, chocoholic treats and coconut bars when I happened upon them along 9th avenue and 14th in Chelsea. I bought some bars, my galpal and I wolfed them down, and Babs and Lucy allowed this photograph.

Manhattan Signs, Then and Now

From anti-KFC ads to get out the vote warnings, Manhattan has every kind of sign imaginable, and if you look closely, the city gives up its ancient signage as well. First up, PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried's use of something weird in the batter. Click pic to enlarge..

"Bottled Porter, Ale and Cider," circa 1920, Macdougal and Houston.

Zenith COLOR service sign, Lower East Side, circa early '60s.Wha? No more Chinese New Year?

Shackman Favors and Novelties, circa 1890s, Fifth Avenue.

Heller Paper Cordage Co, Tribeca, circa 1960.

Near Houston and Broadway.

Village Critters, Part 3

Hey, pigs are critters too! This lip smacking swine adorns the wall at Esposito's Pork Shop...and that will lead to my next historical bldg post! "Sausage taste good..swine taste good," John Travolta Pulp Fiction.

They're back! Dogs love water, and this one is splayed out in the local dog run tub.
Two critters vie for top dog of the heap at the 23rd street dog run (where I once spotted Tony Soprano and his dogs and kids).

Village Critters, part 2

Bugs, bugs bugs! Photographed at this weird Soho store where you can also buy choco covered bugs, bug pendants, bug slathered clothing and yummy bug-cicles. You can't make this stuff up..

Village Critters

Today we stray from historical buildings and grit to Village dogs and kitty kats. The first pooch sleeps in a laundry mat window, then a kitty cat gnaws on an unidentified object, then a lonely looking pup waits for her master outside an East Village bodega.

Ghosts of the Keller Hotel

NYT: "THE KELLER HOTEL, an old seaman’s inn, has seen a few tides come and go. An Irish coal merchant constructed it in the late 1890s along a salty stretch of the Greenwich Village waterfront, at a time when the docks there were some of the busiest in the world. During the Depression, the Keller served as a flophouse for out-of-work sailors, who boozed and brawled in its ground-floor saloon. As the decades passed and economic forces pushed ships toward other ports, the West Side docks rotted, the Village deteriorated and a new clientele moved into the Keller. By the 1980s, the city was housing indigents upstairs, while the downstairs tenant was a gay leather bar, reputedly New York’s oldest. Then, in 1985, a real estate investor named William Gottlieb purchased the property for $1 million."
Since then the Keller has sat vacant while neighboring buildings were granted landmark status. I love the old Keller ruin. Look closely at the fine architectural detail (can you spot the 666?), you can almost smell the ghosts of a thousand lives that passed through the Keller's doors. Reportedly the birthplace of disco, the Village People photographed their debut album cover here. Now, Keller's ghosts whisper as you walk by the corner of West and Barrow, their secrets most likely awaiting the wrecking ball.

Welcome to Yonkers

Now where exactly is Yonkers you may be asking? I'm not totally sure, but I believe it is in the northern part of the city. I was up there a few weeks ago on business and was simply floored by all the cool neon. Bakeries, diners, more neon than 1950s Times Square. ! Well, I can dream can't I?

Make A Plan?

You can consider this gov't warning sign two ways: That the local NYC gov't is concerned that terrorists or Mother Nature are likely to wreak havoc eventually so literally get your house in order, or, if you're like me, you gotta wonder, does the national gov't know something that we don't?

BBQ

Waiting for my Chinese spare ribs. I was raised in NC, where they take BBQ very seriously. But they like it with vinegar and stuff like that. Too weird. How do you take your BBQ?

Skatepunks

I'm not usually very good at capturing action shots. Heck, I'm not usually very good at capturing people! But I got lucky with these skatepunks in the East Village. Teenagers don't care if you photograph them, they're too busy having fun! I thought the action capture and perspective was good, and from my old Panasonic DZ18. Lots of good action in the background too if you click/enlarge the pic. hint hint...

Jarmulowsky's Bank

NY TIMES: Sender Jarmulowsky arrived in the United States from Russia in the early 1870's and by 1878 had established a bank in an existing building at the southwest corner of Canal and Orchard, already an immigrant district. In 1886, 1890, 1893 and 1901, he experienced various bank runs but proudly paid 100 cents on the dollar to each panicky depositor. In 1912, with the architects Rouse & Goldstone, Jarmulowsky put up a reserved, 12-story loft building with a bank on the ground floor at the same corner where he had established himself 30 years earlier.

It was, with its rusticated limestone lower section and a terra-cotta upper part, no barebones loft building. The entrance to the ground-floor bank at the curved corner is surmounted by two reclining figures in classical style flanking a clock. Period photographs of the banking floor show a conventional work of marble and bronze; it could have been any well-known uptown bank.

Sender Jarmulowsky died in 1912 as his building neared completion; The Times noted he left "only $501,053" as an estate, apparently expecting much more. His sons Harry and Louis continued the business. In 1917, as depositors withdrew nearly $3 million to send to overseas relatives caught in the war, the State Banking Department took over Sender Jarmulowsky's bank. It had liabilities of $1.25 million and assets of only $600,000. Over 5,000 depositors crowded around the branch and Harry and Louis Jarmulowsky were indicted for banking fraud later in the year. The bank never reopened and the building was sold at a bankruptcy auction in 1920.

Where I Wanna Be

One and a half hours from NYC, Spring Lake, New Jersey is fondly known as the "Irish Riviera."
Stately homes, lazy tree lined streets, and a non public beach (you need a monthly pass) make this a wonderful escape from Manhattan's hustle and bustle.

When Showbiz Was King

Today we celebrate Frankie & Johnnie, one of the oldest steakhouses in Manhattan. Formerly a speakeasy during 1930s prohibition days (patrons knocked on its unmarked door and whispered "Frankie" to which the doorman replied "Johnnie" and admittance was granted), F&J has consistently been voted one of the best steakhouses in America by Zagats. (click pics for enlargement)

It's easy to miss F&J's signage on 45th near 8th. But once you scale its pretty tiled staircase its history is revealed. I imagine F&J was a regular pre-show haunt for celebrities waiting to appear on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show - they autographed the many PR photos which fill the restaurant's walls. "The Odd Couple," Julie Andrews and Liza Minelli hang next to forgotten '60s celebs like Nanette Fabray, Jack Weston and the Cat Woman, Lee Meriweather.

But nothing lasts forever. Frankie & Johnnie will close by year's end, making way for another desperately needed condo for wealthy New Yorkers and tourists. History and steak make way for shopping opportunities, flush wallets, and clean sidewalks. (Hope CDP doesn't bust me for all these pics!)

Pray for Pills

A dilapated Lower East Side holdout amid the new construction for the rich and famous, the old Germania Bank building on Bowery is the home of one man, photographer Jay Maisel. He purchased the bank back in the 70s, when the Bowery was purely a destination for the down and out. Now, as the 'hood is being razed for shiny condos, Maisel lets his classic building rot. But it's still incredibly beautiful. The "Pray for Pills" grafitti in the last frame says it all...

What is this man doing?

Not sure what this fellow is doing between Houston and Prince on Greene Street. Seems to enjoy playing in the traffic.