Some two weeks later, we finally looked at every single photo. We pulled a few from this neighborhood with their accompanying captions for you... (But you should really go here and see them all for yourself.)
[East 8th Street and Avenue B, 1975]
[Christodora House, 1978]
[Second Avenue looking at East 12th Street, 1975]
[Cylindrical fire escape on the façade of 62 East 4th Street, 1977]
[Phebe's on the Bowery 1975]
[107-113 East 14th Street, 1976]
[Fresh Jersey Eggs, Open Thursday Only at 72 East 7th Street, 1978]
[Varieties Theatre, 110-112 Third Avenue, 1979. Demolished in 2005.]
[Broadway and 14th 1977]
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A word about the new collection from the Museum's website:
These photographs by Edmund V. Gillon (1929-2008) are a recent addition to the Museum's Photography collection. Gillon is best known for more than a dozen books on New York City for the Dover Publishing Company. The bulk of the collection is architectural in nature, portraying the city’s historic districts, landmarks, architectural ornamentation, and civic sculpture. His photographs bring to life not only the countless readily apparent changes that have taken place in the city’s urban landscape over the past several decades, but also the many subtle changes that transformed neighborhoods such as SoHo, Tribeca, and Dumbo as they transitioned, building by building, from gritty wastelands into the vibrant urban oases they have become.
Not only do I miss "Fresh Jersey Eggs, Open Thursday Only", I even miss the store that opened in that space after them called "No More Eggs".
ReplyDeleteOh crap, how simultaneously wonderful and depressing. But thanks for reminding me that when I first moved here parts of Second Avenue were still cobblestoned, had forgotten that. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend while everyone else is watching the Stuporbowl - a thousand photos, huh?
ReplyDeleteBlack and white: The thinking man's two-dimensional reality.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Anonymous for the reminder about the Fresh Jersey Egg shop!
ReplyDeleteoh my god, i remember the egg shop; it was still open in the mid-80s. glad to see it here—i was beginning to think i dreamed it!
ReplyDeleteWhere is everybody???
ReplyDeleteThe egg place was wonderful. In February of 1986, I moved into 86 East 7th, was being paid the whopping great sum of $16,500/year before taxes (although I did have health insurance) and scraped by on (1) walking to work, (2) paying $300 for a room in an apartment with 2 troublesome roommates, (3) only going out to things that were free/by contribution/I-know-so-&-so-working-the-door/"I'm on the list" and (4) cooking for myself ALL THE TIME. I used to leave work early on Thursdays (or pass by my block during the day when running an errand) to get to Jersey Eggs for my week's worth of animal protein.
ReplyDelete@Zach - That's how it used to be in the neighborhood, indeed in most of NYC. Wide-open streets, often empty, or mostly so, some car traffic but not the insanity we have today. The floods of international nouveau-riche, tourists and Carrie wannabes were, thankfully, absent...
ReplyDeleteContrarian trolling: the irrational man's one-dimensional reality.
ReplyDeleteIt hardly needs to be said that a shop selling eggs one day a week would be a non-starter today. It's such a fine example of the area's lost charm.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
ReplyDeleteif the eggs were organic, locavore, gourmet, etc. etc. and wore the colors of the shell that martha stuart produced for her tv show - and they came in precious little egg protective containers with the proper logo and outrageous cost - folks would swarm down here on thursdays to buy the precious little darlings.
ReplyDeleteI could look at photos of old New York all day I think. Also it makes me want to go around collecting street shots like these because even if the subject's not that interesting to me now, I'm pretty sure decades and centuries from now someone will get a kick out of seeing what it was like in the 'teens.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone has pictures of east 8th St between ave B and C (and the surrounding blocks)from before the the year 2000 I'd love to see them. I've lived on that block for nearly 27 years and have some images but would love put together more. Please contact me through google+ if you can help.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell can live on eggs, Chow Mein and Seagrams?! Where are the Pigs In A Blanket Shoppes? Where are the Artisanal Water Emporiums? Where's a decent Biscuit Restaurant? What the hell were people doing in the EV in the 1970s anyway? If they had Jared Kushner and Kickstarter things would have been a lot different!
ReplyDelete@blue glass
ReplyDeleteWhat you've described, is exactly what those eggs were. They just were described (pigeonholed) differently at that time.
And how did that business end up. hmm?
So enjoy your salmonella antibiotic filled factory farmed eggs sold by mega-corp super market chains.
People cry about how there are no small local independent butchers, fish mongers, etc. and then deride anybody who tries to actually create such a thing.
I remember when New York was just wilderness. No English, no Dutch. Back then we used to trade land for beads.
ReplyDelete@Anon. 2:50 - please tuck your snide back into your ass and don't be such a witless jerk. If you read blue glass's comment in the spirit in which it was written, what she is saying is that nowadays, a little place like the Egg Store would not be able to exist if they advertised that they sold just plain old honest eggs; they'd have to put forth some carefully-crafted script about where the hens were raised, how and on what they were fed, how much Omega-3 was in them, etc. I agree that the locavore/organic/sustainable food movement is a vital one, but people have gotten so hoity-toity now that the food basically has to be prostituted to them instead of just being sold on its humble virtues. And THAT is the point she was trying to express - that in an older, cheaper New York you could have a store devoted to just selling eggs once a week that still made a living, because people appreciated it in such numbers that it made it possible to do so.
ReplyDeleteI have a cotton bag from No More Eggs, the store that replaced the egg store, hanging on my doorknob right now, holding my sock knitting. Makes me happy to see these photos of places that are in my brain but rarely seen in reality. Yay internet.
ReplyDeleteAnother person with egg store memories - how great to see that photograph.
ReplyDeleteTo Peter: I've only been on this block since 1990 or so, and I'd also love to see any vintage pix of the block. My roommate has been here since 1976 and I'm sure he'd be interested to see them as well.
ReplyDeleteOh! The varieties! My friend made a film about that place in the 80s. That's how I remember the area, when I work as a summer counseler in training at the Stuyvesant Y camp in 77. I remember the box scrawls see on the doorway of Christadora-a friend told me the city used it as a shorthand when they marked a building for demolition
ReplyDelete@Marci - your friend was wrong, that was a fire department designation meaning that the building had normal structural conditions at the time of marking. A box with an X meant that structural or interior hazards existed and interior fire fighting or rescue operations should be conducted with extreme caution. The oft-seen box with RO meant the roof was open; SM meant stairs were missing, FE that the fire escapes were to be avoided, and HF that there were holes in the floors. These were/are FDNY shorthand designations to let their guys know what to expect when they get to a fire in an abandoned building.
ReplyDeleteThe East Village is still. In late 2022. There. Tompkins Sqaure? Nice landscaping. You can see it from the bus going uptown. I couldn't see a diner. (There used to be a great diner where lonely people could have a non-familial Thanksgiving dinner.) Up on Second Avenue? The Ukrainian Old Folks Home restaurant has gone downhill. Foodwise. But nobody - the millennials - seems to notice. Next door? Veselka > A screaming wonderland with defective pierogies and stuffed cabbage that's mostly rice. The Kiev? Gone to be with its ancestors in an uncomfortable place. Ketamine clinics on the side streets. Xanadu smoke shops and samosas rule. Up the road? Village East Cinema is owned by Angelika. I saw a good movie there. Home is where the borscht is...
ReplyDeleteEast Village bullsh*t I lived at 311 East 10th street and it will always be the Lower East Side to me and so many others who grew up there. I remember the pushcarts lining Ave C they sold everything you could imagine. The 3rd Ave elevated subway. Horse drawn wagons selling produce. Most of all I remember the Boy’s Club on Ave A and East 10th Street I have been a member for 71 years from a 5 year old and now an alumni member. The greatest place you could imagine. Sadly that beautiful building was sold recently and will probably be torn down to build condos.
ReplyDelete